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pierreo March 26th, 2009

The 1/2 Ironman Triathlon was earlier than the previous years – March instead of September.

Once again, we entered Tri50+ with myself doing the swim (1.9 km), Richard doing the cycling (90 km) and David doing the run (21 km). We were disappointed with our time and position last year so we were determined to do better, even though the obligations at work did not always give us all the opportunities we would have liked to train and both David and I had to travel just before the race.

My day began at 4:30 AM when I woke up and finished well past midnight when I finally could go to sleep in the airplane taking me to Paris.  Everything was ready so all I had to do is get dressed, collect my bag and leave for the East Coast Park where the event will take place.  Since I had not looked at the set-up on Saturday, I spent the first few minutes just orienting myself, particularly for the return from the swim to the cycle.  They had changed the transition area and therefore I wanted to make sure that I knew where everything was.

At 6AM I got my numbers (they always paint numbers on your arms so that they can identify the bodies that they recover in Indonesia after the race – just kidding…) and than ran into Richard and Donald – Donald is once again doing the full triathlon on his own.  Richard got his arm “tatoo’ed” as well even though there was limited risk of him getting lost at sea.

By 7 AM all was set and we listened to the final race briefing. At 7:15, the elite athletes (man and women) left and 5 minutes later, all ladies amateur athletes were given the start.  I was in the third wave, all teams plus men 18-24 and 50+. 

The start of the swim was tougher than usual as I was not able to get to the front and I was therefore stuck in a washing machines of arms, legs, knees and elbows for about 200 m.  I discovered immediately that there was a significant current that would actually be in my favour for the  outward leg, but dead against me heading home. My first lap was OK – I felt good and was passing as many people as were passing me.  However, the very short run on the beach between the first and second lap really got to me.  It was good that David was there to encourage me loudly, but I still do not like running in soft sand.  I had to slow down at the beginning of the second lap to recover.  Fortunately, I could once again count on the current, even stronger now, to take me to the turning point.

The way back was very tough.  I was barely moving against the current.  I had to swim as hard as I could just to gain a little bit and it seemed to take forever.  I passed a few swimmers who must have been moving backwards.  Finally, I reached the last marker and I could turn toward the beach and the final run to the transition area.  Out of the water and an easy jog up the path toward HOME – I do not want a repeat of last year when I tore a muscle at this stage.  Richard is waiting for me at the transition, takes the timing chip and leaves on his bike – I am spent, but David is there to lift my spirits.

After 50 minutes, Richard is back at the end of his first 30 km lap.

We see several cyclists changing tyres because of punctures and two of the elite athletes quit the race because of punctures – one pulled a large thumb tack from his tyre in disgust.  After another 50 minutes, Richard is back and starts his last lap.

 

You can see one rider fixing his tyre behind Richard on this shot…

And now, all we can do is wait.  Several other ‘runners’ are also waiting for their ‘cyclist’ to return and we chat.  Some people are trying to concentrate on their own – the transition area is somewhat of a mess as every athlete has a lot of gear to support such a long race.  There are very few bicycles at this time – most people are still in the cycling leg.

After 45 minutes since his last passage, David is ready for the run – but no Richard.  50, than 55 minutes pass and still no Richard.  He finally arrives, I grab his bicycle and David grabed the timing chip and he is off on the last leg.  Richard tells me that he too had a puncture, also a thumb tack.  Where he stopped there were several other people actually fixing their tyres, as if some one had intentionally thrown tacks on the road to disrupt the race – who would do such a thing?  Richard is very tired too, but recovers fast.

Richard and I watch David running up and down for his three laps – he is keeping up with the two teams in front of him and staying away from the team behind him – keeping position.  Here he is in the middle of the first lap

He still looks good at the middle of the race

He started to struggle during the last lap but still finished with a faster time than last year.  I estimate that there are about a dozen teams in front of us, much better than last year when we finished 29th overall.

You have to remember when looking at the clock that we left 15 minutes after the top athletes and therefore our time is only about 5h34m50s, a decent time. We are all exhausted at the end of the race.  We get our finisher’s medals, and we are off to freshen up and recover at home.  I still need to pack for my trip!

At about 5PM I get an SMS from Richard that says: “We came 2cnd. Well Done!”  I was  not quite sure what he meant.  So I sent a message asking if we are 2nd? Must be in Men’s category.  And Richard confirmed that we were indeed Second and that we would be getting trophies!  We were 10th overall, so were actually beaten by 7 mixed and 1 ladies teams.  It is a mixed team who took the overall victory for teams, about 20 minutes faster than us.

Here are the trophies that Audrey was kind enough to pick up for us – I have not seen them yet, other than this picture. Those of you who know can recognise the road in the background.

Another wonderful experience…

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pierreo March 20th, 2009

I had read about Ayuthaya almost as soon as I had arrived in Singapore, in 2000, as soon as I bought my first guide book on Thailand.  I had thought about going there several times, but never quite decided to do so, because every time I tried to get information on how to get from Bangkok to Ayuthaya, I could not get anything definitive.
However, I could not leave Singapore without going there – so I looked at it one more time and decided that I would find a way – any way – whatever it took – to get there.
So I booked a flight to Bangkok and a hotel in Ayuthaya (the BEST hotel in the city which cost me a grand total of 80 euros for three nights!) and left with no idea how I would get from point (A) to point (B).  I figured there would be help at the airport.
At the ‘new’ Bangkok airport, I go to the Travel Information desk and ask how to get to Ayuthaya.  I am told to take a taxi.  That is not the answer I wanted so I prod a little and ask about the train from the old airport to Ayuthaya.  Indeed, that can be done – so how do I get to the old airport? “Taxi”.  What about busses? I know that there are bussed from the Northern Bus Terminal towards Ayuthaya.  Indeed, there are so how to get there? You probably have guessed the answer I got …
So I took a taxi, all the way to Ayuthaya! It was cheaper than I thought and very quick and easy.  I figured I would do better on the way back since I had three days to figure out the answer.
Ayuthaya is on the Chao Phraya (the same river that crosses Bangkok) where it meets the Pa Sak and smaller Lopburi.  The addition of a short canal means that the center of the city is an island surrounded by rivers.  My hotel is right on the river and immediately I have a sight that I remembered from Bangkok, and which amazed me even at that time.  It can be called “David and Goliath” – there is a tiny, tiny tug boat pulling usualy four enormous barges. I bet that in Tailand, there is a children’s story about “The Little Tug that Could”

After I arrive, I go walking about, but the weather is not very nice (and it is very hot) so I do not take any pictures.  However, I do make arrangements with a local ‘boat man’ to have a tour of the canals the next day starting at 7AM – I want an early start to get the good light of the rising sun.  It takes a while to explain what I want and agree on a price, but I figure that all is in order.
The next day at 7AM, no one! 7:15 still no one, but just as I am ready to leave, the guy arrives and we leave on his ‘long-tail’ boat.  There are old and newer temples everywhere along the sides of the river.  I am not sure what this one is called.

The tour includes several stops including this temple – Wat Chai Wattanaram

The Khmere influence is clear and one just wonders at what it must have been like with the large hall at the front still intact.  The similarity with Angkor do not stop at the architecture – here too you can see headless statues everywhere.

At Wat Phutthaisawan, there are impressive rows of identical sitting Buddhas

The main tower is still covered in white slabs of local marble and sits next to a modern temple with music and prayers (I think..) blaring through loud speakers.

Walking around the temple, you run into the strangest views, such as the giant head of a reclining Buddha through a window

Later that day, I explore more temples on a moped – please don’t tell my mother… I promise that I was very careful and did wear a helmet the whole time.
Wat Phra Si Sanphet is known for its three identical stuppas – they were used for the burrial of former Kings of Siam when Ayutthaya was their capital.  The grounds of the old Royal Palace are right next to the temple but there is nothing left of the palace.  I could not get a decent shot of all three stuppas, so you will have to settle for just two.

Notice that there are very few people on all these pictures.  Ayutthaya is not your usual Thai city.  May be there is something good about it being so difficult to reach as all I saw were some local Thai tourists, a few back-packers and very few foreign tourists.  Proof that this is off the beaten tracks – no ‘girly’ bars! Just regular bars where you can have a drink without being bothered.  I went several times to this one ‘caffe’ (I could not really call it a restaurant even though it had good food too) which was run by a very friendly guy – I stopped there because it had a sign in French.  The owner spoke decent French, and could say ‘hello’ in about 30 other languages. I stumped him at ‘capitals’ though as I found a few countries he had not heard of – let alone knew the capital. He did know a lot of them though.
When I approached the wall of one temple, I noticed quite a commotion.  As I got closer, everything became quiet, but I still knew what happened.  The two mina birds on the left were harrassing the poor green snake on the right.  I am not sure who eventually won as I did not stick around to see the end of the fight.

These temples were built at the very beginning of Buddhism, when Hindu influences were still strong.  Look at this picture – the central figure is clearly Buddhist, but there are Garudhas (an Indian Diety) at the corners of the tower.  This is one of the strengths of Buddhism – it does not exclude local beliefs but instead melds them into its own ideology.

A classic view of Wat Ratburana that you can find in any guide book

Wat Phra Meru is one of the best preserved temples in Ayutthaya as it escaped destruction during the last Burmese invasion.  It still required restoration.  It houses a large sitting Buddha.

The fronticpiece of the main building once again shows multiple influencs with Buddha being carried on the back of Garudha

I had to get a few ‘sunset’ photos.  The sky was never clear enough to get really good light, but the foreground is about as good as you can get.

Once again, there is proof that all photos should be taken either one hour after sunrise, or one hour before sunset – the light is much better.

Locals were enjoying the last rays of sunlight

I have to return the moped, so I just have time for one more picture

The next day, I had to get back to Bangkok.  But I was prepared.  I was told that I could take the train to the old airport (about 1 hour) and than a minibus to the new airport.  What could be simpler.  Well, it seems things never are…
At the staion, I get a ticket about 30 minutes before the train arrives.  I had trouble understanding the cost of the ticket, mostly because I could not believe that it would only cost me 11 Bahts (or less than 0.50 euros).  The train is OK and I get off without difficulties at the old airport.  That’s when I find out that the airport is still closed – no help there.  I look around for what may be a ‘minibus’ stop but cannot see anything.  I look for a “Help Desk” at the station – no luck.  I find a Taxi stand and succomb! It was a lot cheaper than the trip to Ayutthaya, but still, I wanted to find a way without having to take a Taxi.  Maybe next time!

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pierreo March 15th, 2009

It appears that I have a lot to catch up on to let you know what I have been doing up to the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009.
I will do this in two installments – one that I will call ‘before Myanmar or AM (Ante Myanmar)’ and another that will be called ‘after Myanmar or PM (Post Myanmar)’ but please do not hold me to that as I have no ideas how much effort either of those will take.
Here goes PM…
In November, my team and many others participated in the annual Singapore Regatta, right in the heart of the business district on the Singapore River. Several thousand participants row at this regatta every year and it is one of the toughest of the year. For the first time, there was a Corporate Mixed division and therefore Papillon hoped to do well.
I really enjoy this event because of the atmosphere.  This event is run right in the heart of the business district, along the Singapore River.

The boat in the foreground is Papillon getting ready for our heat.  We were against tough opposition, with OCBC, HSBC and RBS teams in our heat. We had to come in first or second to be sure to move into the semi-finals.
I am almost embarrassed to show this picture – look carefully at the right and left side rowers in boat 2 … maybe this is part of the reason why we only came in third behind OCBC and HSBC.

As always, there are plenty of cheers after the race as we pass in front of the EM Tent.

Our time was still good enough to get us into the semi-finals – actually, our heat seemed to be one of the fastest and therefore we had the sixth fastest time of all the heats.
The other EM teams did equally well and therefore we had 4 teams in the semis with the ladies qualifying directly for the final – a big crowd still on Sunday.  Here is the whole ‘family’…

There is always a lot of waiting in between races.  An opportunity to look around at all the other teams participating – in this event there are more than 300 teams registered and with either 10 or 20 rowers per team, this means 4000-5000 participants!  Each team, or organisation has staked out their patch of land for gear, warm up etc … You can tell Christmas is coming too.

Our team is in good spirits since we know we get to come back on Sunday for the semis.

A lot of the racing is very competitive, much more so than in previous years where the heats had sometimes significant distances between finishers.  In this case, you almost need a photo (which they have) to determine who was in what position.

The energy and the close fighting can be seen on the face of these teams, even the drummer and the coxswain are fully engaged.  And you know there is a lot at stake when you see the fans (actually rowers from the same team but in other divisions) running along in the background to cheer their team on.

For some reason, on Sunday we are again drawn against OCBC in the semi-final. We also have to contend with Citibank, always a very strong team.

We do well and finish second, just behind OCBC.  We have to depend on timing to see if we qualify for the final, but the other two semi-finals are quicker than ours and therefore we are eliminated.

The men’s teams have better success and make it to the final. The first few strokes of “Ace” are quite impressive…

     Attention! (Ready)

     stroke 1

     stroke 2!

and are sufficient to carry them to second place behind HP.  The Lillies finished 5th in the ladies finals and OCBC won the Mixed final (some how the teams which had gone 3 to 4 seconds faster than OCBC and us in the semis could not do it again and lost by over a second…)
At the end, we all celebrated with a good lunch (at 3PM – you have to learn to be flexible with meal times) and a team photo in front of more Christmas Decorations.

A fun time was had by all!
In early December, I did a quick trip to Koh Samui in Thailand.  An opportunity to do several dives but also rest and pamper myself in a very nice resort.  Koh Samui is very much like Phuket – very touristy but still interesting and I did get very good food.
I celebrated New Year in Seoul, South Korea.  Actually flew there on 31 December.  I had upgraded my ticket to business class, and I was the only one in the cabin!  I had my “personal” stewardess for the 5 hour flight.
I went to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace which has an impressive gate

Unfortunately there was an even more impressive outer gate called Gwanhwamun – it burned down a few years ago (in 2006 I believe) as a result of arson.  It is now being rebuilt so I did not get to see anything.
The palace itself is very impressive – similar layout to the Forbidden City in Beijing, with a “Hall of Preserving Harmony”

that includes the royal throne

We had an excellent local guide in local costume – but you can see that it was quite cold that day (and the whole time I was in Korea, with temperatures typically hovering between -5 and -10 C)

The next day I went to the Korean Folk Village, about 1 hour by train from the center of Seoul + 30 minutes by bus.  I was glad that there were some people speaking English to help me out with transportation.  A saw some typical Korean Dances

Girls playing on a teeter-totter

A very popular tight rope walker

And very unhappy ducks on ice

The last day I went to Panmunjong with the USO.  If you do not know, the two Koreas are still officially at war.  There has been a truce signed many years ago, but no armistice.  The two countries are separated by a 4 mile wide Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ and the only ‘common’ ground are the barracks at Panmunjon where the truce was signed and where there are still occasional meetings between the two sides.  There are United Nations troops (mostly Americans but I did find out that there were Belgian troops and officers as well) still stationed just outside the DMZ.
The bus dropped us off at Camp Bonifas where we boarded a “secured” bus to go in the DMZ.

The sign says it all: “United Nations Command Security Battalion – Camp Bonifas – In front of them all”.  We were not allowed to take pictures in the DMX until we arrived at Panmunjon so I had to go to Google Earth to give you a perspective of where we were.  First, the view of the land between Camp Bonifas and Panmunjon

There is a small village located on the South Korean side of the DMZ.  It can only be occupied by people who lived there at the beginning of the war, or their relatives and they are allowed to farm areas in the DMZ.  They have a strict curfew and have to be at home every night before 10PM
Here an overhead view of Panmunjon itself

I think everyone will recognise the blue buildings in this shot and the next one.  South Korean guards in the foreground (these guards need to be 6 feet tall minimum and only Koreans get the job) and NorthKorean soldiers in the background.  The actual border is the raised concrete plinth just in front of the North Koreans.

I was told that the soldiers only come out for “our protection” – when there are no visitors, they go away.  We also visited the room where delegations from South and North Korea meet on occasions – there was a significant thawing of the relationship a few years ago, but all that went away recently and they have not met in several years.  In this room, I was able to cross the border and walk 3 meters into North Korea.  Here too, we were well protected.

We also went to one of the outlying guard posts for a better view of the North Korean side of the DMZ.  Here is the other village located in the DMZ, on the North Korean side.  It has the largest flag pole and largest flag in the world.  The village is empty of citizens.

It was a very quick visit to Korean, but I really enjoyed it.

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pierreo March 7th, 2009

A busy end to the month of February …

On Saturday, 21/2, we had our last practice for the EM Dragon Boat Carnival.  There are three teams representing SPT (the project I am working on) and 66 teams total, all from EM, entered into this competition.  Two teams (SPT Long Chuan and SPT Dragoneers) practiced together, and raced against each other, just to see where we stood

 photo by Freddy

This is taken before the second mock race.  We did not look this good after a second all out effort.

On Sunday 22/2, I was up early (like 5AM), had a quick and light breakfast, grabbed the bag I had packed the night before and took my bicycle to the F1 Pit Garages.  Today, OCBC (a local bank) was organizing the first large scale cycling event in Singapore, and I was one of many EM employees to participate.

The first event is a 50 km race for elite racers (those capable of maintaining a speed above 40 km/h).  They left at 6 AM and I wanted to be there to take some pictures.

Before the event, cyclist are slowly (mainly because it is still so early) getting ready

 

There are about 200 cyclist ready to go

I was entered into the 40 km race with the number 902.  The start was scheduled for 7:30 AM but was given in order of expected finishing time.  Ahead of me were all the people who had indicated that they would finish in less than one hour; I was in the group of riders who expected to finish in 60-75 minutes and the last group was for those expected to take more than 75 minutes.  There were over 2500 participants.

Some people have really tried hard to have a unique look

Immediately after the start, I follow a group that is moving at a pretty good speed.  I am drafting towards the end of the group and working hard to keep up.  That is when I made the mistake to look at my odometer and see that we are doing 38 km/h.  On my own, I can ride consistently at 31-32 km/h so this is significantly faster, but I do not have to fight the wind resistance.  I am able, just, to keep up with the rest of the group.

However, at each turn, the group slows down than re-accelerates and I loose contact – I have to re-accelerate back to 39-40 just to catch up and at each turn, this gets tougher.  Finally after 20 km of the race, I have to let the group go as I am afraid I will not be able to finish the race if I keep pushing.  I slow down to 32 km/h and they quickly move away from me.

I ride pretty much on my own for the next 20 km back to the starting point, occasionally passed by a small group of riders, occasionally passing a slower rider or two.  I finished the race exactly 500th in 1h15 – I am happy with that result.

There is a crowd recovering after the finish

While more cyclists keep arriving

The atmosphere before and after the race was fantastic.  As I was recovering, the 20 km fun ride was just starting – another 3000 participants were getting on the course. 

For me, this was an opportunity to ride non-stop on the streets with no traffic to worry about, and also see how I stack up against other cyclists.  I only took pictures before and after the ‘race’ as I wanted to do the best time possible since I had such a good start.

It was a great day and before 11AM I was back at my apartment, trying not to fall asleep on the couch! (I failed…)

This past Saturday 28/2 was the EM Dragon Boat Carnival.  66 teams were entered from all departments and many people I normally race with in Papillon were now my opponents in other teams.

All the following pictures were taken by others, as I did not have my camera for this event – credits with each shot!

We arrived early as there were preparations to make and a lot of the organising committee was from Papillon so it gave us a chance to catch up after the long break since the Regatta in November.

 photo by Samuel

The day started with a sail-pass of three boats to set the scene.

 photo by unknown

We had practiced this for two hours several weeks ago, and than another 1/2 hour before the ‘show”.  I am glad that it looked good from the shore.

SPT Team members came in gradually and started to get into the mood…

 photo by Samuel 

And than the heats began.  6 boats per heat, so 11 heats required.  The first two in each heat go directly to the semi-finals; all others go to the repechage.

Heat 6 saw SPT Naga-X finish in 3rd place.  In Heat 8, SPT Dragoneers(my team) did rather well from the start.

 photo by Harry

and continued to do well at the end

 photo by Harry

No, we were not the only boat in this heat.  We finished first by two boat length – we had one of the best times of all the heats.  In heat 10, SPT Long Chuan finished second, an excellent result since the teams was essentially all beginners.  The repechage was kind to Naga-X and they also qualified for the semi-finals.  Three-out-of-three into the semis…

There were 6 semi-finals with the top team in each going in the Grand Final and the second placed team going to the Plate Final.  Long Chuan was in Semi 3; Naga-X in semi 5 and Dragoneers were in the last semi, Semi 6 against SSM Inspection “A” which also had an excellent time in the heats (only 0.12 seconds slower than ours…).  We needed to get ready while Long Chuan and Naga-X ran their races and therefore we failed to see the results.  Naga-X was a very credible third and Long Chuan did better after a (incredible, I was told) come back to take first place by a dragon’s nose.  One team already in the Grand Final.

Our semi was very close! Dragoneers and Inspection “A” were neck and neck all the way and it was unfortunate that one of these teams should be eliminated from the Grand Final. 

 photo by Samuel

Fortunately, we had a good finish and beat Inspection by 0.33 seconds.  We had given it our all and really had difficulties rowing back to the docks.  The cheers of the rest of the team on shore confirmed that we were first.  Two SPT Teams in the Grand Final.

Unfortunately, since we were the last semi-final, the organisers are already calling the plate final as we are starting to cool down.  Soon, they are calling for the Grand Final teams to get ready – we stall!  We go through our preparation and pre-game pep talk, more in order to give ourselves longer to recover than any other reason. 

SPT Long Chuan is in lane 2 – ready to go…

  photo by Samuel

SSM Vigilance (with a lot of people I know because they are regular rowers) is in lane 1; Dragoneers are in lane 6, all the way at the other end.

 photo by Samuel

All teams have to be good to get to the final – now is a question of which is slightly better, or which has been able to keep the most energy at the end of the day.

The results are very close.  Most of our fans from the shore are not sure which team won.  What is sure is that Long Chuan, unfortunately, finished last.  This is still an excellent result and they have a good excuse – one of the rowers lost his paddle right at the start and therefore they did the whole race with only 9 rowers!  Sam finally showed me the pictures he took at the finish – it is clear that Vigilance pipped us right at the line by a whisker!  We figure second place is not bad, but there is still a chance that the photo finish was at a different angle and therefore saw it differently.

 photo by Samuel

My day is not done though! I have one more race, and it is the most serious of all.  The Inter-site race.  For the last two years, I was racing withthe Harbour Front team, since I was located nearest to them – and for the last two years, Refinery won the race, with Chemicals in close second place.  This year I was in the Chemicals Team and we were determined to regain the trophy.  Both Teddy and I are again sitting side by side (he was also next to me on Dragoneersand helped me a lot running the team) but we are both exhausted from the semi + final we just went through.  However, everybody else in the three boats has done pretty much the same thing, so no excuse.

We have a good start and lead all the way for a very famous victory! Chemicals has regained the cup and bragging rights for a year.

SPT Dragoneers with the silver medal from the overall competition

 photo by Samuel

and of course “Chemicals” with the gold medal from the inter-site and the cup!

 photo by Samuel

Now, I can retire from Dragon Boat with me head held high – a silver and a glod medal for my last two races is not bad!

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