Madness is not that bad

The verdict is in and it may have taken me 50 years to learn this but now I know: I am mad!

Actually I am probably too harsh on myself – I did not have deep enough thoughts to consider madness for the first few years of my life and therefore it probably only took me 46 or 47 years to learn this.  In any case, I am a slow learner, but you must agree with me that it is not easy to admit something like this.

So what finally triggered this revelation?  The week-end of 12 and 13 July! And of course a lot of things that happened before that.

It all started one day in June 1957 – but I will skip a few episodes to 2006 and an innocent proposal from a friend:  “Pierre, would you like to run in the JP Morgan Run – it is only 5.6 km?”  I said yes and he is still my friend – I do not blame him for what happened after that.

I actually enjoyed the run, and the competition and wanted more.  I than agreed to run the 1/2 marathon in December 2006.  Than another friend talked about a ‘biathlon’ (swim than run) and I completed my first one in March 2007 and enjoyed that.  Here I am coming out of the water during that event.

Than I found out about the Singapore Triathlon, and I was doomed!

In 2007, I signed up and trained really hard for 2 months.  On the day of the competition, I was ready, but the weather was not.  After swimming 1.5 km in a sea that looked more like a washing machine and cycling 10 km in a driving rain, the organisers called the race off because it was getting dangerous.  I was devastated, and compensated that day by winning the silver medal in a local charity Dragon Boat race with Papillon.

I was determined to do better this year.

I set up a rigorous training program in May and June to prepare: Monday – swim, occasionally followed by run or cycle; Tuesday – Gym; Wednesday – Run; Thursday – rest; Friday – Cycle; Saturday – Dragon Boat; Sunday – Cycle and Run, or Swim and Cycle.

All was going well until I was faced with a decision – actually a series of decisions.

My week end started early on Saturday 12 July.  I had to organise paddles, life jackets and the all important ‘butt protectors’ as well as drinks for Papillon as we were competing in the Corporate Community Games that day.  This has become a very important competition for us as last year, this was the first time that we won anything as a team.  We won the bronze medal in the mixed competition when few expected us to do that well.  Read all about it in my entry of July last year.  This was the picture of us with our first medal.

I arrived at Bedok Reservoir early enough to see the completion of the Men’s competition. ExxonMobil Teams took 2nd and 3rd place behind Citibank.  A much better result than last year when no medals were won.

The mixed competition was tougher with 18 teams entered.  I did not row for the heat and we came in first with a good lead over … the other ExxonMobil Team – Roaring Lillies.  This meant that both teams went directly into the semi-finals.

Here is the whole group before our respective semi finals.

Fortunately our two teams were in different semi-finals.  Papillon went first and the finish was very, very close.  I had taken my usual place at the back of the boat with Ben (the two ‘mountains’ were back together again) and I knew we were not first as OCBC was clearly a little in front of us, but Citibank was very close and I could not tell who was second and who was third.  However, we were reassured when we saw the EM fans on the docks jumping up and down holding up two fingers.  Only the top two teams from each semi made it to the finals!  We were in but, as we found out later, with the worst qualifying time.

The final was a blurr to me.  There was a false start, the first I can ever remember.  We shot out quickly and had a small lead but OCBC was coming back slowly.  The finish between OCBC and ourselves was again very close and this time, we were not so happy when our friends held out TWO FINGERS.  We did one better than last year, but maybe not as good as what we could have done.  There is always room for improvement.

As we did last year, we ended up celebrating the medal at my apartment.  Only this time, I had asked everybody to leave around 10 PM as I needed rest.  The Singapore Airforce celebrated with us with a fantastic aerobatics display – this was one of the final rehearsals for the National Day Parade that will take place on 9 August.  The food took forever to get here, but we had fun and did not really care, other than the hunger we all felt.  We listened to music – no Queens this time – and talked and relaxed.  At about 10:15, without any prompting on my part, some one said “Let’s go” and within 5 minutes the apartment was clean and everybody had left.

On Sunday – It was Triathlon Time!  And it did not go all that well.  The swim was OK – it was difficult and it took me 40 minutes to complete the 1.5 km (my usual time is about 30 minutes) but I was 6th out of the water in the ’50 and over’ category.  Here is the start – I am to the left of middle, starting my stopwatch and wearing the orange cap and the red and white top

  The cycling went OK as well.  I completed the 40 km in a little over 1h20m, about the time I was hoping for.  However, as soon as I started running, I knew I was in trouble.  After 2 km, I could barely run.  After 3 km I started walking and I knew that I would  not complete the event.  I had no energy left, was dehydrated and could not drink enough to feel better.

So my second Triathlon ended with DNF!

Did the events of the day before contribute to this?  Probably not the ideal preparation for a 3-hour endurance race.

Would I do it again? Without a second of hesitation – YES! 

That’ why I am MAD!

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