Break Your Limits

The title of this post represents what the commentator said to every finisher as they crossed the line. It should have read, You’ve finished a hard, stifling heat & humidity, dehydrating, rash burning, epic adventure of the Desaru International.

This is what I feel like as I sit and put the fingers to the keyboard, the only part of my body that isn’t hurting.

It was a tough day at the office so to speak. The day started at 6.00am with the early morning breakfast of eggs & toast and trusty cup of tea. Off to the race site around 7.30am and waited around for the official race start at 9.00am, a very late start for a triathlon.

I swam a reasonable time of 27mins and upon looking at the watch was happy as it felt comfortable in the process. From the swim to the transition was a 200m run and onto the bike it was. The main objective today was ride in the comfort zone and drinks heaps of fluid. The ride itself was a little undulating but that made it good to stretch out the legs and change the position a little.

Into transition and although feeling a little tired completed the ride in 2.30. Still felt comfortable but the heat was rising. According to the weatherman today was going to be 32C, having just looked at the weather site, it was showing temps of 31C but with a ‘feels like’ level of 35C. Trust me, it felt like that! So, needless to say the weather was well and truly felt on the run and I didn’t have the greatest run.

The overall time was 5.09 which I must say was a little disappointing and to be honest I am just glad to be finished. I haven’t ever felt that sick after finishing a Half Ironman race before.

A tad burnt from the experience...

For now it is just trying to cool down in the hotel pool as body temps are still quite high and I’m sure the sunburn wil hurt a lot more tomorrow! Thanks must also go to Mrs Claire for supporting throughout the day and I can definitely say it helps having support when in racing in another country.

Congratulations also to Mr Bill for his race and he will be posting  on his race also but I can tell you that he finished in the mid 4.30′s.

I will post later again tomorrow about the funnier sites of the Desaru as I’m sure I will have my wits back and be feeling ‘normal’ again!

We are sitting in our room awaiting the big race. This is what we came here for folks, the penultimate event, the Desaru Long Distance race, or, was it the Sprint Triathlon the following day. I am using the Long Course race as a build into the sprint race.

In the time we have been here it’s just grazing, lazing and snoozing. Not a lot really for these well-tuned athletes. You don’t want to expend too much energy before the big day. It has definitely helped arriving a couple of days early to just relax.

We rode via the official race hotel this morning and all the flags and bunting have been setup to make way for the 500+ athletes they are expecting. Along with the bunting were the tree monkeys of which when looked at, will chase your bike. This should make way for a faster run time given they are on the run route and with the countless Gel’s and lollies on offer, they will by the end of the day be chasing the competitors.

Mrs Claire will have herself entertained with the monkey chasing activities of the athletes as she watches throughout the day. She has stated that she is in love with them but my advice has been given.  ‘Stay clear of the monkey, they will attack’.

For now, its off to the briefing of which will be spoken in 50% Malaysian and 50% broken English, then which half of that wont be understood.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and we will update you on all the happenings of the race after the big event!

After a wonderful stay at Daniel and Daniela’s house it was time to pack up the Gatorade and countless bottles of water and head towards Desaru, near Johor Bahru.

It is quite interesting having to pack all your belongings into one backpack as whenever you want to close the zipper there is always one more item that needs to go in. It was quite a tight squeeze into the car this morning, two bike boxes, 3 bags, 2 bikes on the rear, 3 people and a trusty Malaysian driver by the name of Azhim. At first he was a little perplexed of our efforts to try and fit all our gear inside his car adding to that the bike carrier also. I don’t think he had every see one before and whilst driving I’m sure he kept looking back to work out what it was.

The drive itself took 4.5 hours with a short stop on the way at a Malaysian style roadhouse, it had everything from noodles to a burger joint and even at ATM, all in the middle of nowhere.

It’s kind of hard to believe we are already a week into this adventure and in that time we have traversed over 1200 kms from the North of Malasyia way to the South and gone through plenty of ringgits in toll booths on the journey!

Today we have now checked into our new Break Your Limits headquarters at a hotel called The Pulai Beach Desaru. I was a little sceptical on the journey down as to how this hotel may fair after our experience at the Bayu. Would it have running water, would it be another Fawlty Tower experience, would the plumbing keep up on race morning, only time would tell. Mrs Claire was highly excited about the new adventure and she was certain after seeing the photos it would all be good. Needless to say she was right and the hotel is ok albeit a little under the weather!

As I write this entry on this Wednesday afternoon I reminded of a classic quote from the Monty Python series, ‘Always look on the bright side of life!’

That is what we are doing at the Break Your Limits Malaysia headquarters. Mr Bill has made a very quick recovery as you would of read in his earlier post this morning. There were a few errors in his description of the events that took place, the main one being, his infestation of Dengue Fever. That was Mrs Claire. I was the one consolling her in the waiting area…

Today has been another adventurous day. After a ride with Mr Bill this morning and a quick tidy up of the headquarters we took Mrs Claire for a drive to a neighbouring suburb called, Putrajaya. It has to be seen to be believed. It is a combo of sci-fi and islamic culture. This was where the first Half Ironman was supposed to be. The main streets are as wide as the Champs Elysees in France so would have been perfect to hold the race in these beautiful settings. Upon exiting this suburb we got a little lost, around 4/10 lost. We have developed a ‘lost’ scale here, this is designed to avoid panic and we can rate the level at which we should be concerned. The more ‘lost’ you get, the higher the panic is allowed to increase.

Tomorrow we will start our expedition to the south of Malaysia, a place by the name of Johor Bahru. According to google maps it is a 5 hour drive and fortunately this time we will have a driver to take us the length of the journey, so no need to worry about the ‘lost’ scale. According to the website there have been over 500 entries for the Long Course triathlon and upwards of 100 entries for the sprint triathlon the next day. Sprint I hear you say, well yes… This is on the Sunday after the long course race on the Saturday? Maybe a goer for Mr Bill and Mr Ray! We will wait and see!

For the rest of the stay here in Cyberjaya it’s packing up and then dinner with our host, Daniel, as he arrives home and takes back control of his headquarters. We have been very fortunate to be able to stay here and we thank our Swiss friends eversomuch!

Until tomorrow, from a new location its over and out.

Well, it has been an eventful couple of days since my last blog. As a freshly minted blogger (or blogee I presume if one is the subject of a blog) I am rather bemused to know that the current functioning of my stomach and bowels is common knowledge to all readers of the break your limits home page. For this I must thank Mr Raymond, always a friend you can count on.
 
I can confirm that after suffering some external plumbing issues at the much esteemed Bayu Hotel I have recently been experiencing  my own internal plumbing issues. For this reason I have done little but sleep for the past 36 hours and for this reason it is now that at midnight here in Malaysia I am wide awake and writing this blog.

During my ordeal I have been well cared for by Nurse Claire and Doctor Raymond. Together, the two make a powerful medical force that make Dr House look like nothing more than a well-versed first year undergrad student. The only problem being that with their widely divergent backgrounds they struggle to agree on anything at all.

Nurse Claire’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Nursing at ECU, a university at the forefront of nursing education in Australia with extensive practical skills including on site work in hospitals in Australia and Thailand. In addition she has veterinary skills and experience and extensive experience in caring for the elderly and unwell.

Dr Raymond has absolutely no formal qualifications whatsoever but claims to have been educated at ‘the school of hard knocks’. His credentials include, parents living and working in Cambodia, 8 tours of Malaysia, 2 tours of Thailand and at least 1 tour of Cambodia itself.

The team worked together at my bedside in a fashion not dissimilar to that outlined below (note if actual events differ in any way from my version of events (as may be claimed by Nurse Claire or Dr Raymond), it is only that at the time my head was rather foggy due to my illness):

NC: Bill, make sure you drink lots of Gatorade.
DR: No, Gatorade has sugars in it. Sugars are no good for his intestinal tract.
NC: Yes, but he needs the electrolytes.
DR: What he needs is some dry bread, that will block him up a bit.
NC: No the bread will go straight through, he cannot absorb it.
DR: Hmmmm, what about some Gatorade then.
NC: No, it has sugars in it.
And on it went. …
NC: He has not got Dengue fever because he has no rash plus I have pinched him really hard and nothing happened (note here that I am not sure what should have happened once being pinched really hard but trust that there was some method to Claire’s ways).
DR: Yes but he could develop a rash soon enough.
NC: Ray! I am nurse, listen to me will you!!
Me: I have just got bali belly, c’mon guys, it’s not that bad. This is what happens in Asia.
DR: Not necessarily, you may have something else. Are you hot?
Me: Yes of course I am hot, I am lying on a bed in Malaysia! (For the record, I don’t think anybody has been genuinely cold in Malaysia since the breaking of the last Ice Age about 2.5 million years ago).
NC: Your heart rate is high, maybe you have typhoid, or have you thought about Malaria?
Me: Typhoid, Malaria! No, please let me rest, I have just got bali belly , I promise you I will be fine once it passes!

After a while, Nurse Claire threatened that she would take me to hospital if I did not improve in a hurry (this was no shallow threat either – after sneaking a peak in Claire’s notebook, I have found that she had jotted down the address and directions to Hospital Putrajaya). Being a great fearer of hospitals even in Perth, let alone those in foreign countries, I quickly tried to act like I was on the mend. I contemplated jumping out of bed and donning the running shoes just to prove I was fine, but alas I could not find the energy. So instead I lay down in fear of tropical diseases the type of which I have not heard of since reading about the voyages of Captain Cook and tried to rest.
 
Anyhow, as time has passed I have slowly come to feel better. And in truth I must thank Claire and Raymond for the care and interest in my well-being. Tonight Claire cooked us a hearty pumpkin soup just like my favourite at home. The soup was thoroughly enjoyed as Claire’s soups always are and no doubt it will set me on the path to a rapid recovery.

I now must pull out all stops to regain my strength before the Desaru International Long Course Triathlon on Saturday. Two days of illness and severe dehydration are not ideal with 5 days between races but if nothing else, at least I will be racing light

No doubt, you will hear all is it happens so stay tuned.
Before I go, I would like to thank Raymond for letting me air my views on the BYL website  as I forgot to do this last time in the excitement that was my first ever blog.

And I also must thank everyone that has commented on our blogs to date, particularly all the local athletes from the Baling Duathlon. It was great to meet you and race with you and I hope that we can stay in touch.  Happy training.

Howdy all and welcome to the first rest day of the Break Your Limits Malaysia experience. It feels as though we have been constantly on the move since we got here! We finally completed the epic journey back home from Penang which included the 13.5km bridge crossing from Penang back to the mainland and then the 400+ kilometres back to homebase. We arrived in around 5.30pm last night.

Unfortuntely though, Mr Bill has been struck down with the dreaded Malaysia belly and any food he consumes passes straight through. Not happy is Mr Bill! Over the next few days the two doctors Mr Ray and Mrs Claire are on standby monitoring his well-being. and aiding his speedy recovery. We have noticed Mr Bill feels better with well wishes from family and friends so we do encourage you all to chime in!

Fortunately we have a nice resting place as it is a lot better than just being confined to a hotel room. Over the next few days we will all be resting up and waiting for the next Triathlon to roll around, the ‘Desaru International Long Course’.

Weather here lately has been good with temps around the 31C and although a little on the humid side is better than being in the cold winters of Perth. Still, I’m thinking we would be hoping for the colder conditions on race day.

Last night, Mr Ray ventured to a cool place for dinner, ‘The Cyberview Lodge’. This is a very well planned out hotel with lush green gardens and a restaurant that overlooks a waterfall. On the menu was Italian, I’ve been having a bit of a craving for that lately. To be honest it was one of the nicest meals I’ve had in Malaysia and was unfortunate that Bill and Claire couldn’t be there to join me. Hopefully we can venture there Wednesday night as this is our last official night in Cyberjaya before we head to Johor Bahru and then back to Kuala Lumpur.

Post race, have pulled up a little sore in the legs but this could have been from the massage and the epic drive back but after this mornings easy run, legs will hopefully get back into the swing of things.

In closing this blog is now going multicultural and we welcome our freinds from Europe and Asia. It seems everyone wants to be a part of the Break Your Limits journey!

We received an email from a guy we met up at the Baling Duathlon, Jens Wilkens who finished 3rd. He’s a German living in Malaysia for the next year and into the Triathlon scene.

It seems that Mr Bill made it into the local newspapers, check out the English version or for those who can interpret the Malaysian version.

He also sent us this photo, some of the locals taking their photo at the back of our car with the two bikes. I don’t think they had seen a disc wheel before.

Congratulations to Kevin Payne and Tanya Sim for their results in the Run for Gold on the weekend. Both had a good result in the race as part of their build for the upcoming City to Surf Marathon.