Teaser Update! Desaru 116 Triathlon, Singapore Total Immersion Swim Race, Putrajaya Night Marathon etc.

I'm baaaack! It's been a busy three weeks since my last post 'Why I Love Triathlon' and it's possibly gonna stay that way until December! Here's what (I hope!) will be a short recap of the past three weeks, and brief of what shenanigans Gracie will be up to in the next month or two. I will follow with detailed race/event reports some time in November when I have a chance to sit down for the full day it takes me to produce each of these things. Ya, I'm so pokey, but hey, it's worth the wait right? ;)

My health was generally ok this month, kidneys somewhat behaving, though joints hurt a bit. I put in decent effort training on my Pseudotrainer (elliptical machine = pretend bicycle since I still too chicken to cycle on road), some swimming and a good-ish running mileage. I probably spent 1 to 2 hours a day doing some exercise, i.e., 1 hr swim, bike or run, sometimes combined. All great fun!

Gracie in pretend aero position on Pseudotrainer

10 Sep: Port Dickson Open Water Swim, organized with the help of consultants Kash, Jaja and Dogpapi.
Attended by Kay, Hafiz Salleh, Ooi Kee Tzuen and myself. Dogpapi and Merce volunteering as safety kayakers (thank you!!). Mildly choppy waters helped simulate Desaru conditions. A great first experience organizing OWS! Thanks also to supporters (family, friends), and the two ex-national swim champs (Hafiz & Kee Tzuen) who gave great tips on OWS for triathlons.

19-21 Sep: Total Immersion events. There was a large turnout of about 40 folks for the free TI seminar on 19th. These seminars will be a monthly thing from now (next one is 17 Oct). On 20th was the Level 1 workshop where 5 peeps signed up, and whaddaya know, two were kinda thru me! (one read my blog would ya believe it? :)). A few of us Level 1 first batch took the exam and passed, thus qualifying us to start Level 2 on 21 Sep. For now, all I'll say about Level 2 is I'm glad for all the hours of drills we did in Level 1!

24-25 Sep: Desaru 116 International Triathlon 2011. I drove down with my Ma after work Friday, after a few false starts/failures to launch (definitely gonna post about that drama!), arrived at 1 am in Desaru, passed out in hotel room, woke up and rushed to Lotus to cheer the racers at the swim start of the 116. Next day was my Sprint event, and I finished! An amazing two days that I will try my best to do justice to in the next blog posts (NOTE: Race Report is OUT! Grace, 9 Oct.). Oh ya, also in the works is 'How to woo a Triathlete' - inspired by a sweet couple who shall not be named :p

Mama and I at transition, next to my trusty bike (the only mtn bike in the race!)

25 Sep-2 Oct: Singapore. The last time I was in Singapore was 20 years ago and all these years I've held the notion of Singapore being a sterile, concrete jungle. Wow, my one week in Singapore changed all that - I LOVE Singapore! Got off to a rocky start though, cuz we somehow missed the Autopass counter at Immigration and ended up driving in Singapore without one - big time Freakout. Ran 10 km with a friendly bunch of local runners I randomly bumped into at MacRitchie Reservoir. Cycled and jogged at East Coast Park. I even enjoyed the shopping at Orchard St for a day. Wonderful spending time with my Ma, sisters Eirene and Jess and Baby Z, and family in Singapore.

Baby Z, emergency cooling down in makeshift bath :p

2 Oct: Total Immersion Singapore Swim Expo and Open Water Swim Race. With 3.8, 1.9, 1.5 km, 750 and 400 m events to choose from, I somehow ended up being the only swimmer in the 750 m category, thus the almost-automatic Champion for 750 m! Still needed to complete the swim, which I did in a slooooow 24 minutes. I still can't swim straight, so I probably did closer to 1 km hahah! Extremely well organized event by Tang Siew Kwan and team, of Fishlike Aquatic School. More later, but I gotta say, Singapore sea water has things in it that will turn your white swimsuit shades of brown and green.... :p

Go! 1.5 and 1.9 km swimmers taking the plunge at the beach start!

3 Oct: Voting starts for the four video entries for the Make That Change 'reality contest' organized by Hooha.Asia in conjunction with the Putrajaya Night Marathon. I submitted an entry - will be running 10 km for my best friend who suffers from SLE (Lupus), a lifelong disease with no cure. Please spare a few minutes to view the four 3 minute vid clips and vote for the person/cause you feel most needs the RM6000 prize (View the Vids and VOTE). Follow your heart. Don't need to vote for my entry :). I have some strong feelings and thoughts about this whole thing (good ones), and will do some venti-blogging later (NOTE: My venti-blog post HERE, 7 Oct).

September - The Best Birthday Month Ever. My 36th birthday was on 4 September, but I declared September as my birthday month! What a great month this has been!

Next up for me is the Putrajaya Night Marathon 15 Oct. Will probably attend the 3rd Total Immersion free seminar on 17 October at Solaris. Then I take off from 20 Oct till 31 Dec! Yes, I am taking two months off work. Two. Whole. Months. Whoopeeeee!! To kick start this break, I might go for the Climbathon in Sabah 22 Oct. See how lah! Then, Spencer is visiting from the US, for the entire month of Nov. We will be in Phuket from 21-27 Nov for the uber-expensive Laguna Phuket Triathlon!

Stay tuned for my next rambling and till then happy trails (or tarmac), happy tri-ing, and peace! Oh, ya, please do leave a comment - I love hearing from you all!

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xo Gracie