Seventy.3 (and 2 crazy crazy men)

One week to Hell, and a Link to my second home...

2008-10-12T20:44:00.009+08:00

Its me again, Fie.

Boosh, me and my dad are one week away from the New Balance Real Run 2009. As mentioned, it is my first sanctioned run and I am rather excited about it. Training have been hampered by the ah zhong's wedding stuff going on, but it should still be fine. (as in I can finish it without dying/puking/nua-ing)

I saw the new New Balance 1063 running shoes and I do have to say that it is one pretty piece of art! I almost bought it on impulse until I found out I do not need a new pair of running shoes. And it is not some dress shoe you wear to Orchard or a wedding, so even though it does look spanking, it will not get a lot of mileage with me at the helm.
Deep in my heart, I do think that the yellow highlights fit my yellow Ironman Timex watch perfectly though.

By the way, I know you have been wanting to know what does an aspiring Ironman do during his spare time? Let me tell you. They write a second blog. Something that goes like umm...

-----> http://9d20.blogspot.com/

This is what I do in my free time, when I am NOT doing light training, watching Gossip Girl episodes, teaching tuition, tennis-ing, meeting friends to chat, or the crappy chinese 9 o' clock serial - Ting Tang Policedungs.

Feel free to spend your valuable time flittering between both damn good blogs and yes kids, there is never too much of a good thing!

You get a double dose of Fie's prose and mad humor. Life has never been this good without being this cheap.

Okay off to my training.. Onward ho !

"Due to technical difficulties, I regret to inform.."

2008-10-07T04:31:00.010+08:00

Aloha readers,

It has come to my unfortunate knowledge that the Singapore Aviva Ironman Triathlon has been moved forward to March. This means that Booshee and me technically have only five more months to do preparatory events while still pushing ourselves physically to make the cut.

In stark reality, this also means that we will be making the Osim Triathlon next year (In July?) our goal instead. In March, we should be starting our first ever Sprint Triathlon event, so that the schedule will not be compromised. So much for the international sports event calendar being stable and stuff.

On a brighter note, my brother Shane is now a proud daddy! Hooray and rejoice all baby-lovers of the world! Here comes the new addition – Christian Caden Kwek!!!

Yes, you guys are asking the questions. Will Christian be a future Triathlete? Does Caden have the three things? Is Kwek cool beans like us? Or will Christian Caden Kwek just do the proper stuff in life and be like really successful in the things that really matter?

Okay Okay. Back to the main topic. ( Baby K will be blogged in future as a potential superstar.)

As if we are not reeling a bit from the Aviva shocker, I also regret to announce that Team Boofie will be slacking these few weeks (three weeks to be precise), as I am tied up in unforseen preparations for Ah Zhong’s wedding. He is blindly testing the Goddess of Fate and actually reuniting Bedside 40 AGAIN!

*sharp intake of air*

For the uninitiated, Bedside 40 is a really cool*1 Xinyao band formed in the late 90s by four rather untalented Chinese males. Their dubious claim to fame is having made the entire Neptune Court and two random pub/eatery in Suntec City close down after “lively” live performances there.

As said, I am the drummer/clanker/spastic gum-chewer of the band and will be having jamming sessions on Wednesdays and Saturdays prior to the big day.
(Our performance, not the wedding.)

Soooo, Team Boofie will not be meeting on the scheduled days and we will be training on our own for the time being. Not to worry, our pure enthusiasm will take us through, starting with…… the REAL run!!!! 19th October here we come! Singapore better start to be really afraid of our brimming whatever'ness.

The first appearance of Team Boofie in public is arriving.

Are you ready for the tsunami that is brewing this side of the island? (something in that vein.)

*1 Never hot.

Rain or shine. I really cannot tell. (/flips coin)

2008-09-10T13:57:00.005+08:00

Hey all Team Boofie wellwishers,

It is the middle-end of the year again. The weather is mad, raining and not, and then chunking bits all over but in a while, it is fine again.
Welcome to the monsoon season. Me and booshee were caught in one of the sessions last week. My diary went:

8pm - booshee arrives. Morale is high.
8:10pm - weather looks good. Wind is great, almost air-con like. We start our 10.6km run.
8:35pm - reach tanah merah bend, near the food centre. going into the army camp road. Starts to drizzle.
8:39pm - The monsoon rain hits. We are stuck but had to continue running. My Ipod is wet, I am drenched, shoes wet, spectacles fogged and blurred. Morale is low.
8:45pm - On way back towards Simei. Rain still belting down, but Ipod played "Somewhere only we know" to the backdrop of a very red and cool sky. Morale boosted bits.
9:03pm - (53 mins) reached my condo. Totally soaked. Walked past the gym. My very dry dad smiled at me from the treadmill. Right.

Yeap. I had a good bath and the whole schedule for the night was disrupted. Swimming had to be cancelled. Our once-a-week heavy day was washed away.
Now we had time to ponder. And eat like "toot". We waited for Gari's DnD session later on in the night. At least, the mental marathon will not be deterred.

Meanwhile, me and booshee felt that the sessions were getting too easy and we were going too soft on ourselves. We need something to spur us on, to focus our energies.

Relying on pure impluse again, we decided to sign up for the 15km New Balance REAL Run in October. (I didn't come up with the cheesy name.)
Sand,trail and road running all rolled into one. Mmm. That should be rather fun and a good distraction from all this gloominess.
I will calibrate the cool Nike+ wristband that I bought for my dad and put it to some use for once.
Will update more on the next post.

Peace all.

Cool? You are anything but cool !

2008-07-20T19:35:00.007+08:00

Life these days for me have been quite healthy.

Not like really very healthy, but its a good start. We are just trying to get used to a "fit-cercise" lifestyle, somthing that I last did like twenty years ago in secondary school, where I played sports at least two/three hours per DAY, and got myself charred to epic Malay/Indian skin tone proportions.

Currently, the "fitness" schedule that I am loosely following goes something like this:
playing tennis once/twice a week, swimming twice a week trying to learn the semblance of a proper front-crawl technique, and running 11km once/twice a week.

Yes, I could be doing more, but that will really feel like "training" and it will not be fun. The thought of that happening is anything but cool. I could be doing less, but then, it will not even make me exert or sweat properly, and it kind of defeats the purpose in the first place.
Anyway, peaking and training to maximum efficiency should be done before the big events. (sounds like I actually know what I am saying but I dont, but you get the gist.)

So this is the happy median for me now. I do hope to play more tennis though.
*rolls eyes*
But I have not got over the Federer hangover yet. He is still my tennis hero, but the monster Nadal is whooping him left and right. Sometimes centre.
A bit sad but as it has always been for ME, its the way you win something that matters the most . I will rather NOT win if it is not by my own way.
The vision of the future me in my Litespeed mountain bike as I cruise through the Ironman section comes to mind. Everybody can say that I am slow and that I am wasting valuable time while being overtaken by nuns and senile ministers, but I will honestly prefer to complete the race with the bike I love, thank you.
On a sidenote, I have decided to use the k-90 Wilson racket more these days, at least for a couple of months so that I can connect with Federer spiritually through this act even though it makes no absolute sense whatsoever.

Back to serious business. Closer to the end of this year, tentatively November, when me and Booshee enters one of the many Olympic Distance (OD) Triathlon that will be around at that time of the year, the couple of months before that will definitely be more intense than the casual training now.
And high on our priority list is deciding if we bozos need a tri-bike for the 40km(OD)/90km(1/2h-iron) ride section come next year September. (clown horn.)

But for now, Team Boofie are still in the midst of recruiting more suckers for this prideful venture. Our casual wednesday session (swim) is from 8-10pm, while the more intense saturday session (run/swim) is only from 7-10pm. Very do-able.
And you get to swim for kicks, and see the beautiful Simei scenery at the poolside or at the Cheers store when we go out for late-night drinks.

If you are out of your mind, do not mind moving your limbs about twice a week, and love torturing yourself for nothing except pride and maybe a medal or two, then this sport is for you!

Good sport! Good sport! As they always say.
(*mutters* But.. but.. Alfie say one... Guys? Guys?~)

Cool?

You are anything but.

Nothing is impossible? Anything is possible?

2008-06-29T17:51:00.004+08:00

We have started our training program as scheduled with effect from 1st June 2008!

To train for Ironman is NOT A JOKE and in fact fie and me are trying our best to stick on the training program as close as possible,trying real hard not to miss a single day.

To the people out there, i urge you to join us in this meaningful sport!

This could be the only pride accomplishment in your whole life worth bragging?

See links as below;

http://ironman.com/columns/ironmanlife/kevin-mackinnon-profiles-energizer-keep-going-hall-of-fame-nominee-scott-rigsby

http://ironman.com/events/ironman/ironman-world-championship/reinertsens-finished-business

If people like Kevin mackinnon and Sarah Rein could finished a REAL IM race, what kind of reasons you could think of that YOU CANT DO IT?

Bascially there ARE NO REASONS!

Anything is Possible,,and

NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE !

"Ironman? No, I haven't watched it yet."

2008-06-10T20:04:00.000+08:00

Sometimes i do have to give it to the youth of today. Their ignorance, blissfully unaware of world affairs, general knowledge and the significance of it all, makes them a candidate for stress-free living.

Take Liting, my ex-tuition kid, as an example. She is an okay child and all, 13 years old this year, and your typical singaporean teenager.

Full of angst about friends and enemies who betrayed her trust by going out on dates with her 17th or 18th boyfriend i cannot really remember, she could also be over the moon raving about her first kiss in a cinema. in a nutshell, she can really blow hot and cold.*1

Hark! Leonidas in a darker tone, with a yellow ironman watch to boot. what more can you ask for in a man?

She came over to my house the on thursday and was kinda shocked at my new hairstyle. I went for this roman-greco look, read: geeky, with really short hair at the top and ultrasloped sides. she asked me why i decided to make this drastic change, but trust me, i have had drastic-er hairstyles in my life. I told her that I was an Ironman (tm) and this was the proper look if i was to endure through hours of swimming, jogging and cycling in the hot and humid singapore weather.

"Ironman? No, I haven't watched it yet.", was her immediate reply.

She was referring to the blockbuster marvel summer hit "Ironman". she didnt know no nuts *2 about the "real" Ironman. Grit, determination and unsung heroes are lost on the youth of today apparently.

They want glory and anything and everything else fast, and on their lap in the quickest time if possible. i do admit that when i was young, i wanted the same feeling. but deep down inside, i realized i was always the guy that preferred to make the final pass to the striker for the winning goal. If i were to score the winning goal, so be it, but being the creator makes me feel better inside. I was the indirect reason for the win anyhow. you cannot take that away from me. i prefer private pride to full-fledged glory.

I am the unsung hero, the wind beneath their wings, the flame that light the candle which toppled and burned the entire village down, and dare i say, the sole reason that this very planet is revolving for, in a very broad sense.(did i also fleetingly mention that i am quite modest and shy by nature?)

Anyway, enough about me. it is time to shine the spotlight at the others supposedly involved in this interesting little adventure.

Gwaby (vek's gf) is interested in joining us and is pulling vek along for the ride. she is looking to lose 10 kg as a positive side-effect in the whole process, and on the way, showing vek how it should be done, aka proper swimming and jogging techniques.

vek's involvement in the training will immediately stop if gwaby quits halfway. he is very confident that he will not need to do the swimming and jogging (two activities that he hates to the core and back) much, as he feels gwaby will not be able to keep her focus on the training for more than a couple of weeks or months.

But what if she can? what if gwaby suddenly finds out that, hey! she wants to discover her inner limits, to know more about herself? with her personal pride bursting forth, she might even want to show the world (vek) that she can do what others (vek) say she can't?

Then i can forsee a new confident young woman reborn. and a very tired vek swimming and running for the next goddamn year.

god bless him. and amen to that. at least, he will be a fit, fit man.

EDIT: Gwaby is not joining it seems, never saw her at training, so much for the confident young woman reborn.

*1: not in that way, you perv.

*2: don't know anything about nuts or related products.

WILLPOWER!

2008-05-27T02:50:00.016+08:00

Will power is just funny...DO you have it?? do you even remember how it feels like?

I DO ...and what i call it?? my IRON WILL!

Back to the 45km of cycling event on 25 may 08 (sunday).

Fie and Shane could not join due to personal commitments..so meet up with Vek ..our resident "dwarf" at Paya Lebar Air base.

8.00am>People..lotsa of them. queuing up..not for free gifts..or a full body rub,, but for a full body security scan!

8.20am> Registered to enter the 45km cycle race and given a tag.

8.30am> RACE begins!

Weather was nice and cooling and overtaking senior citizens, plump ass skaters, kids and clowns riding singled wheel bikes is just plain FUN!

1st 15 km >>Joyride..refreshing with ass hugging Ger skaters in front of me,,i mean,,skating in front.

Next 15km>>Resident dwarf is darn fast ,,,perhaps he is er,, chasing some rider's stinky ass ..,not sure,>?is he? I continue cycling>

Last 15km>>HOT! it is like inside an oven,,it is so hot,,i am burning! my butt is giving way,,, but Nevermind,,i am Booshee,,i just have to finished it! period.

Last 9km>> seeing stars and my neck hurts.

Last 7km>> Cycling and looking at floor. (dont ask me why)

Last 2km>> torturing,,the strong wind is slowing me down but i have my willpower!

FINISHED LINE!

watch reads 1050am+ Vek finished approx 2hrs 10 mins and i finished appox 2hrs 20mins++...NOT BAD :P

Now some pixs <>

Ahem..me> and veky

NOW> 1 Step closer to our IRONMAN dream!

When there is a will, there is .. (usually someone dying soon.)

2008-05-23T08:13:00.015+08:00

Okay, I have heard that as long as you have the will, it is stronger than skill. What they did not say is that the skill should be relatively near the region of the endurance required though.

I was talking to ah zhong a couple of days ago and he recounted how he had the will to go on, but his legs just broke down on him on the 26th km of the marathon he participated in last year.

I cannot imagine myself running 21.1 km, after cycling 90 km and swimming 1.5 km based on pure will, and using "sitting on the sofa watching american idol/prison break", or "grinding on countless mobs in my favourite MMO", as relevant experience. At least not yet.

I do believe that team boofie and the WuBz-crew, with the right mentality and a realistic and down-to-earth perspective, coupled with our natural mad-ass genes and ultra-competitive "grind you down" nature, not forgetting our extensive sports background as gay volleyball players and decent male cheerleaders *1, we should be just fine.

Watch out, aunties, grandmas, pre-pubescent children and infants! we are gunning for you!

you know who we are gunning for. so just cooperate and lay still.

Will is a funny little thing. So is alex's will(ie). Breaking the pain barrier and fatigue walls are part and parcel of the tri-experience, and having an abundance of willpower could help in that aspect. Thinking of the ultimate high - crossing the finish line, getting a completion medal; not wasting the 300 odd dollars of the registration fee in the process, and even mental images of the tears and cheers waiting for you during your final approach can spur one on to greater heights. Trust me, we will need all the will that we can get.

I have been psyching myself up for the weekend, where i will be getting basic equipment for the training next week. A cheap casio/timex sports-watch, a good pair of running shoes (Nike wide-soled) are on my agenda for this week. I might also consider a nice pair of speedos to swim in but I have not decided to take the plunge yet. (pardon me.)

Tennis might have to take a backseat for now, as i will be reducing the frequency of my practices to maybe once or twice a week. We only got so much time and this is my sporting priority. Being an ironman is never an easy path and that is the price we have to pay to scale our..our dreams. *fake tears welling up in eyes, choking up, ready to recieve the obligatory Oscar.*

On a sidenote, the French Open is starting next week and i will be rooting for roger again. the old fogey is fighting an uphill battle to win over his fans and critics for his lacklustre performances this year, but.. with his new coach and all, rog should at least touch the quarters and mesmerise the world with his sublime skills and impeccable style. hopefully, a certain someone (cough) will not make it FOUR in a row, and grind out a predictable victory.

I will be posting more on this weekend's training and boofie's new equipment in the next installment of the coolest blog this side of simei, and then some.

*1 : sorry, but i do have to say that the volleyball/cheerleading thingy aint team boofie. not to be picking on alex or anything, but i was actually describing his teenage life.

"The three things ... Do you have it?"

2008-05-21T16:10:00.003+08:00

If you do not recognize the above-mentioned phrase, please kindly refer to this so that you can brush up on your knowledge regarding Captain Obvious and his verbal capers.

Also, booshee has started his regular posts on the site so do come back regularly to support my crazed and optimistic tri-wannabe partner. He posted about his idol in his previous post and soon, i will be posting about mine- Faris Al-Sultan, better known in this circle as The Sultan of Sweat, or to us as a bastard speedo-wearing lovechild with tons of innate stamina and a balanced approach to all three disciplines of the sport.
In view of boosh's undying spirit and hunger, i do hope the fire will burn long and strong after the training sessions start.

Our home-brewed specialized training starts a week from now, and we should be hitting the gym and the waters on those days. We (Team Boofie) pinpointed swimming and core strength as our only major weaknesses for now and will look to shore them up pronto. There is a niggling suspicion that we will soon unearth more weaknesses in the days to come.

Actually, on the same day after the ketam experience, we went back to :

Part 1: Soak in the pool, cycled from the headquarters (my home) to east coast at night, chilled out there a bit, did bike skills with shane, vek and didi at the ultra-smooth concrete sports area and then headed onto changi village via coastal road. me and vek timed ourselves and completed coastal 7.03 *1 in about 11 mins 30 secs. I will have to get a cyclometer so as to chart the distance, speed and time more accurately.

Part 2: we headed up to the Cheers at changi village proper itself and Team Boofie hydrated themselves up for a casual 4.5 km run along the changi beach.

*1: approx. 7 km of black tarmac path flanking the uber boring changi coastal road.

team boofie checking their hi-tech equipment and pondering their fate before the ghetto-lon.

It took us about 28 - 30 mins approx. and we were rather satisfied with our first ghetto "bi-athlon sprint mini-version", not forgetting me and booshee had only 2-3 hrs sleep the night before and me, a ketam trip earlier that day.

I do understand that we cannot afford to do the 2-3 hr sleep and then train the next day kind of mentality once we start doing this seriously as it might result in middle-aged men "slippage" of particular body parts. we do not recover like young men anymore and more care should be taken to preserve our rather fragile bodies.

We at Team Boofie will have to work doubly hard to acquire the three things that Capt. Ade-Obvious reminded us about.

Ending on a high note, i give a shout out to shane and vek, who are volunteering their time/skill to head our elite Whats Up Buoyz? (WuBz) technical/logistics race-day team. We look forward to working with them and i see a great partnership forming.

shane looking particularly pleased and serene after he secured a place in the WuBz team.

Christine Wellington!

2008-05-21T01:42:00.000+08:00

Booo shee...the man with few words...

Christine Wellington.. ahem!

She is not a movie star,,,,She aint your Vollyhood porn star....she aint your favourite ang mo ice cream seller next door and nope..she wont give out free B.. er...stuff..either..

She is no other than "THE 2007 Ironman World Triathlon Championship "Woman CHAMP!

AKA Muppet! *smiles*

The IM race which consist of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean siwm in Kailua-Kona Bay, a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride across the Hawaiian lava desert to Hawi and back, and a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big island ; finishing on Ali'i Drive.

Her Timing>>9:08:45 !

She is such an inspiration to all people wanting to join Iron man races and you could read her blog as follows;
http://www.teamtbb.com/christinewellington/

I got quite teary after reading her story....i admire .Her will, Her strength ...Rookie to world IM champion,,,what a Dream.!.

Anyway, she makes me wana complete my very own Iron man race with FIE! and with style!! ,,

AND she looks darn cute with those mesmerizing smiles,,Shes my idol!....(echo)...

Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life!
”
— Commander Collins, (1978)

Indro duck shen

2008-05-19T18:14:00.000+08:00

Hi fellow g-e-r-s,

I guessed i do not need much intro for the people that knew me however for those who dont, i am Boo...Shee...... and i am known to be a No nonsense, strict and a man of little words.

However ,i do have a soft heart and extremely caring towards young pretty gers and small animals.

My hobbies includes karaoke, eating,, sleeping, mmorpg, play mahjong, bicycles and stare at pretty gers blah blah blah.

i am fairly fair and blah blah blah,,anyway,

My writing skills are quite bad so i am going to cut this post quite short.

This fine day Fie fie was taunted by Blackj* (a stalker in some bike forum) for some weird reason which evolved this whole project; seeing his anger, i just have to calm his nerves by side tracking him with other stuff.

i remembered seeing this 70.3 race somewhere in some crap advertisement shit so i just link to him lor.

Fie fie was darn motivated and pm me saying " Lets do it "

In the end with some rubbish chatting, we decided to make an attempt to this prestige event aka "Aviva 70.3 IRON MAN race" in 2009.

Anyway we will be holding our hands at the finish line so i guessed "Sure,,lets do it.lor !"and u know lah,,,i have a soft heart...

So remember to come cheer for us and give us some tight hugs (gers only for me) at the finish line and details will be published in a later date, so lets all not get too Sexited for now.

Feel free to give us your support by donations or order our newly range of merchandise.

On behalf of Fie fie, I give you his word.. YOU WILL NOT REGRET THIS WHOLE THING!

Out..

Potential people out there>
For those who wish to join me and Fie fie for the OD are definitely welcome. Most importantly, remember these quotes>>" Sometimes i even see ah ma ( grandmother in hokkien slang) competes in a ironman race!" (quoted by a True blue IRONMAN)
So BE A MAN (if you are one) and join us!

Words of wisdom:
Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision...they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." (Mohammed Ali) "The greatest mistake a man can make is being afraid to make one."

Have you ever danced with the devil? (in the scorching ubin heat?)

2008-05-18T16:54:00.000+08:00

Everybody has a friend that they will want dead or deceased at a point or another in their life. Maybe it could be a really irritating subject teacher, or even a close colleague that is taking your much-needed place at the top.

Do not fret, do not get mad, do not pass go, do not get 200 dollars, erm.. just get even. There is a more viable and perfectly legal solution out there.

You no longer have to worry about lifelong imprisonment or the slow and painful death of a brown rope tied around your neck, if you are found guilty of murder.

All you simply need to do is to make them go for a leisure ride at ketam bike park in pulau ubin. nothing much to it, that's all to it. just a simple lap, they can take their own sweet time, if anything goes wrong, just get off the bike and push, or just press the brakes and get off, and then push. easy peasy.

Which was exactly what we were led to believe on saturday, when me, shane and vek registered and went for the "leisure" category of the hentam ketam bike park official opening 2008.
Booshee was supposed to go but he had work, or he could have flirted with near-certain death. Definitely more interesting than a boring half-day at work, right?

me , shane and vek, aka "bike gods" in high spirits after barely surviving ketam.

Shane is my 27 year old brother, and the most skilled among the many regular biking friends we hang out with. (others include booshee, didi, booshee, didi, and sometimes, booshee) he rides a white commencal hardtail since he is widely believed to have a commencal "face".

Commencal is this cool french bike brand endorsing many many mtb superstars, and is quite in with the bike crowd nowadays. But shane's most important attribute is that he provides the group with much-needed road visibility (read:lights) as he is still the only one with them. (edit:didi has them now too)

Vek is the resident dwarf (he is as stubborn as them) of the group. he rides a dirty-gold salsa, coupled with red-hubbed custom wheels, and thinks of himself as quite a bikanova (a bike casanova aka a playboy who cannot afford a car). His most important attribute is that he provides very emotional outbursts at select times and dispenses cigs on rides.
He currently resents proper bicycle suspension, and safety as well, thus sitting on a plastic saddle atop a ridiculously high seatpost which results in him not being able to jump off his bike during 10km/hr bicycle mishaps.

We reached changi jetty at about 8 in the morning, and collected our tickets which will grant us free bum-boat rides to ubin. yes, just in case you were curious, we get varying boat rides according to our financial status. Vek had his personal registration comments read out aloud to him by an equally embarrassed registration administrator.

Shane had doctored vek's internet comments a week before; juicy excerpts from it include "i love my eyelashes", "fluffy bunnys" and the highlight of it all was his blatant admittance to sharing a bubbly man-bath with his buttbuddy alex on several occasions. (rubber duckie not included)

After that hilarious episode, we proceeded to the jetty, threw our bikes onto the boat, and rowed over to to ubin with our bare hands. actually, we were very careful about placing our bikes on the boat, and we were ferried over by professionals.

We reached pulau ubin at about 9am and rode over to the ketam bike park, which is situated in the central-west of the island, near a deserted quarry randomly littered with human bones and rat faeces. (another manly fallacy adding spice to the story)

-Fie's "I was there!!" account of the hentam ketam bike race 2008-

The place was filled with many wannabe local racers and a smattering of ang-moh guys to make it an "international" biking event. The official race was about to start and they were getting ready to do 3 laps of the ketam course. The female emcee was particularly enthusiastic and kept trying to keep spirits up by shouting "come on, come on, everybadeeeeeee!!!!!!" and "lets go, lets go, letsgoletsgoletsgo!!!!!!!!!"

She must have been high due to the humid and hot morning, or she is paid hourly by charting her enthu-meter attached to her body. If she was better looking, there should be no problem as we men can look past these cosmetic flaws. Alas, the problem was there.

The sun was blazing hot but luckily, there was this big makeshift wooden structure to keep us leisure riders sheltered. It didnt shelter us from the Unbridled Girl Lady Yoddler (U.g.L.Y.) emcee though. We sat through three whole hours of sh*t from her before being allowed to register for our slots in the leisure ride.

On an unimportant side-note, some singaporean commando guy won the official race in a time of an hour and 9 mins? 3 laps and a 1.2 km run. *yawn*

Back to the main story at hand. The 3 bike-gods were ready for their first mass-leisure trailride. shane had all his gear tacked on, looking every inch a pro. vek was looking rather bored as usual. i was just happy we are one step closer to the day-ending lucky draw. I was very confident we would not go home empty-handed. Time to get a nice spankin' new bike to sell on the internet! Cash money!

By now, the girl emcee had convulsed and taken out of action. This boring male emcee took over. he was the exact opposite of the druggie lady. He will drone out incredibly exciting comments like "number 27 is changing into his running shoes now. do give him a big hand." or impromptu party poopers like "yes. eran here just came in 62th place, do give him a big hand." Amazing.

But not everything was that bad. we did get to see two unicyclists attempt to break a record and some limbs (theirs) by going the distance with their vehicle of choice. Thus, the day did have its fair share of comedy. By the way, they won a special prize for their coolness. I didnt see what it was but from the size of the bag, i am willing to bet they got branded straitjackets.

The actual leisure ride was a blur. It was so tough that i think i lost count of the number of times i had to push the bike up the insanely steep slopes and gingerly snail down the suicidal downhills . A lot of time was spent by me just putting myself and the bike aside to let some fake-aggressive "Make Way, Make WAY!!!!" leisure riders, who had no balls to take part in the actual race itself, overtake me.

They looked like they actually thought that they were going to win a medal if they finished first or something. Zooming past casual riders, kid-bikers and even slippered riders must have been such a boost to their ego. Go figure.

hello? leisure ride? need a bong? rent a brain?

Finally, after an hour, most of us struggled through the 10 km long course. we were battered and slightly winded. I had lost a lot of energy racing against this 9 year old kid accompanied by his father. I barely outraced him and the 2 slippered guys by taking gratitious shortcuts and leeways on the course.

The lucky draw beckoned. Half an hour later, we left for the jetty. We won nothing in the draw. I missed out on the 2nd prize by one place, and the two guys that accompanied us on that day- bernard and uncle hadley, won the top two prizes respectively.

scene of the ill-fated lucky draw. And great view of the fellow losers who didnt win stuff.

No worries. We live to fight another day. My dreams of doing the 70.3 is still alive. I still have my limbs intact after ketam. And on my way back to singapore on the boat at about 2pm, my thoughts veered back to the rest of the day ahead of us.

But that will be covered in my next post. Stay tuned!

The beginning of the end.. Which is the end of the beginning .. and ba ba ba...

2008-05-16T04:36:00.000+08:00

Hell yeah, blogs. Formerly known as personal homepages.

Join me on what i reckon might be the maddest and kick-ass real-life "project" of my life. (besides trying to find out if i could become a bona-fide singapore idol a few years back *1) <---- *1 means asterisk 1 = details below at end of post)

It all started as a joke on MsN. booshee was asking me to compete with this BJ guy that i got to know on the bike forums. And no. BJ is not blowjob. his name is black**** and no, i am not a racist or a flyin' homo. So booshee was telling me, challenge blackj*** (yeap, his real name instead of calling him the b-thang) to something impossible, something like the Aviva Ironman 70.3 in Sept 7 2008.

It's a long, long road to the Aviva 2009 for our "secret" young triathlon prodigy.

I laughed, then made the mistake of asking him what exactly does the Aviva Ironman consist of? He told me matter-of-factly. He typed some random numbers that my body and mind could not quite comprehend.

"1.8km swim, 90km ride and 20km run." (mm yes, the zeros are real.) The 70.3 actually stands for the total number of miles you plod throughout this insane event.

http://www.ironman703singapore.com/index.php (the link to the insane event i mentioned earlier, with links to quite insane contestants, which will lead to insane thoughts of actually joining and being able to complete it.)

Now, a bit more about us.

I am 31.8, soon 32, and recently got through a near-fatal bout of chickenpox.
Actually it was not really that bad, and as a side-effect of the fearful disease, i got much slimmer because of it (the 2 month porridge-only diet worked wonders). I lost my age-old moniker "Fatboy", about 3 whole inches in girth, a whole lot of respect for plain porridge, and about 6 kg of pure "weight" (read:fat). -->

The new me have been trying to keep fit with periodic tennis sessions where i aim to be the next over-the-hill tennis star, some sporadic swimming, and quite a bit of cycling where i aim mostly not to crash and maim myself (i do mostly road, and a healthy sprinkling of off-road stuff) with my beloved Litespeed bike.

Booshee is 34, soon 35, and recently got through a hoop. In case you think that he is a circus mutt, he is not, and ...um... he didn't recently go through a hoop.
He loves cycling casually (read:mad light gearing w/ his pushy salsa frame), and sprouting half-cantonese nonsense (old-man wisdom he calls it). --->

Boosh does tries his darnest to remember everyone (cough:the owner of a particular LBS in the east of singapore) who had been bad to him, slippery grip and all, but due to his advanced age, he sometimes fail miserably.
In short, he is rather anal about life, but pretty comical and dry when needed to relate to it.
For a free trial and limited period only, do ask boosh about how he got his XT branding scratched off his bike brake levers.
(clue: hougang bus-stop, faceplant kinda, but he will say jungle trail, manly 10-foot drop, rescuing cute blonde girl named Alice or Lucy.)

Cutting to the chase, you can see that we are not exactly the optimal candidates for the Aviva Ironman 70.3.
But somehow, the online conversation got really heated up with very logical and egoistical phrases like "fit fit man!", "throw the iron-man t-shirt at francis!", "I dont know if I can swim 10 laps without cramping, man", "lycra tights with no shirt lor!", and other assorted triathlete-based gems.

We decided that joining this year's 70.3 is quite a lost cause, unless we wanna end up in a cosy coffin with bulged up hearts, ripped out lungs and purple-ish bloated intestines. Putting our tattered pride aside first, the two of us figured that training for the O.D.(more on that later) might be better and way more realistic in the next couple of months, allowing us to gauge our progress.

I also came up with a cool workout/training plan that will tentatively start in the first week of June and we will increase the frequency when nearing the Aviva 70.3 this time next year.

The timetable will make us train three times a week on Wed, Sat and Sun. The draft goes something like this:

Gruelling Timetable Draft of Doom

Wed 8pm - 11pm, Sat 3pm - 8pm, Sun 4pm - 9pm
This is the initial planned training route (by week 3):
1. 10 laps of swimming at Tropical Spring condo (less than 500m),
2. change into bike gear, a bike ride to East Coast Mac and back to the condo (16km),
3. drop the bikes, then a jog to the bike-connector underpass. (5km)
4. drop to all fours, crawl back to Tropical Springs condo, hydrating oneself from the tube dangling outta the backpack, gasping for air and salvation.
5. wonder why the f**k are we doing this.
6. wonder why the f**k are we doing this again in a couple of days.

So wish us luck ( blatant selling of souls preferred), and for those who wish to join forces conquering the first stepping stone, which is called the O.D.(olympic distance) with me and booshee are more than welcome to try.
There are barriers to entry to join us though. Sorry, no one ever said this was going to be a cakewalk .

The main criteria is that you must be as "fit" as us (meaning: do you have 2 arms and 2 legs with a minimum of five barely workable basic senses?
If you answered yes to the above, you qualify.), and that you can fit into the "gruelling" 3-day training schedule that i cooked up.
Also most importantly, do you have the THREE things needed to do a triathlon? *2 (quoted from Adenan, the bikelabz tech)

*News Flash* : the O.D. event is a step-up triathlon event comprising of a 1 km swim, 30km cycling, and 10km run. (41 km nia, and you get to prove you are olympic-ready. don't you always harbour closet olympic dreams inside that body of yours?) ---->

*the initial training route shown here is only half of the O.D., but should be a good indicator of when we should quit/bail/chicken out or just flat out *horror* consider this whole thing a bad idea.*

So watch out, mundane and unfit singaporeans !!

The "What's Up Buoyz?" *3 are coming to paint the tri-town scene red, albeit mostly with their own blood.

p/s: Can we not wear Lycra ?

p/p/s: Do vote on the right of your screen, on the outcome of this life-changing event.

*1 No. I was not even the choice of three crap bi-sexual, tofu-munching, overaged and underqualified judges, let alone singapore's choice. you dont know talent, man. no, really. you dont.

*2 Swim, cycle, jog. What did you think it was? Rocket science?

*3 Vek's brainchild at a pasir ris coffeeshop, when he was half brain-dead on a monday morning at 3 am.