the day started off looking like it was gonna rain. on the way to the race site i just kept praying that God would hold the weather up for us. He did. =)
the race started off quite well, i came out of the swim 7th in my division at 39:01, with some of the rest of the Tri 21 people coming in just seconds behind me.
A quick transition to the bike and i was off, averaging bout 34-35km/h. then i hit sheares beidge. omygdness it was so friggin steep and loooonng, i climbed it at bout 18km/h. once past it i went back to my normal rythm and pedaled on. i was not too far offf from JJ when we hit the U-turn point, only bout 4km behind. i kept up my pedaling and saw that jason, josh and norman were another few km behind me. i was motivated to try to keep the lead for as long as possible.
first loop of the bike ended in 55:19 for me. with encouragements from lemin and qiurong, i continued for my second loop. jason finally caught up with me someway and i drafted him for a while, then took turn and let him draft. after a down slope he decided to hit turbo and sped off to draft another guy who was someway in front. somewhere on the return leg for the 2nd loop at around the IR area, i saw a bunch of shiny things on the road, heard a "TINK" against my front wheel but i though it was nothing.
U-turn at east coast to start my 3rd loop, then i heard a sound from my front wheel. i stopped to take a look.
HORROR OF HORRORS. FLAT! check the rear wheel, FLAT! SHIT!
situtation was that i had
ONE spare tube, and
TWO CO2 cartridges. i needed ONE more spare tube for my TWO flats. then i saw norman and josh wizz past i shouted for spare tube. THANK GOD that norman stopped and dropped off a tube for me. with renewed vigour i worked to replace the two flats i had (as well as spend 5 mins looking for one half of the skewer i dropped). inserted my CO2 in and hoped for the best. it worked! both tubes inflated successfully! with a cheer i got back on my bike and went off for my 3rd and final bike loop.
less than a 100m later i found out my rear tube had blew again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that was it. i was totally dejected. i took off my cycling shoes and started walking back. prepared to DNF. how unlucky could i get???
suddenly from behind i heard JJ's voice "Jon what happen?" told him bout my flat and he got off and said "my race is screwed already, but we still can save yours" he took out a CO2 and tube and worked on my rear wheel. then we found out that what blew my rear tyre was that the point from one of the thumbtacks was still stuck in my tyre, thats why it blew the new tube as well. plucked the bloody thing out and inserted a new tube. JJ commented he had never used his CO2 before, so i told him that if it doesnt work, i'll DNF and i'll run together with him.
Fortunately we didnt have to resort to that, as the CO2 went psssst! and new life was injected into my tube. i could now finish the race! with much unspoken gratitude between us, i zoomed off to finish off my last loop, hoping that i wun miss the cut off. Thank God for the amount of "luck" i had. i believe these werent coincidences. they were God's way of telling me that he was with me during the race.
blazing my way past what remained of the field, i reached the u-turn for the last 15km. that was when i somehow (suspect it was cause i braked a bit too much) and i hit the ground and destroyed a cone. at the same time i scraped my knee (again) and lost half a thumbnail as well as sprain my wrist. the support crew at the u-turn helped me up and dressed my wounds a little, and i was cleared to finish off the race. i charged back, witht he thought that i just wanted to finish the bloody race. JJ had already screwed his bike timing (not that it wasnt already screwed) to help me, i didnt want to let him down.
finally finishing the bike, i went off to transit for the run, just wanting to do a good time on it to salvage what little i could. the sun was out and it got hot, so i kept drinking and ended up running with water bouncing around in my stomach.
run run run (just keep running and running!) and caught up with melvin who had about 4km lead over me. i finally finished the race after 6hr 36min 35s. not what i was hoping for, but i was really happy that i managed to finish... thanksss to JJ for it. if not for him i really would have DNF'ed. somehow God made sure that i would finish with these well timed "coincidences" Only He could have provided so many tubes and CO2's for me
Break downSwim - 39:01Bike - 1st loop 55:19, 2nd loop 1:00:38, 3rd loop 2:05:46Run - 1:51:30today was when we really saw our the intensity of our friendship during the race. all of us had some trouble, whether it be jellyfish, punctures, or crashes.
JJ crashed,
I punctured (3 times) and crashed,
Norman crashed,
Nicolas punctured,
Josh got jellyfished and punctured,
Melvin crashed (JJ's other bike),
Shaun hit something too,
and Jason got double jellyfished (but still qualified for clearwater!)
it was a really memorable race (somemore my first ironman 70.3) and i was really touched by the brotherhood we displayed for each other, helping each other throughout. JJ and norman helping me with my flats, nicolas pulling and finishing with norman together. what we have within us is something special that words cant describe. so much that i really cant talk much about it anymore, cause words dun do what we have among us justice. 
truly friends are made of these
so i'll leave it as that, and thank God for carrying me through the race.
PS: thanks also to Patricia, Qiurong, Lemin and Coach David for cheering us on all the way. without you guys it would have made the race much harder.
