Racing in Triathlon is tricky, with three disciplines – swimming, cycling and running to master at the same time. Having picked up the sport in a hurry, I have been focusing my training on swimming with my coach, Aldrian Yeo in the last few months.

Given the chance to race at the 113 OD Melaka triathlon recently, this was a good opportunity to test out my swim performance on the Klebang beach in the historical state of Malacca in Malaysia. This would also be my first Olympic Distance (OD) triathlon, consisting of a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.

My team mates and I had planned a drafting strategy in the swim before the race, so right after flag off, I quickly swam to meet up with them.

We managed to rotate drafting but it only lasted during the first loop as I lost the pack going into the second loop and swam the rest on my own. My swim was satisfactory, completing the 1.5km swim in 28:25 minutes, averaging 1:45 mins per 100m. It was an improvement of 5 sec/100m to my previous race.

Going into transition, T1 the area was very tight, so I had to be very careful and slowly run out the transition with my bike. In the cycling loop, I couldn’t find anyone to draft so I rode solo until much later. There were a few sharp corners, and I was glad to complete the 40km ride with 1:08:38 hours, averaging 35.8km/h without incidents.

Running out of transition T2, I tried to maintain a medium consistent pace for 8 kilometers and went all out only at the last 2km due to the hot weather conditions.

Despite the short distance, running 10km run in the extreme heat was more challenging that it seems.

Crossing the line victoriously with time of 56:46 min at a 5:35 min pace, and an overall timing of 2:33:48it was a good experience completing my first Olympic Distance race. The next phase of my training plan will definitely include heat training, running techniques and endurance,  having qualified for the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, Hawaii in October.

Photos provided by Lim Chee Yong.

More about the author Lim Chee Yong started his Triathlon journey in 2016 by picking up running, learnt to swim the freestyle from Youtube in a few months. He then borrowed a bicycle from his uncle to prepare for his first race – IRONMAN Malaysia, in his hometown Langkawi. In 2017, he qualified for the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii and will be Malaysia’s sole representative.