Labuan International Sea Challenge 2007

Labuan international Sea Challenge took place on the 6th of May at Labuan Sea Sports Complex.
I participated in the round island kayak challenge (50km) in the mixed double category with Tim as my partner.

The day before
Race registration started at 2pm. We registered ourselves as Only in Borneo team (sponsored by Only in Borneo outdoor management company). Our bib number is 04. <- In my mind... this is not good, not good....(I admit being a bit superstitious when it comes to racing number)
At 4pm, race briefing started inclusive of carbo loading dinner at 6pm. good excuse to binge eat.. after the briefing at about 7pm, we were allowed to test our kayaks which were already numbered according to our bib number.
But since twas already gelap, we just did some physical checks and then we were already heading home.

The race day
Got up early to prepare powerbar endurance drink, powerbar triple threat, powerbar n some bananas. Picked up tim on the way and by 645am we were already at the Sea Sports complex, doing some final modifications to the kayak. Since we did not have any spraydeck, we decided to tape plastic sampah to act as spraydeck. coz the waves were crayzeee... choppy and all.. i think it rained the night before.. not so sure.. tido awal..
anyway.. race was suppose to start at 730am. so after stretching, warm up and all, we carried the kayak to the start.

man, the waves were choppy i tell u... cuak gile...

out of the sudden, i saw everyone frantically getting into their kayak.. n paddle,paddle,paddle,they were all out kayaking already!
i was out of place, when did the race start????!!! i quickly jumped into my kayak n told tim to do so too, as soon as tim got in, toooooot~~~ the horn goes.. damn.. those fellas main tipu! belum bunyi horn da start kayuh.. tipu siol...
nvm, nvm... tim and i paddled slowly as the waves were extremely choppy. paddle kiri sket, kanan sket.. all the way trying to avoid tipping the kayak.. slowly2 we gained speed and overtook some fellas.. good sign.. but man,every 5 mins, i felt like the kayak was going to capsize coz again and again the waves did not give us any pity..

first check point (10.2km)
sampai CP1, we were number 12th. placing until 10, still got chance nih..
we stop for a while to buang some water out of the kayak.. coz it was half full already from the waves splish splashing all the way.

we continued to kayak and were trailing this pair of mixed double. kejar punya kejar... after my arms da kebas, i saw them sticking up their paddle (its a sign to notify the rescues that they wanted out). they're giving up! one down, just one more to go n we're in the top 10~

semangat membara punya membara, apparently the waves pun makin membara.. at a point i thought, wow, ni mcm tsunami punya waves laaa... n sure enough, that big bad wave toppled our kayak over.. we capsized! n the worst part, we were right outside the gulf.. in the middle of the sea, far from shore!
we did TRY so many times to climb back into the kayak in hopes to paddle to the shore n buang all the air, n then continue the race.. but everytime i managed to climb ontop of it, the big bad waves datang n penuhkan the kayak.. i mean like EVERYTIME. so after about 20 times trying, penat daaa... tgk jam, twas already an hour! n what do we see after an hour??? another mixed team kayak passed us by.. dem... sempat jugak korang catch up.
sedey mmg sedey tp semangat nk teruskan race still there.. kiasu la katakan.. after a while, sebab dah sejam dlm air dipukul ombak, the shore was within reach.. swimming and towing the kayak to shore was a hell of a task.. penat siot. mcm2 swim style pun kuar.. dgn one hand pegang paddle, one hand on kayak, mmg harapkan kaki paddling.. penat2....
smp shore, there were guys helping us buang the air.. and then rupenye.. depan n blakang of the kayak berloBANG *&%^$#&#*!!!! so that was the end of the race for us...

we were dissappointed at the fact that we could've finish the race and get a placinng if not for the stoopid kayak.. but then again,dah naseb.. (i think its the number 04) bad luck.. bad luck....

"Makin gemuk, makin gemuk!"

A colleague said he hadn't seen me in a while and already, he said " aku nampak badan nko mcm makin gemuk, makin gemuk je" he used the word 'gemuk' twice in a sentence! man, i've gotta start doing something.

i browsed through www.runnersworld.com to personalize my 11week training program... because, besides the fact that I have some salvation to do to my fat-ass, I am also planning to join these races:

14-15 July: Johor Eco Challenge
21-22 July: PD triathlon
28-29 July: Raja Melewar International challenge
11-12 Aug: Perak Orienteering Challenge
18-19 Aug: Perak Nature Quest
25-26 Aug: Perhentian Island Outdoor Quest
21-25 Oct: Kedah Eco Championship