July25 - Malakoff University Duathlon (UNITEN)

I wasn’t supposed to go for this event due to the injury that I encountered during the 160km Century Ride at Ipoh last weekend. Even the day before, I said to myself, I’m not doing this, and coooinnncidently, the 1st series of this race came out in the papers. That was it, I was doing this 2nd series tomorrow.

The Malakoff Duathlon series consist of 3 series held at 3 of our local Universities campus. This race mainly targets our young & upcoming athletes to compete against each other with points collection for the champion Uni.

That morning, I got lost. I got worried that I was going to be late. The race only starting at 8am was intimidating due to the heat. I didn’t tell Keat Seong I was doing this coz I expected it to be over in 2hrs tops. To my luck, he smsed me asking if he could come & pick me up for breakfast. Habis…my evil deed has been discovered.

I dragged my twin-bro, Poong to join me for my 1st mini DU. I was still early, so I made multiply walks from the starting point to the car just to carry my bags & transport the bike.

The route was pretty straight forward. Run 3km (1 lap) then cycle 14km (3 laps) finally run 3km (1lap). I decided to wear my visor during my cycle as the sun was really glaring plus I could feel the burn on my body.

Running a 3km for a distance runner is quite painful as we don’t have time to even properly start our engine. Thankfully my run wasn’t as bad as I thought, though slow. I took it easy on my bike ride coz I didn’t want to ignite my right knee ITB again, eventhough was said to be flat (liar!!). The final run was tiring with the 9am sun shinning high above.

I was prepared to leave until I was told that I got 4th Placing in my Women Open category. Right…meaning I have to wait for another hour for prize giving ceremony (that doesn’t have anything to do with cash) Grrrr….

It was a funny scenario where I went up to get my medal, which he just handed it to me. I had to put it over my head on my own. I had noticed the other winners getting a DU bag & a box of Nestle Cereal box, so I stood still, waiting for to be handed to me. The MC asked me to wait around while the other placing were given out. After that we took a group picture. Being thick skin, I decided to ask for my bag & cereal. I was told that only TOP 3 winners receive it. With my face red, I walked away. *sniff sniff*

Well, there goes my first Duathlon (run-bike-run). What do I think about it? I like to swim, so I definitely prefer triathlon. Plus I don’t have to burn myself under the sun for all 3 sports.

Yes, I wasted RM40 for an event that’s even smaller than a sprint, but at least now I know how it feels to do a Duathlon before the big event Powerman in November.