#274 - Wacycles Jamboree 2013

My teammates were all wearing the Tropang Putikan jersey
while Deck (behind in red) & I (in white) decided not to wear
it because we were not in shape - picture taken from Gou Gou Li's
FB account

NoLights Louie receiving the 7th place award
for Women's Category barefoot because her shoes
were still wet from the river crossing -
Pic from Kay Nakashima's FB account

 

 

Me! On a climb - pic from Kay Nakashima's FB account

 

This is the first race of the year for me and what
a race it was! The trail was fun fun FUN! The Wacycles
crew put the 'single' in the singletrack!

 

Start to CP1
Our group came to the race site around 7AM. We shared
the bus with the Husay group. Jason of Husay group has
done a sweet deal for us. He managed to get a bus from
Malaysia to cross over to Sg, stop at Tampines MRT, Ang
Mo Kio MRT and Sembawang MRT to pick us all up and then
ferry us to and back from the race! It was a very welcome
change. Imagine, no need to pedal under the hot sun while
going head to head with fast motorcycles.

 

So after assembling our bikes and making sure that we
all have our own race necessities (e.g. gels, water bottles,
multi tools, etc.), we all lined up under the blue inflatable
'Giant' arch. The cyclists will be released in waves. Those
who registered and said that they can finish the race within
2 hours will be released first. Followed by those who said
they can finish within 3 hours, so on so forth.

 

We were released at 8AM. IronMan Randy was in the front of
the pack and he said that he was able to keep up with the
fast guys for exactly 10 seconds (hehehehe). After 10 seconds
those guys dropped him like a bad habit.

 

I decided to be realistic and just let everyone go. Deck
slowly gapped me. NoLights Louie overtook me and came up
behind Deck. In a few moments they got lost in the horizon.
Me on the other hand got overtaken by a lady in a section that
was going downhill. I remembered her vividly because when she
hit some sand on the road, she started swerving and almost
lost control of her bike. I cycled faaarrr faaarrr away from
her to the left because I don't want to run over her when
she falls. Good thing she didn't fall. After that, I overtook
her and didn't see her anymore. But I was wondering how come
there are roads in Malaysia with deep sand?

 

Ok, we're still in the road section going to the trail head.
This road section was very long and then it started to point
up. I was just doing my mindless pedalling technique then
lo and behold I saw NoLights Louie trying to gap Deck ...
I was reeling them in though. I caught up with them on the
crest of the climb and said 'Hi'.

 

The road pointed down and now we are finally going into the
trail. The trail designer has this 'funny' sense of humor as
the first thing he made us do is climb this ridiculously steep
hill. I climbed 2/3rds of the way and then pushed a 1/3rd of
the way since I was thnking EVEN if I climb that, then what?
My heartrate would be taching up to 150% and then what do I do?
Deck was pushing too and when he got up, he climbed on his
bike and that was the last I saw of him because what followed
next was a rooty downhill.

 

I climbed on my bike with lots of hesitation because the DH
section was rooty and there were lots of people following just
one 'rideable' line. The guy in front of me endoed ! He got up quickly
and said 'I'm ok! I'm ok!' BUT I had to avoid him and I went
to the left side where all the walkers were... and so I walked.
While walking, I saw NoLights Louie come down along the rideable
line to my right ... the trail is still pointing down but there
were lesser people now. I hopped on my bike and was able to overtake
Louie on the way down ... and that was the last I saw of her.

 

Anyway, the trail now is as what you would expect of Malaysia
Jamboree trails. They are all fireroad (jeep trails?) BUT for
some reason, these fireroads are a bit on the narrow side.

It was all fireroad all the way to CP1.

 

CP1 to CP2
One word = Singletrack !
Can you imagine that? I don't have the exact length but almost
all of the trails from CP1 to CP2 is SINGLETRACK! That is what? 10km?
It was the best part of this jamboree! The singletrack was sooo
narrow that I find twigs on my brake levers. I thought I was
already lost because I couldn't believe that a singletrack could
go onnnnn and onnnnn and onnnn. Imagine a trail that is narrower
than what we have in Sg ... the best I can come up with is make
Scorpion Trail narrower, then throw in some roots BUT NOT as gnarly as
ButterFly Trail then when you can imagine this, now imagine that
this trail goes for 10km! Heaven!

 

Anyway, it was after one of the climbs here when I first started
to feel the cramps coming. I stopped one of the riders behind me
and asked for a Yoko-yoko.

 

CP2 to CP3
This section of the jamboree is just like Singapore's Woodcutter
Trail :-( Sigh ... While biking in this section, I wanted to cry
tears of joy. It reminds me sooo much of Woodcutter Trail
which I last visited in April last year. Sniff sniff.

 

I was in this mood while going up a section of the trail and
following one of the riders wearing '46' orange/yellow jersey.
When he got to the crest of the climb, he shouted something
back at me. I on the other hand did not hear what he said ...but
I prepared myself before I reached the crest. There must be something
there that made him shout. True enough, you can't see it from below
(duh), once you get to the top, the first thing that will greet you
is a gap!!! I quickly pulled my handlebar up! Safe!

 

My savior was still looking back and he wasn't pedalling fast.
He pointed to something behind me and shouted something again.
It turned out there was another rider behind me ... who did not
hear what the guy in '46' jersey was shouting ... and so the
rider behind me endoed. The guy wearing '46' jersey shook his head,
sighed, and then we both sprinted.

 

Next thing I remember is that I was thinking to myself that this
guy in '46' jersey is not gapping me. I think I can take him hehehe.
I waited for a place to pass and then there was this very very big
mudpool which took up the width of the trail we were on. I saw that
he is going for the left edge of the mud pool. I thought why avoid
mud? This is MTB. That is just mud. If I go straight into the mud
pool then I can overtake him. ... and so I went straight. Sigh.

 
Now I know why he didn't go straight. My front wheel got sucked
in the mud up to my fork stanchion! You read it right. Up to the
fork stanchion. Good thing I didn't fly ahead of my bike. I got off
my bike and had a difficult time pulling my bike out of the mud.
Heck, I had a difficult time pulling my foot out of the mud without
leaving my shoes in there. So bye bye '46' jersey.

 

CP3 to Desert Hut
I'll explain the Desert Hut thing later. The thing is, experience
tells me that once you reach the last CheckPoint, it should be
smooth sailing from there.

 

But the trail designer must really have a weird sense of humor
because he meade us do looonnnggg climbs, river crossings and there
were still singletrack in this portion of the jamboree!

 

It was while on the crest of one these singletrack climbs that
I went and stopped Silas from MTB Brothers and asked him for a
Yoko-yoko. He said he has some kind of spray instead. I used the
spray ... I think it was some kind of Ice spray. I thought that
should take care of my cramps up to the finish line. I told Silas
to go ahead while I wait for the spray to take effect.

It was around this time that my hands started feeling numb and
so I put the compression setting of my fork to totally open.
Later on I stopped again to adjust my fork's rebound to a
faster setting.

 

By this point, I was just trudging along ... and then I saw the
Desert Hut. There shouldn't be any checkpoints by now. But the
guys from Wacycles must have known that after all those climbs
and whatnot from CP3, letting us cycle through the 'Desert' was
inhumane. So there was this hut where the Wacycles crew were passing
along bottles of water just so we can survive the last 1 km.

 

Finish Line
I was already near the finish line when one kid decided to overtake
me ... he was pushing a 44-11 gearing. I was thinking to myself
what is this kid doing? That gear is too heavy. See, he is not
making progress. He is still very near me ... and then I think
the kid's Turbo kicked in and he left me before I can say 'huh?'.

All the races last year, I was still hammering until up to the
finish line but this race I was just like a cycling zombie

ambling along.

    

I crossed the finish line and I was a bit lost. I was expecting
a medal to be handed to me ... but instead the finish line crew
just put a pink sticker on my race tag? That was it? Then I thought
'What medal? Didn't I tell myself that I shouldn't be expecting one
since I didn't practice much!' ... Ok, so I cycled slowly towards
my friends. Another friend of mine TKL joined us and it was from
him that I learned that there were to be NO finisher MEDALS for
this race! Awwwwwww !!!!!

 

Conclusion

1. I said it before and I'll say it again the Wacycles Jamboree
trail was FUN FUN FUN !!!

 

2. No matter how convoluted the singletrack was, I never got
lost. The trail was very well marked.

 

3. The Desert hut was a nice addition to Checkpoints 1,2 and 3

 

4. There were places in the trail where there were lots of
loose pebbles. The bad part is that these places were almost
all downhill. I think lots of accidents happened on race day.
In my group alone, there were 2 who came back with skinned knees.

 

5. No medals?! Why? I know that part of the reason is that
because of the timed run, everybody's timing must first be
taken before the positions can be determined. But there should
at least be finisher medals, right?

 

6. Since there were no medals, there were supposed to be
certificates showing our timing. I think we can kiss this
goodbye as well. How are we going to collect the certificates
when we're in Singapore?

 

7. We had to clean our bikes before we could load them up
to our bus back to Singapore .... but there were no cleaning
points available. We cleaned our bikes in the big pond at the
race site.

 

So 3 good points and 4 bad points ... I really wanted to 'like'
this race. I'll say it again, the trail was very nice and the
organizing was top notch. In fact, I can do away with the medals.
It's not like I was number 11 (only top 10 were given medals).
However, point #4 above is really bad. Whenever I see those
loose pebbles, I imagine what's going to happen if I go down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



273 - Rule #1

Deck's medium carbon Titus X

One of the rules of racing (ok, we're going for a Jamboree, but

you know what I mean) is that you should not use anything new

on race day. Why? Simply because new things are untested.

 

Of course, this does not mean that if your inner tube burst

on your last practice, you can't change it for race day!

 

But these friends of mine are sooo amped up with this

coming WaCycles Jamboree that they got themselves new

frames :-)

 

Deck's sin is more forgivable because he just got the carbon

version of his aluminium Titus Racer X. The suspension is the

same, the angles seem the same but with the added bonus of

a lighter bike. His bike now weighs 10.8kg. That is with a full

XTR groupset, Hope hubs/DT Swiss wheelset and carbon

contact points. We were even pleasantly surprised because it

looks like the shock was tuned exactly for this frame. There

was no pedal bob and yet when he bounces up and down

on his bike, the suspension gladly cooperates!

 

 

Bal's 16inch titanium On-One 456 Evo

 Now, this friend of mine Bal is the one who committed a

mortal sin. He asked me to transfer over all the stuff from

his full carbon Scott Genius into this new Titanium On-One

456 Evo! The only new things that he bought were a Ti

Seatpost, Chris King headset and XTR high mount FD.

 

So from a carbon full sus to a Ti hardtail ?! AND we did the

transfer yesterday (Friday) ... not sure what's in store for him

tomorrow BUT the funny thing is that according to my

highly accurate heft-o-meter, the complete ti 456 bike with

CK hub/ZTR Arch wheelset/150-130-110 Talas Fox is lighter

than NoLights Louie's carbon Scott Contessa/XTR wheelset/

100mm Fox fork bike ?! Bal's heft-o-meter reading also

came up with similar readings. So I'm definitely not

imagining things.

 

Anyway, see you guys on Sunday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



#272 - Monday evening .....

 

Monday evening and I just got back from an 'easy' ride
in ECP. This coming Sunday is the WaCycles Jamboree and
I am soooo unprepared.

 

Unlike my first race last year (KipMart) where I had
around 4 years to train, this coming race I only had

3 weeks to get back in shape :-( ... and so, I had this thinking

that the best way to get back in shape was to climb

and climb Mt. Faber during the week night rides. After 2

sessions of climbing (Tue & Thu), I tried to do 2 laps of T15 +

1 lap of ButterFly Trail ... and I failed miserably!

I only managed 1 lap of T15, that is
without the hard climb from the Bukit Panjang side which we
call Personal Challenge and 1 lap of ButterFly. I also pretended
to be Absalon on his 1st race out on his BMC by throwing my
new Jamis Dragon (steel) into the bushes after I took a spill
for the ... 3rd time (I think).

  

I called our resident roadie, Roadie Rio and posed this
question : what do you do if you only have 1 month (or less)
but you want to race? You know the answer will be bad when

a cyclist starts to prevaricate like a doctor who doesn't know

how to tell you that you just got something incurable.

   

The answer : nothing much you can do.
So I said, please expound on that. The thing is, if you just
want to race to arrest the laziness that has been slowly but
surely creeping into your brain and body, then the only thing
you can do (with 3 weeks to go) is just go for looong easy-medium

rides. This will prepare your legs, your ass, your whole body

for the battering that it will get on race day.

 

BUT if you were NOT riding since the start of the year and all
of a sudden you woke up one morning and told yourself you want
a medal (Top 300?) in Wacycles ... then you need to get some
pixie dust, sprinkle it on yourself and think happy thoughts
so you can fly ... or pedal furiously. on a mountain bike.
you get the picture.

   

Sigh, so that's the verdict. So last week, we only went to
Mt Faber on Tuesday. Thursday was supposed to be a long ride
(Fort Rd - ECP - Changi V - back) BUT it rained, so no long ride.
I then went for the 2nd practice day of our group last Saturday.
It was supposed to be 3 laps of T15 ... and I could only do 1 lap
arrggghhhh. I swear those benches at Zheng Hua Park were calling
me! I even heard a voice when I was climbing Personal Challenge.
The voice was saying : Come on, get off the bike and push it.
Sooo much easier. Why are you doing this? It's so nice to sleep
late on a Saturday morning.

  

And so, it is now Monday night. Race day will be this coming Sunday.
It's not looking good .... and did I tell you that we're already
registered for the Iskandar Jamboree ? :-( groannnnn

 

 

 

 

 



#271 - Thinking Out of the Box

Jungle Trail in TT

Most MountainBikers know by now that Tampines Trail will

soon make way for a new town (i.e. Tampines North). There are

plans to look for a suitable alternative site ... but I'm not holding

my breath for that one.

 

Anyway, MTB Chatmate Alex sent me a link this morning.

.... and that is why the title of this post is Thinking Out of the Box.

Apparently, Alex and his kakis were bouncing ideas around and

it dawned on them : Why not make the Tampines Bike Park

a unique feature of the new Tampines North town?

 

So instead of the usual shopping mall with the usual tenants

(e.g. Giordano, McDonald's, etc.), why not have a Bike Park

instead? Yesss, keeping the whole Bike Park as it is now will

definitely limit the space for new houses. So why not just keep

the BMX part?

 

So head on to this link and read the whole article. Who knows,

we might be able to save a piece of TBP?

 

 

 

 



#270 - Chase the Sun

 

A friend of mine sent me the invite to this event.

A race in Singapore ! Yesss !!!

All that is known at the moment are all there

in the above flyer ... the only thing that intrigues

me is that it is written there that this will

be a MTB SERIES ?

Verryy Niceee <== Thumbs up and say it like Borat

 

Anyway! Go and like the page for RAD Events and

you will find the Chase The Sun race as the only event

currently there.

 

Hold it! Disclaimer - I am in no way related to RAD Events.

My sole purpose in posting this is to inform like minded

individuals that there's going to be a race in SG come June.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



#269 - Rainy Day Trail Ride

From ZH Park going to Rifle Range Road

 

A vidcap from Ghed's video of their ride back
from Gangsa to Mandai

 

Sunday started bright and sunny and I was actually on

my way home due to the fast approaching rain clouds

and thunder.... but who did I see at the end of T15 just

completing their lap #1 ? It's all my teammates !!! and

they were all asking me to do another lap with them!

 

Sigh ... ok... last time we rode together was last year.

I rode with them for another lap ... and that was when the

heavens decided to open up and let it rip.

 

Weather like this, it's scary to be still in the jungle

because you may get hit with falling trees/branches.

It's also scary when you are out in the open (open space

going to RRR) because of the lightning ... don't laugh!

Lightning is not a laughing matter here.

 

Anyway, apart from the heavy rain. Everything was fine.

I even saved 3$ because I didn't have to wash my bike

at Esso ;-)

 

 



#268 - Back to the Trail

This was taken today (Sunday). I just put it here
because I don't have a 'cover' photo for this entry.

So, let's start biking again.

It is normal for Malaysia Jamborees to be 45km

in length. Bearing this in mind, I thought of starting easy

since I still have Dragon Boat practice in the afternoon

(hehehe) ... But the thing is there's nothing to inspire me

to go mountain biking. No new bike, no new crankset,

no new anything at all ... sigh.

 

Never mind, I have a new iPhone 5 and I just jumped

from Starhub to M1 .... and so let's test if M1 signal is better

than Starhub ;-)

 

Off I went to hunt for a cycling app in the Apple App Store.

There are the usual apps like BikeMate, MapMyRide, RunKeeper

... and then something caught my eye ! Cyclist Ultimate! That must

be some really powerful app, to call itself Ultimate. Anyway, I'm

not reviewing the app. Just wanted a little something to keep track

of my bike rides.

 

I started here. I'm looking back. I'm actually going to climb
RRR which is behind me. In this pic, left side is exit of Durian
Trail and right side is the RRR entrance to BT MTB Trail.

So off I went. I turned on the Cyclist app at the RRR

entrance to BT MTB Trail (see pic above). I climbed

RRR, went to Zheng Hwa Park, went to T15 via Chestnut

BUT instead of going to the PCN (which is on your

left hand side when biking towards Mandai), I turned right

to this grass patch which eventually makes a U-turn back

towards the direction of Chestnut Ave.

 

I came out of T15 via this exit that leads to Bukit Panjang.

... and then I bumped into Sugar Rush Rey with his wife in tow.

After a few minutes of chin wag, I went back to Zheng Hwa

Park and then up to RRR again and finally I turned off the

Cyclist app once I got near this wine shop at RRR (see pic below).

Phew ! 

Summary of the ride. That was just 15.5km ?!
I'm in trouble.

I then proceeded to see how I did ... and I was

disappointed. Not at the app. But with my route.

That was just 15.5km ?! I was exhausted! ... and

it was just 15.5km? Tsk tsk tsk and I want to go

for a 45km jamboree? Sigh, so again, I need to

train more or throw more money at the bike.

Hehehehe but since all I can afford for now is

just this free Cyclist app, most probably I will

take the training route and not the throwing

money at the bike route :-)

Map of the ride. Notice that I didn't get to Mandai.
I made a right turn near the entrance to the PCN in T15.

Notice something in the map above?

There was never a time when the GPS signal

got lost? M1 signal is great huh?

I finished here. I'm looking back again in this picture.

 

 



#267 - USE Sumo XCR ShokPost

I had to nick this pic from ChainReactionCycles.com
as I don't have a close-up picture of my suspension seatpost

 I have learned this long ago (during my RC days). Constant racing

normally forces you to look into your technique and endurance. This

means you (I mean me) tend to spend on just the necessities like gels

and recovery drinks.

 

No racing means boredom and no training ... and hence more time

checking out stuff in ChainReactionCycles.com

 

To make the story short, I ordered this suspension seatpost

from USE through CRC because I wanted to use my aluminum

hardtail more. Especially in Malaysia Jamborees.

 

It says here that I did get the USE Sumo XCR ShokPost
27.2mm in diameter, aluminium, 390mm in length and
medium spring

I ordered the one with Medium spring rate because it says

there in the CRC website that it can accommodate a person who

is 120 to 170 pounds (or 55 to 80 kg). I am around 66 kg, so just

nice. Anyway, without further ado here are the pros and cons of

the seatpost :

 

PROs



1. bouncy bouncy boing boing boing - supposed to be 2.5" of travel !

I used it in T15 and Tampines YOG Trail and you really can

pedal on the places with small stones and your butt will

thank you for it.

 

2. relatively cheap - I get the impression that the alternative

for this seatpost would either be a Syntace P6 Carbon Hiflex

or a Lynskey Titanium Seatpost 

 

CONs

1. very heavy - this is the price you have to pay for comfort.

How heavy? I didn't even bother weighing. Just heavy. Trust me.

 

2. When you mount this on your bike, be prepared to give some

allowance for the saddle height. Remember that this is a suspension

seatpost ... and therefore there will be some sag. So when you are

NOT on your bike, there's no sag ... when you seat on your saddle

then there will be sag. How much sag? Not sure ... there's nobody

to measure it for me ... but maybe 10mm?

 

3. Related to #2, imagine you are seated on your bike, pedalling

happily along T15. In this situation there is sag on your seatpost.

You then see a downhill section and you go and stand on your

pedals and get OFF your saddle. What happens? The seatpost will

extend. Now, pretend the DH section is over. You want to get back

to seating on your saddle ... just remember that the saddle is now

higher than when you left it and that your shorts may snag on it.

 

4. Related to #2 and #3 ... this is not so bad ... pretend you are

spinning. But you are a bad spinner. If you are on your full sus bike,

maybe the bike would begin to bounce. BUT if you are on your

full sus bike, the distance from the saddle to the BB does NOT change.

Using a suspension seatpost, that distance from your saddle to the

BB changes when you bounce ... I didn't feel any negative effect

but know that this might play havoc on your knees.

 

 

So with sooo many things going against this suspension seatpost,

will I use it again? Hmmmm I already bought it, so most probably

I will play with it. But now that you know all these things, it's up

to you to decide if this seatpost is for you.

 

By the way, I first thought of buying this seatpost when I saw

one of my friends have a seatpost on his Ragley hardtail with

a rubber accordion on it. I immediately assumed that he had

a USE ShokPost on his bike. I didn't even ask him about it.

Now that I wrote this ... did I really see a USE ShokPost on

his bike or was it a Gravity Dropper Turbo ??? Both have

rubber accordions?! Argghh

 



The USE XCR ShokPost mounted on my aluminium Brand-X frame.
... and yes, it is mounted backwards




Do you guys still see this at the PCN in T15?
I haven't been there for a while.

 

 

 

 



#266 - MTB XC Jamborees

Rochelle and me at Zheng Hwa Park last Sunday.
Pic taken by Cheryl of PPSg Girls

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to and

there are two reasons for that ... three actually if you count

laziness.

 

Anyway, Reason #1 being that if you noticed last year,

Nusa Iskandar Jamboree was held on February. Followed

next by Kip Mart Jamboree and WACycles. This year I

did not hear of any Nusa Iskandar Jamboree or KIP Mart

Jamboree ... and WACycles Jamboree will only be on June.

So nothing to look forward to ... me and most of my friends

have neglected 'training'.

 

Reason #2 is related to Reason #1. Since there are no

jamborees, I went back to dragonboat paddling. So my

focus nowadays is training for dragonboat. Not so much

on mountain bikes.

 

Anyway, finally the jamborees have begun trickling

in. Yong Peng in mid-May. Plentong is end-May and

WACycles is end-June.

 

I don't think I will be ready for Yong Peng seeing my

endurance is back to zero now. Plentong ... now if you

go to their FB page/invite, I read some one said that we

should take note that this is not a jamboree. It is an EPIC

ride! Why does that make me nervous. I have heard/read

of numerous river crossings and bike portages on the past

versions of this Epic ride. I wonder if the organizers have

'tamed down' the route this ride will take or is it as tough

as ever?

 

Most probably, I will go to WaCycles Jamboree as it

is very near Singapore. So if you  have been slowly turning

into a potato ... it's already 2013! Go get your training

sorted and done. <== actually, I'm talking to myself ;-) 

 

 

No dates on this flyer but their FB page says
the Epic Ride is on 26th May 2013

Flyer for WaCycles Jamboree

Flyer for Yong Peng Jamboree

 

 

 

 

 

 



#265 - MR500 2013

Calm before the storm

 

Jetty @ Lower Seletar Reservoir

Finally! I managed to come back to Dragon Boat Paddling!

The only problem was that I told myself (and a few friends) that

I will NOT be paddling competitively. I mean NO races! I would

just paddle to keep myself fit and also to complement my MTB

training. So it was a good plan. Paddling for upper body training

and Mountain Bike for lower body.

 

But March 16 came and there I was walking the very familiar

route from Khatib MRT to Lower Seletar Reservoir at the ungodly

time of 7 in the morning! I was carrying my old Crumpler bag,

my old BurnWater carbon paddle and I was lugging along

a plastic bag of bottled water and my breakfast. It felt like

2006-2009 again!

 

8AM came and the rest of my teammates from Spanish Armada

had already assembled under the tent which was put up by the

Armada's long suffering Core. Thanks guys!

 

El Capitan of the Spanish Armada has briefed our team on

what to expect for the next two days. We have lots of newbies

in our team and this will be their first taste of DB racing.

 

After all the preliminaries were done, I found myself in the

front right side of the boat with the Mixed Crew of Spanish

Armada behind me. The first heat of the day for us is the

Mixed 'Open' (just a bit of disclaimer here, I tend to call

heats as 'Open' if they are not closed to Expat, Schools,

Corporate or Community Centre teams).

 

From my previous experiences, first heats, especially

in boats with many newbies are bad for two reasons :

first, things haven't sunk in yet and so the crew is not really

focusing on the proceedings. Second, the crew have lots

and lots of nervous energy which tend to mess up the

race piece which we practiced countless number of times.

 

I heard the race official say 'Are you READY??!! Attention!!!

HOOOONNNKKKK (<== airhorn). I started the race piece

but I can feel that there is something wrong behind me. We

seem to be sluggish. The boat corrected within a few seconds

and then we went on to do our maintenance paddles. My partner

on the left (the Armada Coach) must have drunk 5 cups of

coffee before the race because he seems to be faster than me.

Now, my excuse is that I haven't raced for 3 years and so, instead

of reminding him to slow down a bit, I upped my pace to match

his. Bad! After a while, I heard the all important command to

'Charge' ... this means that the finish line is just around 50

meters long. I felt that we were nowhere near 50 meters from

the finish line and so I lifted my head and looked ahead.

I almost panicked when I saw that the 2nd to the last buoy

was still a few meters ahead ?! It seems the charge was

called early. The thing is the crew behind me has already

started to call 'Up! Up! Up!'. Also, we were still in the middle

of the 'long' 20 paddles and NOT yet in the 'power' phase.

Arrghhhh split second decisions! I gave in to the crew

behind me and upped the pace BUT the problem was we did

not train to charge at longer distances and so the power died

before we reached the finish line.

 

 

Canadian DB Tent

 

Hearing Spanish being spoken by lovely ladies will surely make your day :-)

Haaahhhh!!! That was very bad for my first race of the year.

Once we got to dry land. Our steer/captain told us that he has

no choice but to call the charge early as we were getting left

behind. The captain and the coach also filed a request for a

rerun of the heat because as it turned out, the sluggishness that

I felt at the start was because some of the crew did not hear the

commands coming from the race officials.

 

After a few minutes, we were told that our request has been

granted and we will have our rerun. Now the Armada Core

is in a quandary. Just a few minutes after the rerun, the Mixed

Expat Crew will be going for their Qualifying heat. The Armada

bench is NOT deep. A lot of people in the crew who will do the

rerun will also be doing the Mixed Expat Heat. So, the question is

whether to just disregard the rerun and keep the crew rested

or do the rerun so that we will have a fall back plan just in case

the Mixed Expat Heat doesn't turn out good.

 

In the end, it was decided that we will do the rerun.... at least

I have a chance to redeem myself. I should have controlled that

boat as was expected of me.

 

After a few minutes' rest, we were back in the water again.

This time the start was good. The drummer confirmed that by

saying she almost fell out of her seat. During the maintenance

stage of the race, I told the left side pacer to sloooww down his

pace by a little bit and when he did he confirmed that he can

feel the boat gliding along (yes, we talk during races).

I heard the call for the charge ... and again it happened during

the 'long' part of our maintenance. I heard the crew go 'Up! Up!'

again ... and I wanted to scratch my head at that time because

we are absolutely not going to go 'Up' if we just came from

paddling long ... there has to be a transition. Although I realised

it at that time, I didn't know what to do and so I went along

with upping the pace. This on/off paddling (from long to fast)

will produce a bit of 'hesitation' in the movement of the boat.

After a few strokes the boat/crew corrected and we finished

strongly ... now off to the Mixed Expat Heat.  

 

 

Our neighbors, AustCham DB

Outrigger Canoe paddling buddies @ the SurfAid Tent

The Mixed Expat Heat is the target race for Spanish Armada.

Good thing that with each heat, some of those things that I

forgot were coming back to me. Talking to long time friends

from SPC also helped to clear my head. Now I know what to

do when I hear the charge in the middle of paddling long...

and so by this time, I was more confident when we went out

for our heat.

 

The start was called and our start was perfect. However, in my

peripheral vision, I noticed that FDS (Filipino DB) was already

3 seats ahead by the time we finished our start sequence. Hmmm

I need to remember that for the future. That means while we

were doing Power 10 paddles, they were doing more than that.

Anyway, our maintenance was perfect. I had to remind the left

side to slow down a bit and control their exuberance as some

of our crew were fresh. The charge was called and we had a good

transition to charge. In the end I didn't know where we finished

as apart from FDS who managed to keep the lead they got from

their start, all the other four boats in the heat crossed the line

side by side. ... and now the agonizing wait starts.

 

 

The Spanish Armada ladies crew

Team Captain of SurfAid Team

The wait was finally over and there was good news and bad news.

Bad news is that the rerun was no good. We still did not get in.

Good news was that we got into the Grand Finals of the Mixed Expat

Race!!! Also we managed to beat our own time. During practice

the best we could do was 2mins 9secs for 400meters. This time

around, our time was 1min 54secs.

 

 

... and so more waiting.

By the way, that is what normally happens in DB races, you

wait and wait and wait ... But don't worry there are lots of

interesting things to see :)

 

Anyway! The Finals came and there we were sitting in Lane 2

(nobody in Lane 1). Before the finals, my friends from SPC asked

me which lane we will be in and when I told them Lane 2, they

told me that that lane was 'bad'. Now, normally, in situations like

these, SPC steers are expected to stick to Lane 3 as much as possible

WITHOUT actually going into Lane 3. However, I haven't seen our

coxswain practice steering so much and so I kept that information

to myself.

 

In the finals, the common denominator of all the boats in there

are that they are the 'A' boats. This means they all have 'B' boats

(or even up to 'C' boats). The Captain and Coach of the

Armada were beaming with pride because only Armada sent out

one single boat to qualify and there we were seating

in the start line of the Finals.

 

The race finally started. Everything again was as perfect as

can be. The start was perfect, the middle was perfect and finally

when the charge was called, the transition from maintenance to

charge was there and so we charged strongly. ... Since there

was no one on our left, I can only feel the boat on my right

side. I can feel that we crossed the line almost at the same time

BUT when I lifted my head at the finish line, I saw that the

other boats were either 1 or 2 seats ahead of us :-(

 

No medals for us then. ... but still ... hehehehe soon, very soon.

 

 

 



Noriko of Okinawa DB donning Spanish Armada colours.
Thanks to Kei, Noriko and Zhi Hao of Okinawa DB for lending
us their strength

FDS ladies crew

Spanish Armada Coach telling the ladies crew how it went down.

Sharon and Reena of SurfAid Team

Long time friend and Coach of German DB Team

Ladies of German DB ;-)

  The next day of racing was for the Men's Open and the

Women's small crew.

 

This is not what we prepared for and so our orders were

to paddle like this is the last race of the day ... and have fun.

 

I talked to our coach the previous day on how we are getting

left behind during the starts. I told him I suspect that the other

teams are doing more 'Power' paddles than us. He said that

that may be so but it was already too late to change the start

now. I agreed to this and we reached some sort of compromise

that the first 30 paddles of our maintenance would be a little

bit faster to compensate for the 'short' start.

 

The captain took me aside and whispered to me that since

this is an all men's crew, I can bring the whole race piece

up a notch.

 

So with fresh orders, we waited at the race starting line

for Judgment hour. The start was finally called and I was

surprised at the power I have behind me. The start was

strong. The first 30 paddles of the maintenance came and

I did an up 1 for all those 30 paddles. I let them recover

for 20 paddles and then we went for 10 power paddles

again. For the last 30 paddles, I went up a notch again

and so when the charge was called, there was no need for

a transition. Everybody just charged. That was the best

race piece I felt in two days ... scratch that... I mean best

ever since I came back to DB ... and the first thing I

did when I got to the shore is go to the nearest bush and

vomit. I thought nobody saw me but when I came up it

seems my friends from SPC saw what I did and told

me : tsk tsk tsk you are getting too old for this.

 

What was surprising was that although I think this was the best

race piece for us (and we beat our time again from 1'54" to 1'51"),

it turned out that our efforts was not good enough.

 

Well C'est la vie ... or is it Que sera sera ?

 

Stef from Spanish Armada

Team Spanish Armada

Spanish Armada Mixed Crew coming back from the Heats

 

 

So that was MR500 2013 for me and the Spanish Armada DB team.

In this race I have seen the Core Team of Spanish Armada overcome

countless obstacles. In fact, we don't even have enough people!

... and yet at the end of the day there was the Armada Mixed Crew

sitting at the starting line of a 400m race. Of course, the best

ending was if we won a medal. But sadly, that did

not happen ... yet :-)

 

If you guys are interested in DB paddling you might want to

head on over to Spanish Armada's website and check out how

you can go for a test paddle with the team.