5-5-09 Part 1

Please excuse my poor Engrish when you see improper Engrish, I'm Chinese after all.....

Whelp i knew i should of blogged about my first time ever experience in a triathlon event. Sadly, i was too tired to blog or do anything productive, after returning home from an exhausting event but still fun. Where should i start?!? i guess I'll just have to start from the night before the race.

Saturday night:

As 8pm was approaching, when the sun sets, the sun light begun to dim. Before returning to the camp, Ramon and I headed down to the festival for some dinner and dessert. Just before we were about to return back to the camp, I got me some Gelato w/waffle cone(Chocolate chip mint+ reeses' pieces peanut butter flavor), i wanted it so badly because I've never had an ice-cream in the middle of no where, better yet in a desert. But what can I say, it makes a good "final meal", if anything had happened during the race. Anyhow, after some late night snack, we head back to the camp by hopping back into the transportation bus, it brought us back to the camp site which was half a mile away from the festival(steep hills). As we got back to the camp, the sun was down and the sky was pitch dark. As soon as we arrive back to the tent, we all went to sleep quite early, about 9pm. Although we all tried to sleep early, no one was able to fall asleep because we were all extremely nervous about tomorrow's race. But with 3 hours of good music, from my ipod, my eyes finally laid to rest and my mind fell into a deep coma.



Sunday mourning:

Holy shiznit!?!? It's race day which I've been anticipating for months, hoping all of those hard weeks of training would pay off. So i got up at 6:30 in the mourning but the race does not start until 9am. Quickly i washed my face and got suited up into my race gears, ate a cliff bar and orange juice for breakfast, then headed off to the race zone. As Tony and I walk our bikes to the slope of the hill, i was having all types of feelings in my head and stomach; butterfly, joyful, legend in the making. As we rode down the steep hill, my nervousness went away when i saw the spectacular scenery which no words can describe. The sun was rising below the lake and the rich green mountains on both sides. It an unbelievable sight, you must be there to understand what I've experienced, from the smell of the trees to the sight of divine clarity. As we came closer to transition area, i was just full of myself when i had the thought of "legend in the making", when i saw +3500 participants packed in the transition area, which was like a typical size of a Walgreen store. The transition area is where we strip from our wet suit onto our bike and where we hop off from our bikes and onto our running shoes, and where we place all our race gear for that day's event. As 9am was approaching, i strapped on my wet suit, cap,goggles,and ear plugs. There i go, off to the start, below the massive Avia Wildflower balloon.


At the start 9:10am Light Blue cap 3rd wave

The countdown on the microphone and the +1000s of spectators 10...9....5....4....3....2...1.....bBoOoGgG(sound of the air horn)



After the air horn went off, competitors jump, ran, and roared into the water. Hands and feet were flying all over the place. There we go, off the starting line. The start was intense, all of the swimmers had the mentality of a warrior and no way in hell could anybody stop them. Everyone swam as hard as they could, some were ahead, while others were behind, like myself. But we were all swimming in a pack, until the half mile point, where everyone swam at their own pace/rhythm which help kept our breathing at a consistent and comfortable pace. By the time of the half mile point, my arms were already getting tired. During the swim, all i saw under the water through my goggles where algae, just chunks of algae rushing pass my goggles. It made me nervous at the start because i didn't want to get sick from accidentally drinking the dirty lake water. While i was getting tired from swimming, i took my mind off the mentality of swimming by thinking about my baby cousins(still swimming physically); Ceres, Belle,Paypay, and Dada. The thoughts of my baby cousins help calm my nerves, just thinking about the good times we had. Somehow, these thoughts made me think about my entire childhood and high school memories, like a flash back of my entire life. Also it made me thought about why am i doing what i'm doing, swimming in a dirty ass lake. I guess these types of moment really exist, having strange thoughts when you're doing extreme sports, where fatal accidents can occur at anytime.



With all them strange thoughts in my head, i came back to realization as soon as i lift up my head to see where i was at. Then it struck me, i went off course a little, i knew i was off course because i was a bit far from the buoys and i was away from the pack. Buoys where those orange float's that were used to map out the swimming course. At that moment in my head, i was like "this is hella embarrassing". Then of course i swam back onto the course. Slowly but surely I looped around the last buoy before heading back to shore, which was still a little less than half a mile away from where i was located. At this moment, my arms were slowly giving up on me so i had to use more leg strength, usually swimmer use only their arms to swim. Finally,10 minutes after the last buoy, i heard cheering and all types of hollering. All i heard throughout the first half of the swimming portion was splashing and loud breathing. Those rowdy noises only meant one thing, I'm almost back to the shore and close to finishing the swimming portion. It was such a relief to finally hear civilization calling again, their cheering voices got my adrenaline's pumping again. As a result, i begun to swim faster than my regular pace, as i came closer and closer to the big ol lovely orange balloons. So I was just a few more strokes away. There I was, looking through my goggles and saw the slope of the concrete shore. Finally i was back on the edge of the earth, so happy that i forgot how hard it was to run out of the water. Now getting out of the lake, using all my might to take off half of the wetsuit, at the same time running back to the transition zone. While i was running on the slope, with my mind still somewhat displaced from the swim, the cheering got louder and louder, as i distanced from the shore. And then names were hollered, then someone yelled my name, "DANNY!?!?". Initially i ignored it because i thought it was for someone else, but I heard the name Danny being yelled a few more times. I turned towards the direction to whomever was hollering my name. Then to my left, i see Ramon doing all types of movements to capture my attention. Then and there, pictures of myself was being snapped and i reacted by throwing up a peace sign.



to be continue........(busy with school work)

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It's Cinco de Mayo,but i'm reppin China to the fullest!?!? Go Beijing!?!