Introduction to Virtual Racing

It was a little tongue-in-cheek when I registered John for a Father's Day Virtual Race.  I couldn't go past the finisher medal that doubled over as a can opener and the Superdad eCertificate.

Unbeknownst to John, his 5km training session captured on Strava was all that I needed to submit. Once verified by the organisers, known as 42race, the medal was delivered to my front door 5 days later.  Just in time for Father's Day.

Highly amused, Trini and I presented John with his medal and certificate.  Once I explained how he earned it, we had a good laugh about it. It was a great way to do something that was unique without the exorbitant expense often associated with specific celebrations.

Discovering virtual racing by accident (inbox spam) has opened a new way of racing, that greatly reduces our costs and diminishes early rises (we are the worst morning people).

Instead of individual registrations, taxi expenses for race pack collections, double and sometimes triple quantity finisher medals if all three of us participate, taxis to/from racing venues, multiple race tees that often don't fit and mornings that start too early, we register one person, share the medal/race pack and have it all delivered to our front door.

Virtual racing allows us to pick the running location anywhere in the world and preferred running time within a set date frame, providing loads of flexibility and allowing us to run at night when it's much cooler in this tropical environment.

Whilst I get the idea of 'racing atmosphere', I find that I perform better when on my own as opposed to being one in 5000 other racers.  I don't need to dodge other participants especially the walkers or selfie takers.

It doesn't replace regular racing as there are very specific ones I enjoy each year like the Sundown Marathon as a night race, Performance Series for its different locations throughout Singapore and the Great Eastern Women's Run because it's for girls only.  However, I do like the alternative option of virtual racing, particularly as I seek out interesting concepts like the Victory of Districts virtual race which doubled as a celebration of Singapore's 51st birthday (blog coming).

Whilst there's very little information on the organisers, I can't fault their service thus far.  Loading the data to their website is easy and efficient, the finisher medals and race tees are good quality, their e-certificates are creative and deliveries are prompt.

So here's to adding another element to our racing experience.

SwimFanatic Swim Meet

With a good dose of nervousness mingled with excitement, Trinity was looking forward to her third swim meet at the local swimming complex.  Her first two swim meets were a year ago when her strokes were still unrefined and, endurance and speed a work in progress.  

Now a year later and at silver level in the UK STA advanced swimming series program, her strokes are vastly improved along with her endurance.  Speed continues to be a work in progress but she is only seven years old training once a week. 

The race was held at the Bukit Batok Swimming Complex and Trinity was registered to compete in 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle categories.  

Once we arrived and familiarised ourselves with the venue, Trini toddled off with her coach, Justin Chua and his other students for a warm-up session.  Justin has been Trini's coach for three years, ever since she started swim classes.  They have a terrific working relationship and whilst Justin is tough on his students, he's also fair and personable with them.

As Trini prepped herself for the 50m breaststroke, I reiterated which stroke she had to do because in her previous races she started with freestyle first.  

Once the gun went off, Trini dropped in the pool and took off freestyle to my horror.  Fortunately she was in the first lane with Justin and I near enough to draw her attention and get her to change her stroke.  Technically she should have been disqualified, however, as an amateur event designed to expose and encourage kids to compete the judges let it go and Trini completed her competition coming out 2nd in her age category.  Poor kid when she got out of the pool she was mortified but a silver medal and professional pics moved her beyond it to then prepare for the next race.

Whilst anticipating a half hour break, as per schedule, the event was moving quickly and it was barely 10 minutes before Trini had to prep for the next race.  

Double reinforcing that she was doing freestyle this time, as the gun went off so did she.  Freestyle in full swing both Justin and I realised that Trini was making such headway in the pool that if she kept her game on she would easily place first.  In typical coach and mama style the vocals were kicking in screaming and shouting words of encouragement to keep pushing.  I'm sure we were heard outside the complex.

Throughout it all my heartbeat was so high, I could hear it drumming in my ears.  My anxiety levels went through the roof and it was the most exciting moment when she surfaced out of the pool and I was able to tell her she came in first.  Shortly after she was presented with her gold medal.  The excitement and euphoria was amplified and we floated on this feeling for the rest of the day.

This was our first experience in competition with Trini placing and it was an unbelievable feeling for me as her parent to be part of her success.

It is unlikely Trini will ever take swimming to a professional level as her interests lie in gymnastics and kung fu but if she never does anything else in competitive swimming we will have this extraordinary experience as a whole family.

With a heartfelt thanks to coach Justin, for all of his hard work and patience for developing Trini's skills.  He's earned these medals just as much as Trini.

And congratulations to my little girl for such an amazing effort and memorable day.

Cheers

Urbanathlon Obstacle Race [14km / 9 Obstacles]

Whilst the 2015 Urbanathlon didn't end well for me, what with a fractured talus bone and torn ligament 200m from the finish line, it didn't deter me from returning in 2016.

Right up till the last obstacle, I was having a ball with John keeping me company throughout it all. The injury was just sheer bad luck for me, that took several months of healing, followed by endless physio sessions. However, it took me no time to register again for the 2016 edition, and with the usual level of excitement we joined the Urbanathletes for another round of climbing, running, crawling and everything else in between.

Somewhere in my cleverness I suggested we take a seat instead of wait near the pen not thinking how many athletes have joined the event and how many waves will take-off before we get our turn. We ended up in wave 13 and started 33min after gun time. We won't be doing that again.

Starting-off pretty well we reached the Tanjong Rhu condos to be met with our first obstacle. A 6' foot wall, followed by a sloped wall, followed by what had to be an 8' foot tall wall.

The distances between each wall were quite narrow. We had to ask others to move out of the way so we could get off the top of the first and second walls. It also diminished the momentum needed to sprint up the wall. Given that John had to hoist me over the first one and pulled up the second, when I saw the third one, I just said "no way, see you around the corner".

  

 

Sporting a bicep tendon injury from a gym workout limited my ability to rely on my upper body for this obstacle and the forthcoming ones.

As we rounded Tanjong Rhu, I expected to run towards the Marina Barrage but the route was altered from 2015 and found ourselves beneath Benjamin Sheares Bridge for Obstacle 2: Side Walk. Reasonably easy at the start once I hosted myself up. With each section the setup changed and became more reliant on core strength and balance. The last section had my hands and feet only a mere 20cm apart making my body top heavy. I was quite worried that I would topple over and land on my head. So, I tightened my body, hung on for dear life and crawled to the end.

   

John being naturally athletic found it easier and figured walking as if on a balance beam would be quicker and easier than my approach not realising how wobbly the frame was.

  

From here we had to climb 5 storeys of stairs onto the bridge. I absolutely hate stairs as I inevitably end up completely out of breath. It was worth it though just to absorb the views of Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Marina Barrage, Singapore Flyer and the bay area.

Descending the bridge we came across Obstacle 3: Swinging Fortunes. They were swinging alright. Climbing up on the truss and swinging like a monkey was definitely not for most girls. Fully reliant on upper body strength, I took one look at it and said to John, "I'll be on the other side taking photos". He made this obstacle look easy although he said it was tough holding onto the thin rods. Even with gym gloves the rods were slippery.

  

And then there were some more stairs and incline running on Bayfront Bridge towards Marina Bay Sands promenade. From here it was km after km of running with no further obstacles for about 4km. Not particularly interesting and by the time I reached the 8km mark I've had enough. With my energy bank emptied we ended up walking actually I think more like trudging.

We ended up so slow that when I wanted to give way to a cyclist to pass us he said "It's Ok, I'm the tail cyclist". With shock-horror on my face intermingled with amusement I asked "What?! Are you saying we are the last ones?", "Yes" he replied. Well I've never brought up the rear in a race before.

 

An I had enough moment

The upside to being at the end is that you get the obstacles all to yourself. It was like our own private playground. By this time we just chose to have fun and maybe even pass the two participants strolling before us and then we won't be last anymore.

   

   

   

When we reached Obstacle 7: The Network we caught up to a few other racers. This one was my favourite last year and again this year. Having fun on these wobbly ropes was quickly altered when I had to climb even more stairs around 13km mark. By this stage I promptly sat down and cursed and somewhere along the way I heard John babbling something about a Vertical Challenge race. I think I sneered at him as I hauled myself up and realised that clearly my legs need strengthening. Maybe I should start with the stairs in my condo. I've got 30 floors to work with. I'll think about it.

   

Perhaps my least favorite was Obstacle 8: Metcon Madness with its 4 stations of cross-fit exercises. I didn't find it interesting. I can go to the gym for these exercises rather than pay for it in an obstacle race. I hope it won't be there in the 2017 edition.

   

  

As we reached the last obstacle, the Flying Fox, we were given the option to skip it which we did for several reasons. One, we didn't want to wait 20min in the blazing sun for our turn; two, holding onto a rope with an injured arm was not a good idea; and three, mostly we just didn't want to get soaked landing in a pool of water especially since the Singha beer tent was beckoning. We had our priorities straight.

Since we couldn't enjoy the after race offerings last year, we made sure we did so this year sweaty rather than wet.

After a measly 2:50hrs (yeah super slow right?) we reached the end and I'm happy to say injury free. We met some nice blokes from the UK and Canada as we huddled under the umbrella in the Singha beer enclosure. We downed a couple of cans before breakfast and had a great yarn.

   

Overall, another nice event and we'll be back for 2017. Hopefully, stronger and fitter this time. You could say we are hooked.

Cheers.