Ironman 70.3 Desaru Coast

A full Ironman has a distance of 3.8Km swimming, 180km riding and 42.195km ( aka Full Marathon) running. It is really no joke, would say this is another type of ultra distance especially when you need to be relatively comfy in 3 types of sports or you might face the chance of not being able to finish.

The initial plan back in 2020 was to join the Ironman Bintan 70.3, but due to Covid pandemic, I ended up having to forgo the trip.  It was also a good move as I was seriously a very terrible swimmer not to say cyclist.  I was riding mountain bike ( at a very slow speed) and although I suck at bike handling now, I can say I am much better than before.  So I manage to try out a taster 113 in Desaru in 2022.  I must say that was quite a challenge but I was happy I managed to complete it despite a shorter cycling distance due to bad weather.  Although I must say some what even though I love the sun, the rainy weather for a place in Desaru can be quite a blessing.  The heat there is simply unbearable.

Securing the Slot

In 2023, after seeing so many people joining the Ironman 70.3 at Desaru Coast, I was very motivated to participate in 2024.  As such , I bought the slot really early for the early bird.  However, months later, I receive information from the Bintan IM organisers that they can offer a free slot for the Desaru IM.  That was where the whole going back and forth of arranging the refund and stuff for my paid slot.  In the end, I still forfeited some funds for it, was a bit sad but I guess it was no choice.  Based on last year’s race, the hotels got booked out pretty fast, the nearest hotels were Westin and Hard Rock.  I felt that their price were too high and decided to chose a cheaper option further up from them.  In the end, I booked the Tunamaya Resort, which to me I felt was pretty decent and it was at the beach front too.  The price was pretty okay $110 SGD per night and it comes with breakfast.

As Desaru is pretty close, I am not so bothered by the transport arrangement.  Had some charter contact the last round.  Was quite lucky that this time round, there were some joiners from the swimming group.  Larry, the usual guy has decided to join and also offered to ferry us over.  We also found out that another 2 guys, Chris and Javier were signed up for the event, but they will make their own arrangements.  In the end, Chris decided to give this race a miss and train for the full IM at Langkawi in November.

Race Pack Collection

The race pack collection was held at the Westin Hotel ballroom.  The race pack consist all the number tag and street bag ( where you keep your finisher item) and the transition bag.  Unlike the last two triathlons I participated, there was no basket for you to put your items. Everything you need to change for transition has to go into the transition bag.  Sometimes I worry that I forgot to bring something, so usually I will do a dry run before I leave home and pretend I am at the race and what I need to change next.  I will then put the items into my luggage.  After collecting the items, we had some shopping at the race expo, there were many vendors with sports items from shoes to bicycles.

There were many familiar faces at the race expo and I saw Jac and Jo too who done the Danang race one week back!  Participants were all excited shopping around the Ironman goods, I bought one cap for Richard as his birthday was coming up and one for Joey whom I will meet in July for the Ipoh half marathon.

This time round Larry was the biggest buyer, he got a new tri suit and also a new bike too!  We later went back to check in the bike at around 4:30 PM and had a run down race briefing on site at the transition area.

Race Proper

I had an early sleep after our dinner the night before.  Was actually quite tired more than excited.  Good thing is that triathlons do not start before light as there need to be safety coverage for the swim.  But the bad thing is despite having more sleep, the bike and run leg can get really hot if there is no rain.

Swim

The swim start was at the beach outside of the Westin hotel.  Our hotel at Tunamaya was really nice to prepare the breakfast at 5:30am so that participants could have some food and drinks before the action starts.  There were quite a lot of participants staying at the Tunamaya too, I guess many do not want to spend too much on the accommodation.  Tunamaya was the nearest to the Westin hotel at a more affordable price.  After a brief breakfast, Richard drove me, Larry and Junlong to the start point.  Junlong had already left his drop bag the night before so its just me and Larry.  This time my race number is 507.  The transition area is quite far to the bike and run starts.  But I heard there are worse transitions at other races which is even more confusing.

We had a big group of supporters including Lim Seng and his wife and Junlong’s Wife Soo Yi.  It was quite fun having so many supporters to cheer for you and take pictures too.  The swim was pretty good, it was a triangular shape out, parallel and in.  I did not felt too much of current.

I didn’t realise that the transition was really quite far and after running in I had to run out 300m to the bike start.  I was a little show with the transition but I tried my best though.  The important thing about the bike leg is that you need to have the helmet on at all times until you finish the whole bike leg or else you will have time penalty.

Bike

The bike leg is a 45km loop up to the North and a u turn in between before finishing.  Although I am quite bad at riding, this time round I manage to get the bike for some maintenance before the race and also took a longer ride to get myself prepared.  Every time I told myself to do more for riding, I always procrastinate maybe I just do not have the interest to ride.

I also played around with the gear as Richard told me, and it did help to improve my speed a little but I guess there still need to be more work to be done.  Was glad that this time I never tried to wear the hydration pack as it was really getting very hot.  I stopped at the water points instead to refill which turned out pretty okay.  I overtook Larry at the last leg and unfortunately, he had some time penalty due to rubbish disposal out of the rubbish zone.  There were many penalties which I then realise I have to be careful in future like drafting.

Run

To me I felt my forte is Run, but by the time I start, it was very hot and my legs were quite jellied from the riding.  I knew that wearing Vibrams in the heat was quite a bad choice but I thought the photos might look good so I went ahead , the price of being vain!  My strategy was to keep going and don’t stop.  I thought I will only stop at the water points to replenish, was not wearing a race belt and also I did not bring my water flask.  Since I was not able to go fast also, I decided that I will just go from point to point drinking water.  It was really brutally hot especially at the Ferry terminal stretch, we had to do two loops to cover a half marathon.  There were more supporters this time and Richard and Soo Yi also took the car on course to cheer us.  I saw Larry a few times but I did not see Junlong at all.  The last part was where I tried to sprint especially to the Ironman carpet to finish the race.

The finish was a relief as the weather was scorching hot.  There was a cold water ice bath for you to soak your legs, a buffet lunch for finishers at the end.  The organiser also set up some seats for the finishers and supporters.  I finished in 7 hours 7 minutes plus.  The race cut off was 08:45 hours.  Larry came in 07:50 ish while Junlong was 8 hours 30min plus.  Was glad we all finsihed the race and gosh was it tired.  The thing about triathlon is there are a long of things to wash, will leave that to later.

The finishers get the buffet lunch with some satay, ice kachang.  There was also finisher medal and cold towel too.  I would say this race is really well organised and there were not much of hiccups.  I also did not see human jams and the safety was well covered.  Would highly recommend this race for beginners especially when you do not want to travel too far too!