KAPAS MARANG INTERNATIONAL SWIMATHON 2012 27th April, 10.30pm: Bus left Golden Mile for the 10 hrs journey up to Marang Jetty. Flash back to 3 months earlier where foolishly, I sign up for the 6.5km swim from the Kapas Island to Marang. After all, I reasoned, I could always pull out since we don’t have to pay in advance. Can I do it? Well, leaving it to the Boss above. If I can get the transport & lodging, then would go for it. A month before the event, all the local transport & lodging organisers were fully booked. Subtly happy that this was the sign from Boss for me to skip the event : ).....the event organiser also put up notices for those not going to give up their slots : )..........then Rhino Jimmy Sim PM & said he managed to secure a place for me on one of the buses : (....so I am going after all..... Having been to Pulau Redang a couple of years back, I still find the10hrs bus ride kind of arduous. The plus point this time was the more comfortable bus that we are travelling in. 28th April, 9am: Reached Marang. Had some pratas with my bus kakis which consist mainly of the hard core members from the TriFam group. After breakfast, we queued at the jetty for our event registration. I took the goodies bag and was at the waiting shed sorting out the items therein. I was on one of the small boat heading towards Pulau Kapas when I realised that I have left my goodies bag (containing my swim cap & bag number tag) at the shed! A sign from the Boss not to swim??? With unusual calm (and gladness as I stared at the deep sea), I told myself to contact the organiser later. If I can’t get a replacement tag, then no swim. 28th April, 1pm: Like little children, the group of us took to the sea for some relaxing swim & photo taking in the hot sun, white beaches & crystal clear blue waters : ).....if only we have this kind of waters in S’pore. 28th April, 5pm: Was sitting at the chalet front office utilising the free Wi-Fi communicating with family back home when I saw a lady from the organiserpassing by. Approached her for help in locating my goodies bag. She came back 10mins later with my goodie bag minus some free gift stuff.....so my swim journey was ‘ON’ again : ( My bunk mates were Dennis Quek (tall, bald with a deep voice look machim like a ruby player!) and Tan SG (small built, soft spoken & scholarly). Size is no barrier for them to be good friends. Looks can be deceiving, Tan SG packed in his little frame the power to cut through the waters at Kapas in under 2hrs!....Dennis was saying that he did it with some assistant from his “3rd Leg”! : )))......both are nice gentlemen......hope I didn’t kept them awake with my snoring! 28th April, 7pm: After race briefing & dinner, eavesdrop on some animated discussion by some swimmers by the beach over the location of the Finishing Point and what prominent features to aid our sighting. Some said don’t trust the buoys, they were not good guides as they drifted away in previous years. Last year, even the motor boat stationed at the midway drifted away too! But Mr.Chan said, during the briefing, that he bought expensive navigation equipment to chart the course this year......With no helpful conclusion & feeling tired, retired to bed at 8pm......tomorrow will take care of itself....zzzzzz. (Waking up in the morning….”Shit! Forgotten to watch the stars!) 29th April, 5.30am: D-Day is here! As we were walking to the dinning hall, we saw flashes of lightning.....but no sound of thunder.......another sign (excuse) perhaps for me to chicken out??? 4 months Ago: So how does one train for a swimathon? Lazy to search the internet for answers, I assumed it would be about the same as training for a marathon run; built up the mileage & taper 3 weeks before the event. How much to swim per week? Don’t know....so I just did about 6km per week. Some sea swim of about 1hr+ when schedules allowed. Since it’s a low impact exercise, figured that I should do my longest swim 2 weeks from the event. So I did a damn boring 6.5km swim in the pool just to be sure that I can finish the distance; 2hrs 57mins, ok not too bad, still feeling pretty ok. Factoring in my ‘sotongness’ in open waters, the current, sharks?!!!, etc.....I projected that I should finish the race in about 3:15 or worse at 3.30. 29th April, 7.30am: Flagged off in one single wave. We were told in the pre-race briefing to expect some strong currents in the initial 1.5km then it would be smooth sailing till the end of about 2km. Glad that I did’t find the 1.5km too difficult and reached the middle journey quite comfortably. Some swells occasionally that block off our sighting of the huge buoys other than that, it was pretty nice to float on the sea under the blue sky. Very quickly, the swimmers thinned out. Managed to draft behind a guy midway and it felt so good not having to sight and relax in the slipstream : ).....then this guy found another swimmer to drat and 3 of us were forming a train line. As we progressed, I realised that we were going zig-zagging! Should be quite comical to see 3 sotongs swimming together! : ))……So I abandoned the train and headed for another group of swimmers nearby. About an hour plus into the swim, I was wondering why some canoeists were raising their oars vertically overhead. ....then I saw motor boats coming by to pick up those who wanted to stop the race......hmmmm......so tempting.........”But I didn’t travel thus far to quit!” Kicking the devilish thoughts away, holding on to one of the canoe, I took a pack of power gel and I almost toppled the canoeist into the sea! It was a great idea for the organiser to get the canoeists to frank us all the way to the finish line.....God knows where sotongs like me would end up without them! Most of the canoeist I encountered were very helpful; one boy in particular deserves special mention. He was tracking me for sometime and told me in numerous occasions to “Sir Keep Right! Keep Right!”.......until he finally gave up and told me in a very nice tone, “Sir, think you follow me”. So off he went & it was so a joy to swim behind a canoe! : ).....sadly, about 400m into our partnership we had to breakup when a swimmer needed some water from him : ( Midway also saw in the crystal clear waters a Ang Mo lady ahead and using breast stroke. “How can! Still faster than me some more!” So ramping up a notch and overtook her : ) At the 3rd last buoys (approx 1.5km from finish), I can hear the drum beats from the speakers at the finishing point and can see the finishing arc! Time check: 2hrs. “Great! So I should be able to go sub 3hrs!” With renewed confidence, I continued the robotic paddling & pulling. Unknowingly, I drifted into some stagnant waters and that area was filled with sea bugs and some debris! Double quick paddling to get out of there. The 2nd last buoy was placed a bit far to the right. Can I trust the buoy? I reasoned that I could probably cut some time off if I go straight for the finishing point. Big mistake; was pushed by the strong current too far left and overshot the finishing point. With 500m left, it was tough trying to get near the beach. It seemed that the current was constantly pushing us away. After a few short bursts, I found myself not getting much nearer. With strength draining away, suddenly I went into panic mode for a few seconds. “Seriously, can I really reach the shore?”........ “I did not come this far to quit!” ………Giving up trying to steer towards the finishing point, I aimed for the nearest beach. Twice I tried standing on the sand, twice I failed. It looks much shallower than it really is. When I finally did, it was such a great relief! Time frozen at 2hrs 56mins! Almost identical to my pool swim : ). Walked & jogged to the Finishing Arc 200m away to claim my well deserved finisher tee & medal : ) Met Rhino Sim at the toilet area, I fumbled for my sunglass coz he was beaming brighter that the midday sun! I can understand his joy coz he came from finishing last 2yrs ago (4:30) to finishing this year below 3 hrs! Fantastic results for all the effort he put in. 29th April, 12noon: Was seated at the bench by the sea overlooking the Kapa island.....”Did I just swim from there?”......quite unbelievable......Then the Malaysian armless swimmer came and sat beside. He was telling me how strong the current was this year. Gesturing with his feet, he said the current set him back by an hour compared to last year. I gave him a verbal pat on the back for his achievement and subtly gave myself a pat for coming in under 3hrs under such circumstances : ) Statistics: Total Participants: 412 Finisher: 352 DNS/DNF: 60 Position: 70% (246 Ahead / 106 Behind) Conclusion: While waiting for our event registration at the Marang jetty. Richard Leong and I concurred that this would be the first and last Kapas Swimathon for us........2 days after the results were posted, heard that they are going to increase the distance next year to 10km!.......; )