vicious babies on the loose

December 14, 2005

Trinerds, go!


There's a first time for everything. I never was sporty in school so I rarely hung out with anyone who was athletic. I wasn't ever considered for a sport of any kind so I never knew what it was like to be part of a team, to train for competition, or to live and breathe that kind of mental pressure.

About two and a half weeks ago, I found myself in a place where nearly everybody did. All right, make that about 700 bodies -- all participating in the Phuket Laguna Triathlon on Dec 4.

I was there to cheer on Jonathan, who was doing the 12km run in a relay with a team, aptly named Insane. Their swimmer was another photographer, Udo (2km) and their cyclist a schoolteacher in Bangkok named Helen (55 km). Udo's wife, Barbara (the EPA photo chief in Bangkok), did the whole race herself. I was much impressed by her fitness (not to mention her calmness and good humour!).

Udo had talked Jonathan into racing as a team. Their first outing had been in May to the Bintan triathlon, where J managed to complete a 10km run without any training for it. I am not kidding. I was insanely jealous, considering that I've been running at least three times a week for the last five years and I never seem to get any better or faster...

I guess the fact that he was a state champion cross country runner in his youth must really help!

The Bintan race assured him that he could run again, I guess, so off we went in December to Phuket, with Serene and Steve. We stayed in a lovely little place in Kamala called Duvbo Village, which had just six spacious villas, a pool and real homely atmosphere. Barbara, Udo and Zoe were also staying there. In fact, we had got the place with her connections, for THB1,000 a night, around S$40.

Anyway, with Serene and Steve chillin' most of the time, I found myself on more than one occasion surrounded by super-fit and determined racers... and convinced I must have stuck out like a sore thumb!

Race day dawned hot and sticky, unlike the previous rainy mornings. The Creans slept while J leapt out of bed and made breakfast for the two of us (fried egg sandwiches and coffee). We got to Laguna in a tuk tuk for THB250. The swimmers crowded on the beach and as the starting gun went off, they swarmed into the sea, like a colourful shoal of fish, churning up the water with their swift strokes.

J and I walked up the beach to meet them coming in through the hotel lake (the swim encompassed both a sea and a lake swim) but the first swimmers got there before we did on foot.

The race winners were amazing. They completed all three legs in something like two plus hours. In fact, as the front-runners came in, J hadn't even started on his run yet!

Finally, he was off, in the heat of midday, at 11am, finishing in under an hour. Udo and I were at the finish line to cheer Barbara and J as they came in, as well as other competitors in their group (known as the Trinerds).

Trinerds. Team Insane. Monikers all chosen for their awareness of how this group of ordinary middle-aged folk must seem to others embarking on something that in its ultimate form is called the Ironman.

Yet everyone in this group completed what they had set out to do. In fact, nearly every race participant finished it. The crowd cheered each tired athlete as they came in, staying right to the end to welcome home the very last one.

At the finishing line, J and I cracked open the champagne we had chilling in the medical tent's ice freezer and shared it all round. Whatever their times had been, everyone was triumphant. The tremendous sense of achievement was palpable as well as infectious: I almost felt I had finished the race myself just standing near the sweaty tired bodies!

Serene in fact was inspired to start training herself, for distance runs. On the whole, we had an amazing time. We crashed the carbo-loading party was well as the post-race celebrations, where we stuffed our faces and danced until the deejay said it was time to go home.

Phuket itself was lively. There were more people at this year's triathlon than ever before (and the biggest group, at 231, were from Singapore). Apart from small patches of rebuilding, you couldn't tell that Patong had been hit by a tidal wave a year ago. The restaurants and girly bars are all as packed as before. In fact, I almost wished the tsunami had washed that part of Phuket away for good.

For the most part, we avoided Patong. When we weren't in Kamala or Laguna, we explored other beaches like Nai Thon (lovely!) and Lam Sing. But it was clear that, as the banner at the entrance of the Phuket Laguna district proclaimed, Phuket Is Back!

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