Ignoring “signs”

Bintan Race Report Part I: The signs are NOT to race….

If there were such things as signs for me to not participate in the Bintan International olympic distance race then I certainly received a lot of them. It started just 6 days before the race when after my Sunday morning training session I felt my left ear seemed “blocked” as if there was some water stuck inside. I decided that it would probably go away by the next day. However when it persisted I thought it would be wise to see the doctor. Upon examination the doctor said you have a throat infection which has spread to your inner ear causing inflammation and therefore partial deafness. I was stunned, just 5 days before my race! However I reflected on the previous week’s training where i had done a 5 hour brick session far over what was on my plan and feeling incredibly tired as a result. I had probably caught something during my weakened post training state. So the doctor prescribed 7 days of antibiotics but said that if my ear returned to normal by Friday then I would be able to participate.

The week rushed by and my ear improved. Yes, i was back on track! So Thursday evening i packed my bags and was all ready to go first thing 5AM Friday morning. I was flying Mandala Airlines (but on a Tiger codeshare) but my ticket did not indicate which terminal so we headed to terminal 1 because Mandala flights typically leave from there. Wrong! That was domestic. So off we went to terminal 2. Wrong again! Terminal 3! Arriving finally at the correct terminal i rushed inside with less than an hour to take off. Bags checked in i was at least on the flight – at least that’s what i thought… Coming up the escalator i was confronted with a mile long queue for immigration with just 10 minutes to boarding I’ll never make it I thought – so i walked up to the front and asked the immigration officer if i could skip. He looked surprised and told me to go to the back. Fortunately, an Air Asia flight had a group of travelers who had yet to board as well and they called for all passengers to come up and cut through. I followed the crowd and again fluked an entry.

However my last and final sign was upon race registration. Looking through the list I couldn’t find my name in the race list so i thought there must be some mistake. So i looked through my emails but yet failed to find any race registration! I suddenly thought could it be possible that I had convinced my group of 3 other friends to all sign up for the race and yet forget to register myself?! I could think of only one option – plead to the race directors! Fortunately they had some spare entries and allowed me to do an on spot entry.

So despite these multiple signs to NOT race I managed to muddle my way through them. What was my lesson? Well, firstly if you want something enough then you’ll find all and any ways to get there. and 2? Be a lot more organized!! A good race starts with good prep! – which in this case all materialized from my training preparation not my organizational preparation – read on to part II for my overview of the race: