In another interview, she was mentioned as having qualified 4 times for Hawaii (and I take it to be THE Ironman Triathlon)....and it looks like she'd qualified for 2006 as well!
Here's another article about this year's race. "...participants from the USA, United Kingdom, Brazil, Belgium, Hungry, Hong Kong and other countries"...
I dun recall seeing no united nations bikers....except for the 11 Singaporeans, 3 Hungarians, 1 Australian and 1 New Zealander! The rest were Indians.
I guess you could count the Hungarians as "Hungrys", as that was probably how they felt when they were lost in the woods after sundown during one of the stages. A rather serious aftermath after a series of rather suspicious events! Now, that's a real story to tell....in another blog!
Oh, and here it mentions "650 km with an elevation gain of 12,000m". 650km? or 600km? It's only 50km difference? No big deal, really, especially when you're on a bike and have to push some of the ways (on the uphills AND the downhills)!
In this write-up, "the total kilometers of the course this year have increased; covering 650 km in nine days with a peak altitude of 3600 mtrs and 1200 mtrs of total elevation gain". This was largely extracted from the Himachal website.
I wonder : why they increase? Hmm....
When Winnie told us what a breeze it was to pull through each day in the 2005 event, we didn't think much about not being able to complete the daily dosage of pain!
What we didn't expect (and neither did the organisers, so we were told) was that the increase in total distance was a gross miscalculation on their part as they had expected us all to be of the standard of the Champion, Norbert! Can we all fly past each stage like Norbert? Come on - get real! Apart from the superfit Indian army folk and the speedy seasoned mountain bikers, the rest who signed up were the regular mountain biker on the dirtroad!
Until recently, I had never carried a Catsye in my life! I never knew how fast I was riding, and what distance I had covered! My aim was to go from point A to point B in my personal fastest time!
The Catseye changed my riding style...somewhat! I would eagerly await the briefing at the beginning of the day, and one of the important things that really mattered to me was how long I'd have to cycle to complete the course so that I can gauge how fast or slow I should be riding - sustainability is all there is to it! Plus the knees may give up half way!
Turns out that the ride briefings in the morning were grossly inaccurate, sometimes off the mark by over 30 km! Sometimes the description of the terrain was off too! I suspect the race director hasn't even ridden the route before!
And to make matters worse, some of the marshalls were advocating the "ai gao liao" (almost there in Penang Hokkien) attitude, it makes the Penangites seem like angels in comparison! For instance, it doesn't really help when they tell you you have 16 more km left to go when the Cats eye tells you you have reached the finish line? There you are....after almost 70km of cranking....you're no longer smiling nor enjoying the ride, your knees are about to give way, you're hungry and almost out of water, AND you have to watch the road before you carefully in case you run into drunken villagers or mad dogs in the dark, or in the worse case scenario, fall off the cliff! Your body won't be found til 2 weeks later if you're lucky!
But then I ask myself : are we a product of a safe and efficient Singapore which overvalues safety, efficiency, comfort, accuracy (better or else I sue you)? Can we not close one eye and take a set of instructions with a pinch of salt? Can we not let our guard down and go with the flow...whichever directions the wind blows? Are we not built for adventure, not tough enough to overcome the perils of the wilderness?
One happy-go-lucky Indian (who obviosuly doesn't need a Catseye) says with a big smile, "my goal everyday is to start at 8 am and finish by 8 pm". Can we not adopt this attitude and just roll with it?
Another's justification statement really tickles me, "we paid only USD300 and instead of 80km each day, we get to ride 100km per day! Now, we got more than we bargained for!" Great value for money, indeed! Hee hee!
Well, at the end of the day, whatever doesn't kill ya, will make you stronger! And to tell ya the truth, save for the incidences which led to our withdrawal from the race, I truly enjoyed myself during this trip!
I say...
"The way to overcome a trip gone wrong is to see the many rights it brought to light".
"The Hercules MTB Himachal championship was a mountain cycling adventure and an endurance race where 23 amateur and professional Indian and international riders employed all their verve, zest and skills over the mind-blowing landscape of the Himalayan backcountry of Himachal Pradesh.
