Thursday, December 16, 2010

Hazy Visions of Coffee and Climbing in the Canaries



¡Buenas dias! 

This coffee mug has accompanied me for the last three years - over a plethora of business proposals I had to write in the wee hours of the morning; and the creation of this blog. This black-and-white vessel was first, innocently, christened by my tri-buddy S K Lim with a full douse of beer, at a gathering of like-minded, covert, endurance athletes. It was 2007, and Don Ng and I took on the colossal challenge of completing Ironman Lanzarote – known for its grueling, one-loop, 180K ride around the Canary Islands. Don and I completed in humbling sub-15 hours, 10 minutes apart of each other – I pushed the bike twice near the apex of the ride (2,500 metres) as my personal strategy to save my legs. Lesson learnt: Use road-bikes with compact cranks and be adequately nourished. Carbon tri-bikes just did not cut it.

On 21 May 2011, I will attempt my second shot at this beautiful Spanish island and, hopefully, slash some serious time off. The usual suspects from IMWA will join me – Charles Teng, John Cooke and Nigel Chua. Don will head off for his second attempt at Norseman, a cruel Ironman triathlon fate with enough heart-stopping and heart-accelerating moments. Live to tell! Nada es imposible!

3 comments:

Cookie Monster said...

Looking forward to cathing up and to Lanzarote. IMWA sold out .Managed to get in . so 2011 looks like a busy year .

Enrico Varella said...

Lucky fellow! Four hours to sell out. Ironmans are getting very popular. I wonder why? Yes, we'll chat. Harn Wei will be pleased to catch up with us only on weekends. We'll chat about Lanzarote when we meet next week.

Anonymous said...

Let's enjoy the hills/mountains! I am so looking fwd to 21 May 2011 :)

Charles