Mike Chui Race Report

I debated whether to post Mike's report. In the end, I thought his story was a remindar that racing is hard and that the more one races, the more one learns. To still a phrase from a Rocky movie: "You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

Mike you did awesome, and I am proud of you and your ability to find the positive. You just added some more tools to your box now!


Mike's Report:

swim: cold and slow. Got my goggles knocked off right from the start, so i was dead last coming into the swim. Managed to pass some guys on the swim but my heart was about to pop outta my chest. i struggled to get out of the swim exit ramp, slipped a few times and pulled my hamgstings trying to get a balance.

t1: long transition to the bike and i was trying to jog my legs off for the bike.

bike: spinned out for 5min and stretched to get my legs back, but my right hamgsting would still continue to bother me until after this morning´s jog (monday). It was hurting really bad and i couldn´t loosen it up, so i just dídn´t have the power on the bike to chase off some of these guys. Also, a lot of people were riding in packs which apparently is very common in Worlds.

t2: long transition again and i try to not agitate my hamstring and just shuffle my way through it.

run: longest freaking 10K i have ever had in my entire life. i think i might have had tears coming out of my eyes at some point, but i couldn´t let my legs stop moving because i couldn´t get it going again if i stopped. every change of surface hurts. my heart rate was off-the roof and i felt my heart was just about to come out of my chest. it just felt really really really long and agonizing.

Overall, it was a very disappointing race right off the start. the bike and run wasn´t the worst, i managed to get a PB on the run by 20 seconds or so i think. It was still the most painful and torturing 2 hours of racing, i think the only thing keeping me going was the guilt and shame i would feel after if i quit at a World Championship.

This trip and experience have been amazing: i finished. Even though the race went horrible, but i think i finally know how i should feel in a race. i have no regrets at the end of the day. I think i´ve learned the most about myself and training in this past year then all the time i´ve been in triathlon combined.

i hope you two (josie and sandra) got my postcard. I got the flyer the 2009 Gold Coast Worlds, so i am looking forward to make a come-back at the next world championship. Now, i´m just going to relax and try to keep mz bodz healthy. We´ll talk about when i get back.

*CHEERS* from Hamburg, Germany.

Chewz