I completed the triathlon on August 5th and I want to thank all of you for your kind donation to CNY trust and Project Hope, your generosity made my experience more meaningful and special.
When I first found out that I was in the earliest group to start () in Sunday's triathlon, I thought about the freezing water temperature and cold morning winds. Luckily it turned out to the hottest day of the year with just a mild breeze. However, the race was not as perfect as the weather.
After a slow start in the water (I was in the last 20% of my group to leave the water), I thought my chance of beating my three-hour target was over. Although my cycling started much better, the worst fear I had worried about the whole event happened 25km into the race when my front tyre got punctured. I have only tried to replace my bike tyre once before and that attempt was so bad that I had to take my bike back to the shop to get it fixed properly. The first thing on my mind was how can I get back to Excel centre when I'm sitting 15km away on the side of the road next to Westminster. Then I thought about all the sponsorship I got from you guys and all the poor children that needed our help, so I told myself there is no way I was going to give up there. Miraculously, my second attempt to replace my tyre was a lot more successful than my first, and I was back on the road in less than five minutes. By this stage, I was very happy if I could finish my race in three and half hours. This turned out to be the turning point of my race and it got better and better for me afterwards as months of training finally paid off. I even over took tons of people on the running leg as most of the guys are completely exhausted by then and I somehow managed to keep my legs moving. I couldn’t believe my own eyes when I passed the finishing line and realised that I actually finished in less than three hours (still can't believe it now). My official time was (Swim 0:35, Bike 1:21, Run 0:46 + transition).
