bang saen, Thailand Trip

Last Friday, I flew to Thailand again! My 3rd (or fourth perhaps, I suddenly remembered a pic of me and my mom when I was 3/4) to this Negara Gajah Putih.

I planned this trip in mid 2018, when I wanted to shape my body again with a mission! Hahahahah. I decided to cross another long pending bucket list back to Triathlon Race in an Ironman 70.3 Format!

of courseee….with beloved friends from Bintaro Trojan Runners, who elssseeee?

Arrived at the airport, lapor bea cukai karena bawa sepeda, supaya ngga masalah pas pulang, then off we go….

We arrived at Shuvarnabhumi Airport around noon, it’s my first time entering this country via this airport. A bit chaostic but no blowing horn took place (riwereh banget, tapi ngga resek klakson klakson) .

Pak Bagus already arranged pick up serviced with a rented van that cost Baht 2000 one way.

PS : if i wrote down expenses, my purpose is to give the readers how much will it cost! Not brangging how much money I have and spent!

Bangsaen trip took approx 1hr from the airport. We stayed at the new Wheeler Bed an Bike Hotel. A bike theme hotel.

The exterior

It even has a bike holder in each room.

Shortly after we arrived at the hotel, we went to the venue with a shuttle services, Race Package pick up.

Since Ironman event had been on my bucket list for quite a while, seeing finally my name on Name of Athletes made me sooooooooo HAPPY!!!! Until I realize I signed with nama yang kebalik. Whatever! Lagi ngigo kayaknya! Hahaha

I always wanted to pose like this!! Like those triathelte whose account I followed on Instagram.

 

 

 

Also bought some merchandise, and else. Spent the rest of the day by leyeh leyeh. Nope, we build our bike. 😉

Saturday, 23rd Feb

After we had breakfast, Vitri, Iwe, Sunu, Alvin and I tested the bike route, we can also figure out wehter  our bike works well or not.

Gee, I feel like sooo damn keren, since Bisa sepedahan di luar negeri! Jiahahahhahaha. #bahagiaitureceh

Back to hotel, changed our clothes since we wanted to do swimming test.

I decided to use contact lens again since I do need sunglasses! Damn hot! I haven’t using ones since a year ago. I borrowed my sister sunnies, as I lost mine 😀

I never did open water training for this race, and Bang Saen’s wave is soooo….scary!

The water was very choppy, it was hard for me to move! I checked my Garmin. I swam for almost 1K with a very slow pace.

The current was so strong! I was dumbfounded, seems there’s no way I could swim 1900m (may be more) in 1 hour 10 min! I texted my sister, bisa selesai renang gw dah bahagia deh! Serem bener lautnya.

We had lunch near by and I think Thailand food is the most delicious food in the world after, of course, Indonesian Food!

Its pad thai was soo tasty! Lecker

 

The Name of the Restaurant

This city is quite. Macam Anyer kali ya, the city where Bangkok people came for weekend.

The Intersection for Running Leg

I wonder what people of Bang Saen do for Living. At 2 pm, I ride back to venue area alone. Others took nap.This is my first individual Half Ironman Race ( it was a relay when I did Bintan) also I took my bike to transition area and collected my timing chip.

with volunteers

I love seeing my names on screen 😉

Thai people have limited English, yet they eager to help. I took pose with the volunteer.

Race Briefing

I also did Transition Touring, so I can figure out where the swim/ bike/ run in and out. I highly suggest you guys do it, especially this is your virgin IM race.

I went back to hotel to take nap back to venue. We decided to Have dinner in Mall, although race organizer provide coupon for Carbo Loading. Biar ngga rugi rugi amat, gw ambil ice cream aja! Hahahahahahah

( oh yeaaah, anak kota besar harus banget nge cek mall lokal)

we took grab, and the driver was Thailand Muslimah. She greeted me

” Assalamualaikum” when I hopped into her car. She also has limitted English.

Back to hotel, finalizing our stuff again.

For this race, I took 2 gels taped on my bike (Thank you Ashar for the tips), left one in bike pouch, two fit bars to eat after swim and bike, electrolit water in a bidon, plain water in another bidon.I kept myself hidrated since D-2 (which was a bit late) both plain water and electrolit.

To be continued…