My Journey from a Noob to Half Ironman Triathlete
From 5 km race finisher to Half Ironman — 2 km, 90 km, and 21 km triathlete
(After barely finishing 5 km race)
Me: How do I run marathon?
My big sister: Siao!! You could barely even did the 5 km, now you wanted to do 43 km. Not possible!
In 2012, I was a typical unsporty geek who always avoided sports — I was always picked last for basketball during high school. I was 17 but I looked like 30. I had beer belly when I was not even old enough to drink alcohol. I loathed exercising and walking — I commuted everywhere in Jakarta with a private car.
Fast forward to 7 years later, in 2019, I finished my journey as a half ironman (113) triathlete. I did not win, I am probably just an average. However, the result is nothing, the journey is: the gratitude I felt to God and my comrades who incessantly push me towards the finishing line and make me the way I am today.
Today, I would like to share to you about my triathlon journey where I learn how to gratify God, fight failures, and achieve my goal.
The Beginning: My Rebellious Self
I was never the popular kids at school. I had a severe acne problem So much that my skin always peeled off with brightening red. I also had a very big belly and unsporty looks as you can see me at my picture in 2012.
Because of this, my school mates always called me “Kapak Merah” which means The Red Axe — it was a syndicate of criminals who stole cars and looted houses.
I really hated it because it made me overly conscious about my appearance.
But what I lacked in appearance, I made it up with my studies. I studied so hard that my parents asked me to chill and play games (True Story!). Because of this, I had become one of the top students at high school and received respects from my peers who asked me on certain test and homework materials. The “Kapak Merah” nickname became a pride to me — as the fighter and the rebel who triumphs against all odds.
Once I graduated highschool in 2012, I came to Singapore to study. I stayed with my sister who guided me to survive in Singapore.
These were my turning points to overcome challenges and turned weaknesses into strengths.
The Starting Point: Running
One day, my sister’s boyfriend (now husband) Jeff, asked me to join him for a 5 km run. At the first thought, I was scared — of judgment, what if I just dropped and embarrassed myself in front of all runners. It is like declaring your weakness in public. But, I remembered “Kapak Merah” and I decided to not run away and give it a shot.
When the race started, I ran, but soon run out of energy. By the end of 3 km, I was panting and desperate just to reach the finish line. I felt myself burnt with the glare of all the passing by runners to seemingly judge how weak I am. Because of this, I cursed my weakness.
After the finishing line, I broke down like a puppet with broken string. I was thankful to finally learn how weak I was but still persevered to finish the 5 km challenge. Most importantly, I learnt to open my eyes.
After that, I prayed to God. Within a few words of prayers, my heart changed from embarrassment to encouragement, from feeling of disgrace to pride, from helplessness to hope.
The moment I was back from home. I asked my sister.
How do I run marathon?
To which, my sister answered:
Siao!! You could barely even did the 5 km, now you wanted to do 43 km. Not possible!
My logic agreed but my heart was burning with denial. I prayed to God and I embarked on my journey to run incrementally miles by miles.
The Achievement: Marathon accomplished!
I started signing up for races — from 5 km then proceed to 10 km, 21 km and eventually marathon distance 43 km. I started running 3–5 days every week for a minimum an hour. To avoid getting bored with running, I started to swim and train my physical strengths to improve my breathing and posture.
Soon this has become a habit; I stopped eating junk food and grew to hate it, I started running and cycling to relax from work and school. I started dreaming for my next tougher races.
I started looking for a running community that I could share my commitment with. I experienced the camaraderie and guidance to run from veterans. I also had a gym buddy who always persevere together to achieve a physical goal — dorrito projects (triangle upper body with six packs ) :).
The rest was history. Fast forward to 2017, I finally joined my first marathon in Singapore. It was hard — I hit the dreaded wall in km 30 and could only walk after. But, every time I wavered, I remembered all my trainings and all of the encouragements I received. Soon, my fear dissipated and I focused on matching my steps with the surrounding runners in unison and bathed on the beautiful moon light. Finally, after 5 years of commitment, I finished 43 km marathon for the first time in my life.
The Transition: from Running to Cycling
After marathon, I decided to find a different way to keep myself fit — cycling. So I joined the Songong Brothers (SB) cycling group which I knew from my church. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Together, we went for RTI (Round The Island) trips on Saturdays. From them, I received knowledge which got me further hooked into cycling. The more I learnt, the more cycling fascinated me.
It did not take long before I started participating into cycling tours . One time, I cycled to Batam for 100 km within half a day. Another time, I cycled 400 km around Netherlands coast with a touring bike. It was not easy, but it was fun. I got many compliments from my airbnb hosts that I embody the spirit of the Dutch in which I joked I came from Indonesia (140+ years of Dutch colony).
With growing fascination in running, swimming, and cycling, I decided it is logical to go for triathlon. I found Iman and Chi Eng from the SB group to train together. Both of whom had become my precious mentors and comrades in the journey ahead.
The Last Destination: Half Ironman Triathlon!
To train for triathlon was tough… I used every occasions outside work for swimming and running which easily took 2 hours minimum each day. I started my morning runs and cyclings as early as 5 am. In the weekend, we would do a brick session — I would cycle to Sentosa, swim at the open water, run, then cycle back home.
Breaking these tasks down, I started participating with a sprint distance, standard, extended, and finally half ironman distance triathlon.
Fast forward to 2019, I had accomplished my biggest dream which was to run my first Half Ironman (113 km — 2 km swimming, 90 km cycling, 21 km running) at Desaru Malaysia over a painstakingly — 7 hours.
After the race, I squealed in happiness and hugged my fellow comrades before my legs gave out from fatigue. It was phenomenal.
The End: What’s next?
Now that my half ironman is over. You might ask, what’s next for me? Are you going to the full ironman?
Well I want to, but I won’t because full ironman requires much more commitment to train. Now that I achieved half ironman, I would like to move on and spend more time with family, girlfriend and most importantly, God.
I also had new projects at work and started taking master which sealed the deal why I should not pursue full ironman now. The cons outweigh the pros.
For now, my focus is to have fun joining some cycling tours, pick up different sports (like Muay Thai), and keep myself fit. That is enough for me :)
Conclusion
Looking back, I would never have imagined in my wildest imagination to achieve this. I have grown to be more committed, more disciplined, and more thankful from this journey.
There were many occasions where I wanted to give up. But I always told myself to have fun. Through this challenge, I enjoyed learning from my mentors and challenging myself.
I thanked God to allow me for the opportunity to experience this.Without all of the support and encouragement , I would not even make the decision to pass the 5 km mark and remained the ugly and not the rebellious “Kapak Merah”.
What do I learn about setting up goals
Here are a few learning points that I learnt which you could implement right away to any of your goal settings:
- Break down your big goals and keep moving forward. When you aim for marathon, aim to finish small:10 km, 21 km then eventually full marathon.
- Engage in a community. You can go fast by yourself, but you go far with people who want you to succeed.
- Prepare well. Train and follow your commitment. This will help you when you ponder of quitting.
- Have fun. Find ways to make it fun. Come up with mini challenges such as: if I can finish 10 km I will treat myself sushi. This will go a long way to make you stick for your commitment
- Pray. After you have prepared your best. Leave it to God to lead you into success. If you fail, think about it as God’s plan to grow and set you up for future successes.
I’ll pray and hope you achieve your goals.
About the Author
Vincent Tatan is a Data and Technology enthusiast with relevant working experiences from Visa Inc. and Lazada to implement microservice architectures, business intelligence, and analytics pipeline projects.
Vincent is a native Indonesian with a record of accomplishments in problem solving with strengths in Full Stack Development, Data Analytics, and Strategic Planning.
He has been actively consulting SMU BI & Analytics Club, guiding aspiring data scientists and engineers from various backgrounds, and opening up his expertise for businesses to develop their products .
Please reach out to Vincent via LinkedIn , Medium or Youtube Channel
