A "Fool" Print

This was perhaps the night when everything seems to go wrong. To briefly talk about, I and Ka Liang had lost our way on our cycle to Toa Payoh. Then, Ka Liang's friends had difficulties in finding us and we arrived deeply late at the rendezvous. Before even started, one of the bike had some problems of its front derailleur. Eddie and Calvin were only able to fix it incompletely. Added to the woes, there were news of another biker having their typre burst and was stuck at the nearby Esso Kiosk. Thus, the group decided to cycle over there to meet him first.

As a consequence, we were late at our set-0ff time. This time, the route would cover from Toa Payoh, Upper Bt Timah, Pasir Panjang to Fort Road and returned back to the starting point. There were few inexperence bikers in the group, which nearly caused an accident at Upper Bt Timah. Subsequently, while cycling to our way East Coast Road, the leader had made a wrong turn, plus a dispute was nearly occured from one of the bikers with a taxi driver for no reason or whatever so. Finally, the group decided to take a break at the Merlion status before proceeding any futher.

I decided that I might have enough for one night and cycled with Ka Liang, his father and friends to Lau Pa Sat first for supper before going back home. At the hawker center, a lady sitting at our back was furious with the service from one of the stalls, shouting and throwing plates around. Luckily, after a few hassles, her boyfriend managed to drag her away and i was able to have my peaceful "dinner" at last. Yes, I was having my dinner at 12.30am!! :(

After 48 years, Singapore has finally realized its dream of wining an Olympic medal today. There was a mix of anxiety and excitement before and after the match. Many of the Singaporeans were eagerly watching and listening to the event's broadcast. Everyone in my office was feeling excited and proud of the country's achievement. Backtracking, we had came close to achieve this dream in the last two Olympics. Disappointments were met, but Singapore has never given its dream. It took faith, talents and resource in realizing this goal of us and we have made it of today!!.

That reminded me of a book I read recently titled "The Last Lecture". The book focus much about realizing your childhood dream. Back to myself, I had met with setbacks to earn a degree from University. Three times of getting rejection from admitting into local University, then faced with financial crisis while studying in overseas. It looked upon me at that time the dream was nearly impossible, as considering the series of situations faced during that time. However, with a good support from my parents and family, i had made it. Without their support, I wouldn't have succeed as I could be as then. Subsequently, by a stroke of inspiration from someone I hold dearly, I gave another attempt to earn my Master with NTU giving little hope of success. After two long years of waiting, i filled up my application and clicked on the "Submit" button. The rest was the application process i had to go through. Surprisingly, it went smoothly apart from giving up my full-time job to take on the task. With a few sentences exchanged with my family, I'm all set to go and earned my Master with good results.

Perhaps it was my stubbornness and willingness to take risks that I would achieve this little dream of mine. Looking forward, i still in search of other goal to reach. As now, given myself of another three more years, I hope to summit K2 before any of my health conditions deteriorate due to the passage of time. Time after time, i wondering if K2 would be my final destination or would i able to come back after that? Questions will remain unanswered unless I ever try to do it..

Michael had offered to give a ride to the Kallang river and we met at 6am. There was limited parking space at the veneue and we had to circle around to "shop" for one parking lot. Many of the runners were having the same problem. I could see runners running up to the starting point, presuming they had parked their cars far away. PS and Alber were late. I called out to PS that the run for women had flagged off. Instead, she wanted to join in with the men's run. However, probably, seeing so many macho men and embarrassed that she was the odd one out. She made a U-turn and began her run before reaching the starting line. ha.. Nevertheless, she made her way back again... From afar, i could see Chairman and few other Safra runners were making fun of her. heehee.. hopeless...

There was a delay for the men to flag off. The run started at around 7:20am, about 15mins late. I was running together with Freddy, Jimmy, Melvin and etc. As if there is a curse on every PI run, my stomach felt queerly and i could hardly breathe during the run. Perhaps, it was the long suffering of my cough that affected my breath. After intake of water at the first water point, my stomach started to make funny noise. Gosh!! Which meant i had to slow down my pace.

This time, the route took us from the Kallang river to the Open door stadium and made a loop back to Golden Mile complex for two rounds. I couldn't count how many loops i had done, because every of the scenery looked the same to me. The weather was cooling today with little drizzling for the first hour. Alvin Ong was managing the second water point, and cheering up for me. Good buddy. :)

The difficulty in breathing had caught up with me. At the last hour, my pace was slower with some of the runners overtook me. Nevermind, i ran my own race and my target was to do a 1:40. Finally, in the last lap towards the finishing line, i managed to overtake 2 more runners and reached the end point within my targetted time.

While resting, Chairman announced the actual distance was 18.2km instead of 20km as planned. Sad.. Which meant i missed my timing.

In the afternoon, I was sharing a cab with Simon to celebrate Jamie's birthday at the PUB recreational club. Then after, i got to rush over to Mount Alvernia Hospital to visit Alvin after his back bone surgery. Next, we settled down at Jone's cafe at Dempsy road for a high tea before eating up the durians at my place. Finally, I met up with Michelle for a good dinner at Muratama and a an enjoyable dessert at Laurent's cafe. A full day event. Cheers!

After two days of hard training : Cycling (70km) and Running (20km), i decided to drop by to Safra this evening for a swim and enjoyed a good old aqua therapy. I met my colleagues, Shirley and Eugene at the swimming pool. We swam together and i had totally lost count of how many laps i had done. In addition, I took this opportunity to work out my breast stroke and trying out few different techniques. Shirely's friend joined us at a later time, who happened to work in SGH as a psychotherapist. Her front crawl looked smooth and relaxing and i wondered if i possible could be the same as her.. .

After the swim, I met Thiat Huat(Chairman), Lai Chee, Trevor and other Safra members at the club. I had a few chit-chat with them, and mostly my topic was centering on the bike since i noticed that was a road bike parked besides them. The frame was full-carbon and custom made!! Cool!!

Shirley's friend suggested we had our dinner and dessert at Creative Culinaire.. We had a fun and enjoyable dinner where I making jokes surrounding the topics on food and disco. We also ordered a number of Cheesecakes, Baily Irish Chocolate, Pratua, Green Tea Gateau and Judy Chef's Signature cake. I especially fond of the Baily Irish Chocolate cake which was uniquely rich in dark chocolate with a blend of wine taste. Delicious and Yummy!!

It has been months since i rejoined back with the runners at Marichite. This morning, Teo wanted us to do a 20km run in preparation for the AHM. There were more runners joining in and I lost count of which group they were belonging to. Nevermind, we knew each other somehow from one another. :)

The run covered the usual route from Old Upper Thomson Road to Seletar Reservoir. Came to think about it. This was my first LSD Run after the Sundown Marathon. My calves were still sore from yesterday morning cycling ride. Not to say that I haven't recovered from my cough yet!

Once we reached the Seletar Reservoir, Teo suggested to go another further route, running up the hill. All of us objected and wanted to make a U-Turn back. ha.. Chew and Billy were fast and furious today. They were running side by side with the young ones.Moreover, they were at their 5os. Amazing!!!

Macus and Johnson(Macus's brother) were tired. They had lacked of training recently. Johnson had signed up for the Full Marathon this year. We were suprised to hear the news as he proclaimed not wanting to do a full marathon before. 3 Cheers for him!!

The tiredness and soreness of my legs had got hold of me at the return trip. In addition, i have been focusing on cycling and lacked of running. How to achieve my timing below 1:50!! :( The weather was extremely hot and my throat was hunger for water. At the petrol kiosk, Oh bought me a 100plus to share. After" swallowing" up the Isotonic drink, our body felt to be flared up. Hmm. Perhaps it was a psychological effect. For the last 4km, I had managed to finish up the run at my usual pace. Oh stopped behind to wait for the two brothers. At our usual resting point, we were all making fun of the Macus and Johnson. It was enjoyable to run with this group as often our run would break up in jokes and suans..

I joined the rest of the old MR runners at Shu Fu hawker center. Steven(?) and Oh were showing their photos taken at Ipoh. The talk turned to spooky when they were relating their horrid experience and stay in the haunt house (House 1) at Fraser hill. It was creepy with the mentioning of: (1) bed being pulled up and down, (2) clawing sound from the wall and (3) a black hand being spotted beside the partner sleeping. Eerie!!!

I sure doesn't want to stay there if i ever join the Ipoh Marathon.

PS: The banana Custard Bun was good at Shu Fu Hawker Center. ^_^

The basement of the auditorium was filled with students in robe. The MBA graduates were convocated together with the Bachelor of Accountancy graduates. Only the color of the robes could differentiate each of us: Orange or violet for Master and Yellow for Bachelor degree holders. I had to slithered through the crowd to reach the information counter to request for an addition ticket. To my disappointment, they redirected me to another counter where the counter assistant had asked to go back to the information counter again. After a few hassles, I managed to get hold of the ticket and scurried hurriedly to the registration counter to register my name for the convocation. In the midst of waiting, I took the opportunity to have photographs with my classmates and friends. It would be our last gathering to some of them as Marceal, Tania, Weiyi etc had flew specially from their home country to attend the ceremony.

When i ran back to meet my parents, my sister had also arrived. I arranged them to sit at the second floor of the auditorium. While marching in to my seat, I took the opportunity for me to take more photos again. I was sitting at the 4th row (D18) located at the right hand corner facing the stage. In front of me were strangers i known not of. They were students whom studied the EMBA. Luckily, Carol was sitting besides me and both of us chatting happily, making jokes, clapping and cheering for our classmates as each of them stepped up to received their certification from our President of the University.

It was a long and enduring process which lasted for two hours. There was a moment of entertainment when one of the Bachelor graduates from Accountancy delivered a stunning performance of a song. Until the last of one whom received, the whole auditorium were cheering and clapping loudly. Perhaps to celebrate the end of our suffering.

After the end of the ceremony, my family and I were roaming around to source for any souvenir to mark this special day. I ordered a plateau to engrave my degree certificate. Then after, I called my Brother-in-Law to pick us up. It was a long wait. Eventually, he came and we had a quick family dinner at the nearby local coffee shop. My niece was elated to see me and revealed of her dream to study in London.. Hmm.... how about my University, Birmingham? She rejected and still insisting of her goal. Oh well... Good for her!! STUDY HARD hor.

It was my first time participated in a triathlon race, not to say it was a relay event with Gal as the swimmer, me as cyclist (40km) and Karen as the runner. It was much stressful to participate as an individual event since I was in the second lane. Any poor performance of mine would affect the runner or the whole team’s performance. Certainly, I could not like the idea of us being the few last groups to arrive at the finishing line.

After yesterday’s night briefing and carbo loading session, the race picked up at 8.30 am promptly. The relay team would start around 9am after each wave had begun. We, the relay cyclists, were all crowded at the transition point waiting impatiently. The event coordinator had repeatedly pleaded us to move back as we might block the other racers. Gal arrived at the transition area half an hour later as predicted by him accurately. Immediately, once received the red band, I ran towards my bike and cycled on.

The weather was marvelous today with the blessing from the hot, cloudless sky. The cycling route was same as last year except the running route which using the same route as cyclists Once out from the starting area, I’m made a wide, right turn, carefully not to skip and fallen down. (I still have problems in making a turn with my tri-bike). There were polices standing by the side of the road blocking the traffic for us. After 1 km ride, I made a left turn and headed towards the highway, which stretched for 4km. Henry was in no time catching up with me. I was trying to overtake him but the narrow lane forced me to slow several times at the back of him. Subsequently, after bypassed him, it was a joy ride to me. I stick to my strategy and using my second gear of my front wheel, keeping the speed at 30km/hr.

After the highway, I made a right turn again with the rolling hills and green fields by the sides welcoming me. I had some problems of adjusting my gears, especially at the uphill. Henry managed to overtake me by then. Nevertheless, the numerous days of training and riding my bikes had finally paid off. After playing with my front and rear gear, I got used to the new terrain and pedaling at a satisfying speed at uphill (20~25km/hr). On the downhill, it was a roller coaster ride. My speed would hit up to 45km/hr and above. Constantly, I applying engine brake to make sure I stayed at a comfortable distance from the front rider. Although drafting was allowed, I certainly no wish to attempt, especially with a tri-bike.

At 20km mark, I caught sight of Henry. Mike hailed me from behind and overtook me about 5km from the U-turn point. I was cycling relatively consistent, marveling the cool-looking, expensive road bikes beside me. After a while, I saw PS riding a constant speed heading towards the U-turn point. Judging from her speed, my guess was that she was riding at 28km/hr.

At every steep slope, I started to recall Lee’s recommended strategy of pedaling hard, especially to stand up and pedaled. I applied the technique, but encountered problems of balancing. Every time I tried to stand up, in no time, my butts were back to the saddle position. In addition, I was thirsty with the sun kissing fiercely on my sweaty body after riding for more than 20km. However, I couldn’t care to quell my thirst as I was too focused to maintain my cruising speed. Once I turned to the highway again, I could saw those fast-pace triathletes was running in opposite direction against us side by side.

In the last 4km, I changed to heavy gear and pedaling hard to the finishing line. Alvin and Karen were waving and shouting at me. My legs felt like slightly cramp when dismounting from my bike, and managed to “crawl” towards Karen to pass her the band. Total time taken was 1:20mins. Happy with the result. It was an enjoyable and memorable experience to able to ride at such a beautiful landscape. Moreover, not to mention of making new friends as well. :)