More than just runners…. We are a family

Singapore’s bid for the Youth Olympic Games 2010 has been made, but there is much more for all of us to do to bring the Games to Singapore , and to then deliver a lasting benefit.

Many key issues need to be addressed. What are the most important ones to you? If you could set the agenda for the next two years, what would your priorities be, and what impact would you create? With your personal passions and beliefs about the “Spirit of the Olympics”, how would you set out to leave a lasting memory in the hearts of all the participants and supporters, both at home and overseas? Share your thoughts on how we can “Ignite the Flame” in Singaporeans; and keep that flame burning long after the Games have come and gone.

The National Youth Achievement Award Gold Award Holders’ Alumni (NYAA GAHA) and PAYM Youth Groups in Tampines GRC will be holding an Open Space Forum to discuss these issues. “Open Space” is a form of dialogue where, under the guidance of a trained facilitator, the participants themselves set the agenda by identifying key topics of interest and concern to them and then lead live discussions on these topics.

We welcome you to join us to participate in this unique event to exchange views, reflect together and, above all, to deliver a long-lasting benefit. Your involvement is crucial in shaping the YOG experience, both inside and outside the stadium. Your ideas and priorities will ignite the passions of the youth of today and blaze the trail for the young people of tomorrow.

YOU decide the agenda – YOU determine the key issues – YOU offer action plans!

Because there will be limited capacity, please confirm your registration by e-mailing ignite.flame@ gmail.com by Monday 7th January 2008 (registration on first come first serve basis).

Greeting all nus runners.

This is jay again and I want to say Happy new year to all! Haha So how’s everyone been doing? Beside aaron, angela,weelee, Dinah, yati, yap, Kelvin, lufeng, peng tat and myself, I have not hear from the rest of you! Where are you all hiding? Haha WE miss all of you! So do drop by one of these days and we can have like dinner after training. Anyway it’s the new year and I hope everyone is doing well. Partying hard at the eve of new year and learning how to count down from 10 to 1 with friends and family together. I’ve got back from one of my friend’s new year party and I was eating from 8pm to 4 am … non stop.  And rubbing my tummy as I am typing this entry hahaha

Anyway, peng tat, myself and some other pple will be doing the 10km progressive run at mr this Sunday. Do join us for the run if you can as it will be the sort of ‘last’ run before peng tat head back to China.

Take care everyone and hope 2008 will be a better year from all of us.

Cheers,
jay

Hi all,

Pardon me for my poor english, if you’ve unbearable urge to correct my ang moh, feel free to comment on it hahaha.  Btw, i have uploaded zhiyun’s birthday photos (read the captions .. is quite hahaha).

Btw, have you noticed that it is snowing on our website… hahahahhah.. so cold!

>

Dear all,

The IVP photos have been uploaded so go ahead and download them! Post all the guy’s picture on the gay’s forum! woohoo. And the whole team want to congrat to sunny and mok for their SEA games event. You all made it to the TOP 10 of the whole SEA! Everyone is very proud of you! Well done guys! We should come together, dine, chill and eat till we cant fit into our running shorts!

 Happy Birthday to Zhi Yun!

We (Milo Dino, willy whale , Pam, mengameng, penal code 77a) celebrated zhi yun’s birthday after training yesterday. It was a rather late dinner (9pm?!) because aaron and pam were competing with each other in 200m. Result: Aaron won.

Next, aaron and pam were showering at the SRC pool (not together pls.) Result: Pam won. (Aaron explained tt he is chatting with Yap in the toilet while showering).

Finally, Race to Holland Village. Pam on SBS bus 95 and Aaron on Bicycle. Result: Pam won (duh..)

The dinner is great and the company is spontaneous! Cookies made by dino and zhi yun are Yummy and the birthday cake made by wee lee is totally fabulicious! I hereby announce that the future bf of our cross-country girls will be well-fed .. haha because they like to bake but don’t like to eat what they made. (weird)

Pam and weelee were complaining about their fat arms….. HUH?! ….. (weird)

ahahaha tt’s all! the photo will be upload sooooonn (*i hope)

You can’t become a winner overnight, or even in a couple of years - it takes time. You will lose races and you will have to accept that, learn from it and believe that you’ll win the next one, knowing that you’ll probably lose that as well. All the time you have to keep believing that one day you will win

-Paula Radcliffe-
World Marathon Record Holder

Many of us think that losing badly has to be the worst feeling in the world. How about losing, getting up, trying again, knowing full well you may just fall flat on your face yet again. And again.

Because that’s how winners are moulded.

Blog seems kinda empty now since the most recent update is STILL about Phuket marathon which was what, more than 1 month ago. (oh, and the SRC still hasn’t refunded us our subsidy yet…SEAN!!!!! *hint*)

So I thought it’d be good to have an update about our fantastic (and growing) running team now.  Response has been good for both guys and girls. Trainings at the track now actually consist of more people than you can count with one hand. clap clap! (pun about the sound of one hand clapping…)  At least now we don’t have to be embarrassed about hogging up the first two lanes when only 2 ppl are running.

For those not in the know, the university track’s actually open to public as well and it can get quite crowded in the evenings during practice, especially when other sports groups want to run as well. But being the school’s long distance team, it just doesn’t make sense to NOT have the right to use the track. Especially since we’re only using it twice a week, 3 hours each time, and only using 2 lanes.  Those who do interval sessions regularly would understand how awful it feels to run zigzag through a crowd and not being able to run regular splits. Anyhow, that problem has been minimised now.

Recently there’s been some issue with timed trials. The coach feels we need it and he needs it to assess our fitness. But we’re all not ready.

But seriously, no one looks forward to a timed trial, especially after not competing for a long period of time. Half marathons don’t count.  Logically speaking, it’s just a timed trial, it’s just an assessment of your fitness. There’s no consequence. You’re not gonna be eliminated from the team if you don’t hit any required timing. In fact, there is NO required timing to hit. It’s just an assessment.  So what’s the big fuss?

Here’s my take on every runner’s perpetual fear of timed trials. Sometimes even if there is no official required timing to hit, there still exists our own expectations of ourselves. Especially with competitive runners - the expectations can be so mesmerising, so pressurising that we just don’t want to face the fact we can’t meet our own expectations. (alright at this point of time you probably know I’m just talking about myself and from personal experience). ok, I admit, I’m scared shitless about the timed trial too. Who isn’t? No one’s training has been totally obstacle free and we all have niggling doubts here and there that “my current form really doesn’t do my potential any justice”. Or, for most of the guys, the timed trial’s too close to the Army Half Marathon that a full-fledged PB or an accurate display of one’s current fitness is simply out of the question. And for myself, I’m still bloody sick, coughing, sneezing and still unable to complete a light workout, what more do a full 3000m race.

So what’s the point of the trial?  You can’t produce a good timing, you don’t do much for your self esteem,  you waste the energy on something so pointless and at the end of it all, you’ll just feel like shit.

Maybe it’s just to separate those who Think they deserve a shot at the race, and those who really do. As quoted from a very esteemed senior, Mr two-time Nair:

(1) Don’t assume you ‘deserve’ to be selected just because you attend all trainings and run all time trials. You are responsible for your own fitness and only ‘deserve’ to be selected when people are convinced that you will earn points for the team.

(2) Also don’t assume you ‘deserve’ to be selected merely because you turn up for time trial and manage to beat someone else, or that your PB is better than someone else’s. PB’s are out of date and by the time the race comes, so is the time trial. You may find your oh-so-fast PB/time trial timing obliterated on race day by the other guy.Plus, you may not even hit your PB. If you are fast, its your job to make sure people know it.

Selection should be based on the total impression the athlete gives to everyone in the team (and maybe even opposing teams. do you scare them?), but more so to their own captain and coach. I have no comments as to who has the final say.

Finally, I just want to say train smart and train hard, and the rest will fall in place. Fighting over the last few places in the team is not an admirable position to be in. If you don’t make the cut, accept defeat and learn from your mistakes, you will make it the next time.”

A timed trial is a means, not an end.  yeah, so what if you don’t clock a timing that you expect, or worse, lose to someone that you’ve been whooping ass all along. There’s more than one variable that determines whether one would clock a good timing on any given day. There’s definitely a difference between genuine reasons for not performing, and merely giving excuses for yourself.

A timed trial is a must, especially with our expanding team now. Do now, do later it’s still inevitable. Most of us would be running AHM, so doing it now would still nevertheless be an accurate way of ‘ranking’. But heck, it’s not permanent. Many things can happen in 1.5 months. Someone could take EPO, steroids, testosterone shots, or all 3 (I’m speaking hypothetically of course. But if you notice any of the girls suddenly growing a beard…..) . I’m sick, and if I do a timed trial on thursday or even next week when I’m recovered, it’s still gonna be quite shit, judging by the lack of training for the past week(s). But if one can still do an ok timing when just recovered, imagine what she could do when fully recovered. OR, if one does a shit timing, it’s still ok, sick what. Anyway it’s still gonna be pretty ok unless you start walking.

Perhaps I’m just comforting myself. Cos like everyone else, Timed Trials are still something to be feared. But maybe we just need to all get over it, and get it over and done with. No one likes CAs but we all gotta do it anyway. what the heck, it’s only 20% of the overall grade anyway…..

Hey guys. Its been a while since I last blogged about the phuket trip. Which also means I cant remember all the small details about the trip. I’m currently at the NUS matriculation fair waiting for potential freshmen to join the cross country team. So far response is very average. Im currently watching the muai thai boxers beating each other up at the public display area.

Back to the main story. Im actually quite bored about writing full length accounts about the Phuket trip, so I will just make this entry short and sweet.

 Day before our actual race. We woke up before dawn to do a little light jog and acclimatise to our surroundings. The team was really happy with the fresh air and cool morning air. Shihan suggest that we hold training camp at Phuket. We did a 40 min jog and managed to travel out of our tourist area and into the local neighbourhood. We got to see locals shopping for vegetables and giant bananas at their wet market. Somehow the entire area had a lingering smell of fried chicken. Not that Im complaining. Anyways we also get to see small little children with identical hairstyles riding motorcycles to school. AFter the refreshing run, we went back to our hotel to have breakfast. Breakfast was instant mash potatoes, bread, pasta and whatever else we could find stashed in our hotel room. Cooking pasta was a little tricky. We had to make use of the water boiler to cook it. Lets just say its a little messy and not too pleasant to look at. Lufeng and Shihan politely rejected the pasta. Angela did have a little of it, but her face told another story of the taste. As for cutleries, Angela and I went to borrow them from the cookhouse. We ended up borrowing some bowls, spoons… and fried eggs. Yeah we conveniently took some eggs from the cookhouse to our rooms to eat. Shihan laughed. Lufeng preached about integrity. Whatever. We practically spent most of the day preserving our bodies by staying indoor. We walked around the beach a little and then head back indoors to bum around. Shihan did her lifestyle thing again by staying at the beach to read, swim and enjoy the balmy breeze of another phuket morning. Angela was plastered to the Gameboy DS that I brought along. She was obviously addicted to the CookingMaMa and the surgery game. Lufeng was doing something really unmemorable because I don’t remember what he was doing. Oh yes, he was showing off this 1000 page research book that he was supposed to read. But I doubt he even did 10 pages really. I was bumming around, trying NOT to get injured. Then I went to bathe.

 Yeah right. Trying NOT to get injured. It is kind of ironic that I ended up almost injuring my kidneys in the bath tub. But I will tell you guys about it later. The bloody speakers in the matriculation hall is blasting away in front of me and its very difficult to write coherently when there’s some new age rnb- mtv-inspired- music killing my chain of thoughts.

Btw someone please tell me why everyone is interested in bi/tri/aquathalon and no one is coming to our running booth…

Mr T was quite nice but he kept trying to get us to go for the transvestite show and pursuading us to tell him what time we will be done shopping so that he can fetch us back. By the time we reached Patong, it started to rain a little so we quickly reached for shelter at the mega mall. We shopped a little, and went to eat at the food court. I thought it was kinda interesting that all the bowls were square shaped, which, IMO weren’t really the best design for bowls. The food was cheap so we had the luxury to eat alot more. Lulu, Angela and I started off with some beef noodle. It wasn’t too bad, but they did go overboard with the amount of salt used. Shihan, who was determined to save her stomach for road- side stalls, ordered a papaya salad which had some thai spices in it.

 The papaya salad!

For our second round of ordering, I officially started my pasta ritual by ordering an extra large portion of spagetti. Lulu the copycat ordered some pasta also. Angela who has been thinking about tom yam all day finally settled with that. We also ordered banana and orange shakes but they tasted really weird. I had to force it down my throat.

After eating we continued to shop and find the new balance shop to redeem our vouchers. We walked and walked and walked AND WALKED and we still couldn’t see any sign of new balance. We tried to ask for directions but everyone didn’t really seem to know where it was. Angela and I became super distracted by the Dairy Queen booth(S) in the midst of our crazy walking that we succumbed to the temptation and ordered an amazing green tea with almond ice cream. Heavenly. We were kind enough to offer to some lulu but he dismissed us and said something about us regretting on race day when he performs better. Well, knowing how insecure lulu always has been, he finally ate some ice cream after realising it will be even more embarrassing for him if he didn’t eat the ice cream and still come in behind us. =)

Well we finally gave up looking for the store when we realised that it might not be opened in the first place since a more careful study of the brochure they gave us said that the store was “coming soon”. Felt kind of cheated. Next, we went to carrefour to do some grocery shopping for our breakfast and pre-race meal. I immediately head for the pasta section and bought some pasta sauce and pasta (broken angel to be specific since the instructions say that it would cook in 3 minutes). The others went for bread instead. We made our purchases, dropped by starbucks for some caffiene boost, and left the mall to hang out along the roads lined with small little make-shift stalls. It was still drizzling when we got onto the road, so we were kept busy trying to dodge for as much cover from the rain as possible. Many of the food stalls were selling sticks of meat and seafood, which they will barbeque for you on the spot. Shihan finally got to settle her craving for the road-side food which got me a little jealous because my stomach was already occupied with salty-beef-noodles-microwaved-spagetti-weird-tasting-banana-milkshake. Besides the food stalls, there was also loads of small night market vendors selling clothes, fake prada and gucci and small little souvenirs. I initially had some things in mind that I wanted to buy, but due to the overwhelming number of stalls selling the exact same goods, I must have forgotten all about them as I left the place empty handed. We stocked up on water and more snacks at the convenience store before heading back in a taxi.

The Luguna Phuket International Marathon was held on 17th July 2007, right in the heart of one of Thailand’s natural treasure, the beautiful island of Phuket. Phuket is home to some of the world’s most famous beaches and is a popular tourist destination for tourists from all over the world. As we all can remember, Phuket was one of the many areas to be badly hit by the terrible tsunami in 2004. The people have come a long way ever since to rebuild their lives, and hence the Phuket Marathon was started in 2006 with the main intention of celebrating how the island and its inhabitants are quickly springing back to life and looking ahead to a fresh new beginning!

Lu Feng, Shihan, Angela and I were the four super privileged NUS cross country runners to be part of this meaningful experience. Being very poor students as we are, the school has very kindly sponsored us 50% of the trip. Hooray!

** 15th July **

As we were supposed to be at the airport at some super early timing, Angela and I stayed over at Shihan’s place. We played with Shihan’s obese cat for a while and tried to catch a little nap before the setting off. We called for a cab and met Lu Feng at the airport. As we were taking the budget airline, we had to wait for our flight at the new budget terminal. The new terminal is really small and simple, but I think thats what we get for dirt cheap air tickets! While in the plane, Lu Feng commented that the clouds looked like cotton wool or something really strange of that sort. (He insisted that I put it here so dont ask me why he thinks this is worthy of mention). Anyways, the flight was only one and a half hours and before we knew it, we had already arrived at Phuket!

The 1st thing that greeted us once we exited the airport was a horde of taxi touts who advertised their services for 500 Baht. We decided that it was a rip off and went to the metered taxi stand to get a cab. And it so happened that the name of our driver was Mr Suryia, lolz.

We took a metered cab to our accomodation, the Amora Beach Resort, which was located 3km from the race site. The total fare was only 390 Baht, a far cry from the price of the touts. When we reached Amora Beach Resort, we had some issues to settle with the hotel stuff due to some poor correspondence between Lu Feng and the hotel booking agent prior to the trip. Thankfully, we still managed to get our room, minus the extra bed that we intended to have. And kudoes to the front desk stuff who were very patient and understanding, despite the difficulties we had in communication.

As I wasn’t planning to be in the same bed as Lu Feng, we settled the problem by bringing down the top mattress of the bed. We then went through the ceremony of splitting pillows and blankets until we were both satisfied. We went to check out our surroundings. There was a good view of the swimming pool from our balcony. Overall, the resort was pretty empty as it was the off-peak season. Our hotel was also just next to Bang Tao Beach, the largest and one of the quietest beaches of Phuket .

We took a short nap and headed off to find Laguna Beach Resort to collect our race pack. Lufeng, who holds the self belief that he is an excellent navigator, took the lead to bring us to Laguna. We walked along Bang Tao beach which looked really amazing. The sand was powdery white and stretched for almost 9km. As it was the monsoon season, the tides were big and a sight to behold. The beach was practically undisturbed. There were only a handfull of tourists lazing around, soaking in the morning sun and sea breeze. Lu Feng’s keen sense of direction led us through some uneven, rocky terrain. After 20mins and many small obstacles, we finally reached Laguna Beach Resort.

Laguna was much larger and grander than our small, humble Amora. There was also alot more tourists there and also way more facilities than at our resort. At the race pack collection hall, we started to check out our competition on the board of participants. Didn’t recognise anyone. The staff, like everyone else in Thailand, were really friendly and accommodating. Our race pack consisted of the haversackish bag, a sleeveless running shirt, time chip, race tag, some rub-on cream and a 500 baht new balance voucher.

We met Steph Cox, who introduced us to her new magazine, Asiarunner. Angela bought a copy of it and I thought it was pretty interesting. The magazine is all about the running scene in Asia, with highlights of the major running events taking place in major cities including Singapore, Hong Kong and China. There are also healthy asian recipes you can whip up and the usual daily digest of running tips. As the magazine is still in its initial stages, there are only 4 issues a year and I think you can find out more about the magazine at www.asiarunner.com. Anyways Steph welcome us to send in articles and photos of running events that we take part in. So whether you are a media whore or just a really nice person, start sending in those pictures and essays! I think it will be pretty cool if anyone of us appear in an international magazine.

After collecting our race pack, we had our lunch in this small restaurant right next to the sea. Its built above the sand with wooden stilts so it brings us really close to the waters. We had our authentic Thai meal beside the panoramic view of the Andaman Sea and its crashing waves. There were 7-8 waiters standing around, gyrating to the groove of the Thai music from the local radio channel. We thought it was silly but went ahead to stuff our hungry faces with pineapple rice.

After the meal, we went back to our hotel to rest and freshen up before beginning our leisurely exploration of Phuket. We decided to head to Patong Beach. WE got a private taxi to send us to Patong for 500 Baht. Our driver was this Indian Gentlemen called Mr T. His English was not too bad and he did tell us the various interesting things we can do at Patong. We dropped at Jungceylon, Phuket’s newest shopping mall, to shop, have dinner and to redeem our new balance voucher. (To be continued)

The following took place after looking at the results of Phuket marathon 2007.

LF: Wah If I didn’t get beaten by Vivian Tang, then I can say that Aaron and I are the fastest Singaporeans in Phuket Half Marathon.

Aaron: Actually, there is only 1 fastest Singaporean in Phuket Half Marathon.

LF: -_-