athletics ghurL no. 11=) -WHEE*

Saturday, March 07, 2009

haha. today.. everything was screwed up before the race.

i was late in meeting the girls. supposedly at 3, but i reached around 32o. my bus was caught in a traffic jam, at 24o i was still around Little India.

then it began to rain real heavily, accompanied by thunder and lightning. everyone took shelter at any possible place, from the playground to the big tent. we just stood there like that for around half an hour.

had no time for warm-up.

our race managed to start on time, so off we went.

thankfully, nothing was screwed up during the race!

after dinner, Estelle and i were being 'baskets' (it was really quite mean of us) on the train home because.. we laughed at two middle-aged men with big bellies heh..

the first one was a little weird, because he had wires under his shirt at the belly part.. so Estelle went:

" hey, the man in front of me had wires for dinner!"

i INSTANTLY BURST OUT LAUGHING. because i was wondering about the same thing also.

then when i was still laughing i noticed another man with also a big belly. i kept mum about it but Estelle had to say it, " oh! there're two!"

i was out of breath already, laughed too hard-

finally, that girl went..

"hey, i dare you to ask either one of them, 'are you pregnant?' i'd give you 1ocents for that"

i nearly died-

hahahahahahaha. okay. i still think it's really really funny. but the both of us know that we were being super mean. so yup.. sorry Uncles! ): we meant no harm really.. sorrysorry!

heh. that's about all, take care!(:

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i don't wanna miss a thing..

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Reflections
this time i was pretty much on my own for the first half of the race. perhaps because there wasn't any warmup, i didn't feel at ease at first. the run wasn't as smooth as i'd want it to be. it felt like an.. un-strategised race. i started off faster than i would usually, i think. owed it to the cool weather. i couldn't sustain for long and toned down after awhile, but that start probably proved beneficial because it pulled me away from the bulk of the competitors.

as such, my 1st learning point of the day was: start strong, gain momentum later.

as i continued in the race, i saw two red figures about 3om away. they were Yiyan and Estelle. i kept my eyes on them and worked towards closing the gap between them and myself. then something happened once again. like in the previous race, someone tried to play mindgames with me. we overtook each other for i don't know how many times.. but this time, i won. i didn't wanna repeat what happened in the previous race. finally, i won. nonetheless, i'd like to thank the girl for helping to press on(:

continued to keep my eyes on my two other teammates. managed to reach them at the U-turn. it was an extremely tough and torturous part of the race because two other girls were playing mindgames with them..! for a moment, my determination wavered. "i don't wanna play it twice in a race, it's too difficult," i thought. haha i think i scolded myself in my heart for that. so i held on. followed them. again all thanks to Yiyan and Estelle.

the 2nd thing i learnt: you gotta somehow find a motivation during the race. if it doesn't come within you, it has to be something around you. but the best is if you've got both.

due to the wet weather prior to the race, there were puddles of water throughout the race route. BIG and small. the big ones, made all of us feel that we were running through River Nile.. okay for me i felt i was in the baby pool. but the point is that it was very uncomfortable! i think it affected my run, a little. but i ignored it after awhile.

this brings me to my 3rd learning point: to run a good race, you gotta disregard any, any discomfort that comes your way. anything can happen on the day itself but the crucial thing is whether or not you're able to overcome it.

at the last stretch, i did a sprint towards the end and yes! i crossed the line with Estelle, for a third time! i think it's quite cool to end a race side-by-side with a teammate(: furthermore it wasn't the only time.. oh. this time my finish was stronger than previously.

Estelle if you're reading this: 我们又做到了:D

all in all, i felt that it was a good race ran. not in terms of timing but i learnt from the race. good(:

10:55 PM