Standard Chartered Singapore (Marathon)
10 km
Sun, 06 Dec 2009

The irony is that we planned everything just right: meet together for warm-up, do pre-race strategy, get cool running shirts & take choice places at the starting line 20 minutes before the flag-off. But we were completely outclassed.

There were some miscalculations. Running this race is the only chance I get to run through the central business district and jump red lights at junctions which would be packed with traffic, but because of the roads, the route ended up doing some 90 degree turns into highways ramps and sideroads. I misjudged how tough an up-slope at the bridge across Marina Bay was, and ending up almost dying just to keep up with my 2 pacers Alan Quek & Calvin.

The greatest consolation: all three of us finished within 30 seconds of each other, within 43 minutes.

I'm grateful that, when I really felt like dying, Aisha happened to be helping out with route-marshalling. Her encouragement, completely out of the blue, was a God-send.

Which proves: the God who allows me to delight in this sport does work in unusual ways to sustain & keep me en route to peace.

Still, to our all-girls' team, who came in second overall: FINALLY! A fitting end to a year of races.

"Victory is changing the hearts of your opponents by gentleness and kindness."

"I met the day feeling cheaper than usual
I guess you could say that I'm on sale.
So take what you can while you can:
shop now intensive,
I could snap any moment,
and I might feel more expensive."
- Anything, by Incubus.

My first official outing after exam season was to Orchard Road for Christmas shopping. I need to hang out somewhere other than school, Clementi or Adam Road. In other words, somewhere cool for a change.

But it's been a long time since I've been to 'town'. And I think I've lost a lot of taste for shopping (if I ever had one). It's already December, so every single store entrance has SALE on it. The crowd today, a weekday, was quite awesome.

I wonder if it's either change in the surroundings or change within that makes me say that I feel like a stranger on my own street. I used to walk up & down Orchard Road after movies during my school days, but today just walking down half a stretch makes me feel strange. The government wants Orchard Road to be like Ginza, or Milan, or L.A, or whatever - so they've taken down the trees, installed glass, and 5 new shopping malls have opened within a 2 kilometre stretch. The people I see aren't locals. They're rich people who buy Prada & Bulgari & Uniqlo.

Or (then again) it just might be I'm not used to all this "social change". After all, I felt right at home collecting my race pack at Expo.

Maybe my parents are right: I should do something more than just running, writing & going to school.

Side-Note: Standard Chartered 10 KM race on Sunday. Running in a mixed team of girls & guys this time and if we all do below 45 we can get on the podium. Last race of the year couldn't come soon enough.

(Feb, 2009 - for M)

The chatter flanks your entrance,
bursts like a tidal wave that crests with your approach.
(Just on time. Let’s start this lecture now, all right?)
And you step on this studious shore with
just another greeting: a “hey” carrying
the presence of a ship far out at sea.

The lecturer rambles: the crashing swell of words
too stormy for our taste –
(the phenomenon suggests a reductionist approach,
don’t you think, young lady?)
Amidst the crackling strafe of mono-static rumbling,
your eyes signal – a flutter – like the rush
of wings – and your voice proceeds

steadier than strolling steps in wet sand.

A sheer space you carve from the gale-force procession
of content. And I crawl, cliff-edged, longing
for your voice to turn landwards,
to wash over me.

But it doesn’t. Just an overcast, the infinite lull
till lecture’s end –
(that’s all for today, please revise for the common test
next week) –
nameless noise notes your departing.
And you offer not even a goodbye to shovel away
this stray debris of us –
where your splashing steps fall away
as the lecturer kills the sound.

Or so popular knowledge says. Exam season began for me on Saturday (with my university's ridiculous policy of holding papers on weekends) and will last 2 more weeks. So far I'm happy I can catch up with people who disappear during term but come out of their holes to study, but fed up with the fuss, late nights & disruption to my training schedule.

For us Asian kids (pardon the stereotype) who have grown up equating school with exams & tests, another round of tests shouldn't be anything. But on the contrary, everyone has stopped to partake in the ritual. And I'm getting fed up with it. I dream of a day when I can learn without being forced to sit for a 2 hour rapid-fire-rapid-answer session in pressure-cooker of a hall.

But not today, I guess. I should be old to be worried about exam grades - even though I still am. It probably means I'm still pretty immature.

"Love transforms bitter to sweet,
copper to gold,
sickness to health,
a dungeon to a palace,
troubles to blessings,
and suffering to God's mercy."

Watching wind from a window
wiped clean, tracking trucks and container ships
from Kent Ridge -
jammed at McPherson (with MP3s),
stuck with students
with only a pale plank of Monday night
shuttling past me,
putting me to sleep.

"O Lord, help me to control my rage;
O Lord, tell me it's not too late.
I've been angry for way too long, O Lord.
O God, help me to get my head on straight."
Smile Empty Soul has their new album out, and it contained this song. I'd never expect a band like them to instruct me on spiritual things, so when I listened to this it sounded like a confessional in between raging music. It's honest, thoughtful - like all their music - but I wish it wasn't just one song in the album. If only other bands, too, could be this introspective.

If only I could compose such deep stuff.

"People have interpreted the world. We should try to change it."

This should've been posted on Sunday. But still sticking to not using too much Internet so I can focus on studying.

Ran Realrun at Changi on Sunday with the KINS team, and Patrick, Roy, Benedict & Melvin. For the first time ever, because of the APEC Leaders' Meeting in Singapore this week, there was a shortage of Police vehicles. The entire course was manned by volunteers, with just 2 police bikes patrolling.

Still, it was a great race. Best run this year for me. I love the route, especially the runway in and out of the exhibition centre, which can be counted by the 161 lamp-posts in a straight line. Then there's the stretch where you run while jumbo jets take off and land across the road. And of course, the beach - where I was pacing this Caucasian woman while we ran under fishing poles and into beach grass. Probably because a pair of Africans brought in by New Balance lead the race, the pace was much faster this year.

I managed a 43:30. Which was good enough to get a 8th placing in the Home Team category. Ee Ghim came in first among the Police divisions & Mok won the 15k race (he actually beat 2 Kenyan runners), which meant that university runners swept all the awards. More importantly, the organisers have decided to do away with certificates this year & just reward us with cash for our positions. So I got a cheque for $50, which will definitely help pay off some of my school fees.

But, well, KINS won. This year makes it 3 in a row, & 5 out of the 6 years since Home Team divisions began competing against each other. Madan, as usual, led the pack & did an awesome 37mins. The win will probably mean a lot more to the senior members, who all were supposed to report for APEC duty 5-6 hours after the run ended.

Definitely, God be praised for keeping my knee ligament in 1 piece. In a year full of knee and leg injuries, only the sustenance & providence of my Heavenly Father can allow me to enjoy this race despite the lingering doubt over my condition & the pain that usually comes after. Again, I'm reminded that I'm not running for myself - but that I'm running towards His will.