Track camp and Service learning

Ok here goes a long one!

Last Sat, mother's birthday, celebrated at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. (If you were wondering, i m in a loaded family, then i ll just have to say - complimentary vouchers)

Lunched at the Cafe, nice international buffet.

Checked in to one room (again, complimentary vouchers) had a nice bath, went to take a nap to get ready for adidas Sundown Marathon, held from evening to the next morning.

>>> They are quite good huh, even put the name of the guest on the TV screen

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Of course i started scanning the channels to see if there was any matches going on at that time. Hotels usually suscribe to the sports group.

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Bath, nap, took shuttle bus to Somerset MRT and trained all the way down to Tanah Merah to meet up with the rest of the volunteers. Waited for about 2 hours, collected the 'goody bag' that comprised of only one container of bun, oreo, mentos, small sponge cake, a packet of milo, whistle, and a bottle of water. FINITO! Brilliant package for sai kang workers.

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The volunteer shirt that everyone was looking forward to was plain, just red with adidas and a Sundown marathon logo. Ok not that bad, but really damn plain.

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Took the chartered bus down to Kembangan via a long long long way. Took almost an hour to reach Kembangan from Tanah Merah which is just 2 MRT stops away. Nevertheless, had a long chat with Shawn on the bus about the scheduled upcoming match against St. Gabs.

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Reached Kembangan station, changed, stocked up on food, bought a carton of milk, had some Old Chang Kee for dinner and we were dispatched to our stations. I ended up stationed at Changi Road, just at the traffic light and Ying Lun was on the other side of the road. But he ended up coming over very often after being bombarded with questions from curious bystanders.

>>> And here s a pic taken by the restless Ying Lun. (using my phone again)

The route was long, 42km and 84km, and it took about 2hours plus for the first runner of the Ultra Marathon to pass me. It was some Caucasian who was like sprinting a 400m.

>>> I was somewhere near the 25km mark, around 24.

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about 12am and a steam of runners start chionging in. It wasnt that bad coz there was only 310 participants for the Ultra Marathon. And at 1 plus, 2 Nigerians galloped past to lead for the 42km run. They were striding like at almost 4m/s. Nuts. Made friends with the Cisco guards who were in charge of controlling the traffic on Changi Road. They were pretty nice people, just that they whine too much on their job.

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I wasnt really sure of what my job was, but i just did as my instinct told me, to warn the officers that runners are coming, and to encourage the runners as they go past, more importantly direct them across the road. As the 42km runners came by, i was cheering non-stop for the runners, ditto for ying lun and shawn on the other side. Throat hoarse, ran out of water, ran out of milk, ran out of food, ran out of entertainment, i had to resort to playing with the stray cat. haha.

>>> The result of boredom.

Didnt know i could be as tired as the runners, sat there, almost fell asleep around 5 plus am but managed to stay awake to see an occassional runner come by. There s this satisfaction when you cheer for them and they reply with a smile of at least a nod. Some even said thanks.

>>> A runner coming in almost at 6am.

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And there came the drizzle, and rain at 6 plus, almost 7. Had to rush to get my poncho and go back there. Fatigue and hunger stacked in. Endured till 7 plus and we were finally called to leave the stations and meet at Kembangan MRT. Trained down to Orchard and grabbed a hotcakes breakfast meal at Great World Macs before going back to the hotel for a deserved 3 hour plus sleep. Got up, checked out, ate something, went back slept all da way till 7 plus. Went back to sleep soon after dinner.

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Mon, track camp. Reached school early to organise the FPSP stuff and my locker and met the rest at the gallery at 8. Briefing, broke into groups, warmup, games, bunked in, more games, soccer lunch, soccer till burnt, but the highlight was PLANKS that was pure sadistic, caused abrasion to most people s arms. Record for forward planks - 10min 48 seconds. Salute!

Training, 1 800m, 2 600m, 3 400m. Did pretty well, earned the praise of Ms Tan. (even beat Nelson once, woohoo) Dinner, and a fun treasure hunt before the day finally ended.

Set up base(bed) with all the camping in classrooms experience i had, and went off to La la land. Woke up at 7 plus next morning to a string of complains about not being able to sleep properly, too much snoring, floor too hard etc. Heh, the anti-snoring device (mp3) was good afterall, first time trying it out though!

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Morning, games, water bomb war, captains ball with all kinds of balls like rugby, medicine ball, tennis ball, net ball etc. Lunch, stick man making (track tradition) and a long afternoon of bridge with Leon, Wei Xuan, Ying Lun and MA Liang. haha. Crazy training up next. Warmed up 2 rounds in 4 min, 100 push ups, 250 crunches, up and down the 100m track 5 times, 50 pull ups, up and down the 100m track 6 times, 5 min static chair, 100 jumping jacks, another 2 rounds in 5 min, 50 crunches, 50 push ups, another 2 rounds, piggy back to and fro the 100m track and finally cool down 1 round. Totally crazy. Arms ache, legs ache, cramps, after the whole thing.

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But it was slack after that, phototaking and dinner out. Most went for zhi char, while the SJI peeps went to Macs. Took a long detour back and it was debrief, R and R. About 10 went to play BB at night while the walking dead (me) slacked around the class, took a bath and oinked.

Next day packed up, clean up, breakfast, go home, sleep.

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Thursday, Service learning at Marymount Convent area. Met up with Timothy, Gabriel and Diana at the centre. Then took the bus down to some home at Geylang where the kids are suppose to perform and do some area cleaning there.

>>> The performance

Blogger and Youtube sucks. cant upload the video.

After that, we went to Bedok Interchange for lunch. The kids are only given like $10 bucks for 6 people to spend on food. I was kind enough to contribute $1.50 of Chwee Kueh 6 pieces of treasure to their table, and they ended up abandoning me, leaving my bag there all alone and walk away when i was having my lunch at another table. HMMMPPPHHFF. The p5s and 6s are so boring! Next up we went to a block of flats in Bedok to give out free bread door to door.

>>> It stinks by the way.

Fun was coming at Bedok Reservior. They started out playing some lame Sea Urchin game and the fun came in only when the running began. The new game was some thing like the bio concept, peptidyl thing. 3 people in one group, then there s one runner and catcher. the catcher have to catch the runner but the runner can join a group and the person on the other side of the group have to dispatch and be the runner instead. The kids really wanted to run and that was the fun.

After that game, it was free and easy and some went to the playground while some stayed at the original ground to play catching. The finale was damn scary coz the whole group starting chasing after me. It s like a small group of people chasing a thief and when more people see, more join. In the end there was almost 15 of them chasing me. At least i hung on for quite long, didnt tarnish SA Track's reputation. :p

Took the bus back to the centre after that, and with some commendation, i left the place for training back at SA.

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Was late for half hour, warmed up, 120 m strides 10 sets, 50m lunges 4 sets. pretty slack, but after the camp, it wasnt really quite slack.

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Had a self-initiated timed 400m run and set a personal best so far with 61 seconds. It s gonna get better, i know it. Next target: 59 sec.

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After training, all went on a high and started sprinting 100m. Yep and i had another personal best fo 12.72s. Shawn s spikes rocks.

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After everything, left SA for Dhobby Ghaut with Shawn and Ying Lun to have dinner at Carl s Junior and movie at The Cathay. 10.10 Narnia show. Pretty good, nice fighting scenes. Ended about 12.30 and cabbed home, heart pain struck, $20 lost to the taxi driver.

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Fri, slept till 1 plus, had lunch cleared up, got scolded by parents for going out so often and left for National Library to meet up with Lois for PW. Did some work before Yong Pin joined us and filled our ears with his 4 day camp stories.

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Left the library for City Hall, Esplanade to film some scenes for our video.

>>> On the roof top of Esplanade

>>> Esplanade Library dance studio

Nice place to be in. Ambience check, temperature check, accessibility check. Saw CJ facil having a date there as well. Didnt wanna disturb them, or rather hum ji.

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Left for Marina Square for dinner at food court. Took a long time to decide what to eat. Had a plate of duck rice and a bowl of Ban Mian in the end. Rawrr.. I'm hungry!!

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Went home with parents after that, wonderful week spent, horrible mugging week coming up.

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****Special thanks to Lois and Hui Hui for covering my duties for PW while i'm busy doing other crazy stuff*********

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Tags replies

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Ying, Reuben - Yea i dunno. Honestly

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Lois - Yep wedges was good. PW is indeed eating time. Holidays = Sleep

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Hui Hui - Ya, must really save $$$ ald, spending too much. Next time onniee food court.

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Ds - HARLOW HA!

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Jeremy - I want that A!