Singapore Athletics Assosiation Cross Country Meet
On the 17th of January, our school took part in the Singapore Athletics Assosiation Cross Country Meet held at Bedok Reservoir. While the results showed that both the B and C division won first in their events comfortably, the journey was anything but that. Before the race, we have been training hard five times a week. We had to be sure to be prepared for the first race that came our way.
On that day, the atmosphere was tense. It was sunny. Looking around us, we saw our rivals. Singapore Sports School, Catholic High School and Raffles Instituition. I took a deep breath. Recent training has really been less then desirable. If I blew this race, I knew I only had myself to blame. Appearing light-hearted and easy go lucky, I was actually nervous. I closed my eyes and prayed that everything would be alright. The first race started ( C division girls ) and we went to start on our warm up. My muscles were tensed, my mind was made up. Today, we were running to win.
After doing our warm up and stretching, my heart was pumping faster then ever. Wanting to get a good starting position, we decided to walk towards the starting line first( the starting was first come first serve ). Standing there, it had to be the one of the worst 10minutes of my life. Waiting for the horn to go, I stood there, heart thumping.
Ready, GO! And it began. I flew off, not wanting to get boxed in. Soon, i was in the front pack and leading the C division (B divison and C division boys ran together). Afraid that i was starting too quickly, I slowed down slightly. The first 3 kilometres of the 5 km race was still easy. And then, I felt the pain. My mind was telling my body to give up. It wasn't worth it. I looked back, and i saw my team-mate and fellow Victorian Venuraam. He was just a few metres behind. I looked infront and saw a boy from Raffles Instituition. I made my mind up to overtake him.
And so, my pace was getting faster. The pain was getting worst. My head was screaming at my body to stop. But I just kept going. I told myself that I had to keep going. I could't disappoint my friends and those that believed in me. My legs carried me forward, I think. I could't feel them. Soon, we reached the 4km mark. If only one last km to go, the boy from Raffles Instituition was close now. Before I knew it, I started going at top speed.
I was never really a big fan of sprinting. Sprinting after the boy from RI, I caught him. 700m to go. I wanted to surge forward with all i got. Venuraam was just behind. Raffles was sprinting together. We were together, the three of us. I surged forward and they followed. Surged again and again. With 500m to go, I gave up. I lost hope. Venuraam kept going, and soon overtook the Raffles. I just did't care anymore. Until, I saw that Raffles was dying too. This spurred me on for the last 400m. I over took Raffles. Me and Venu finished in fantastic positions.
We walked back to get our drinks. We were tired, but happy. We knew we have done it. And when the results came out, we were delighted. We went to recieve our trophies and medals.
Today, we have won a race. It was a small race, but we now have the confidence. The confidence that on March 25th, we can make it happen. We can win this. Just ignore that stupid thing inside your head that tells you to stop.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 // 4:28 AM
