Race 2006! :)

I was at Bangalore Hindustan Airport on 7th Dec waiting for SQ503, my flight back to Singapore, while writing this blog. The flight was delayed. I anticipated the delay as this scenario wasn’t unfamiliar. While waiting for the flight I recounted my steps for year 2006.

Year 2006 was a hectic year, “Year of Work and Race”. It was the year I rejoined the working society, on 1st March, after traveling and having great fun for six months after I graduated. I could vividly remembered taking the flight to Chengdu, SiChuan, during the second December weekend for a climb at Si Gu Niang Mountain, Rilong. Looking back, I don’t really miss the carefree time I had for 2005, “Year of Enjoyment”. Life was really fantastic in 2005 as I studied a two subjects semester (one of the subjects was not graded), and I did my thesis doing a project which I knew what was happening. I spent the rest of the 8 months traveling to Chengdu, Hobart, Melbourne, Kota Kinabalu, Port Dickson, Nairobi, Kilimanjaro, Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Lombok and Chengdu again.



I guess it is very much in me to look forward for new activities always. After graduating from University of Queensland, I never thought of going back to Brisbane again. I am not a heartless person. I do miss Brisbane, and I enjoyed my two years at Australia. However, I never thought of going back because I wanna experience new things in life. I thought things would be very different if I go back to Brisbane again too. The people who had made my two years in Australia meaningful are no longer there.

Year 2006 was a year which I literally worked and raced. Upon taking up the job as Technical Support Engineer, I managed family, work and leisure carefully. I understood my limitations, income and annual leave, when I start working. It was not easy to pump in money continuously to my new flat at Buangkok. It was even tougher when my old woman was not supportive in the beginning. She thought my ideas for renovation was impractical, and she feared I would abandon her after getting the new shelter. I knew I spent less time listening to her since I started working. The failure in communication was catastrophic. I always thought she trusted in me. I enjoyed the privilege of making my own decision for everything at the age of 19. I don’t go to her with questions. Actually, I saw no purpose going to mother as she couldn’t make decisions for me. The renovation issues were resolved after some “GIVE and TAKE”.

I did many races for year 2006. I had 8 race completion medals for 2006. I completed Singapore Duathlon, Melaka A Famosa Triathlon, Army Half Marathon, Genting Trail Blazer, Desaru Half Iron Man, Hong Kong Trail Walker, Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon and SAFRA Adventure Race. All these races made me super busy during some weekends and many weekdays. My “wake up call” for regular training was after the Desaru HIM. I realized during the race that a weekly training schedule was not sufficient, especially when I don’t cycle to work no more.

There are two kind of races, Solo and Group race. During solo race I talked and sang to myself after the crossing the start line. I motivated myself and kept my sorry arse moving. It was mentally challenging to do all the right things, like pee at the proper toilet and continue moving, especially when nobody was watching.

During a Group race like “Hulu Langat Adventure Race” and “Hong Kong Trail Walker”, I felt sorry for my sorry arse too. Nevertheless, I was obliged to push myself so as not to let my teammates down. I would relate my group races with Ranger Course, “I would never leave a fallen comrade” and “Surrender is not a ‘Ranger’ word”. So far I had been fortunate, my team mates never left me behind and I had not given up during race. Some of the races were really tough, but I thought it was tougher for me to give up.

While I had been busy with races…s. I am glad there is always a little time to disturb the rest of my friend… I am glad to go for a more “nuah” kinda trip with two of my ARMY batch boys, Yew Mun and Chung Wah. I am thankful to their wives for allowing me to take over their husbands for three nights at Phuket. That is probably the only trip I have been for the pass three years without seeing a mountain (minus working trips) .

I do hope I would have enough leave for year 2007. I wanted badly to see the white mountains again. I don’t think I wanna set my foot into SiChuan again. May I find my 2007 climbing kakis. I shall look forward to doing something I am not certain next year.