What a very very long name...

Ok, this is something interesting that I learnt which I immediately linked to something which one of my friends always does. As I was typing the title for this post, I realised something too..Both subjects that I am writing about have long names! Whoah..this is way killer man..

Subject 1: Song Xiuhua Shafiqah Nadiah

Subject 2: Levator Labii Superioris Alaequae Nasi

It is a muscle which is located at the sides of your nose enabling you to do what Shafiqah is doing. =] Ok, she is also using her nasalis muscle..

Hahas! This was from way back in Victoria Junior College.. =] Ok, that's all..

Aviva 70.3 Half Ironman 2009

Yesterday, I've completed my last race since the OCBC Cycle Singapore 5 weeks back; it was my 5th race in 5 weeks. My month of March has been really fruitful and very very memorable. I believe that obstacles are placed in our lives so that we have the chance to show the world how strong we are.

I dare say that the Aviva 70.3 Half Ironman yesterday was the best race I've completed thus far in life..

On Saturday, the TRI21 gang met up to deposit our bikes for our race the next day. Upon reaching there, I realised that I did not prepare any raincover for my bicycle! Thankfully there was the really-super-convenient 7-11 around, and I got myself 10 trash bags. I decided that I was going to go army style. I wrapped my bike up with around 6-7 trash bags as shown above. Joshua helped Nicolas cover up the rest of his bike with the remaining trash bags. It was really cool that Nicolas and I were side by side in the transition area =]

It indeed rained hours later..and I was glad I made the right decision. I went back to check the bikes of Jiajie, Jason, Jonathan Ma, Melvin, Joshua, Nicolas and myself after the rain as I had to attend the late briefing having missed the actual briefing the day before as I was celebrating mum's birthday. Everything was in place and everyone's water-proofing was effective.

Race day arrived and the amount of activity in the transition area was comparable to a market in the early morning. Nicolas and I started unwrapping our bikes and subsequently inflating our tires to the desired pressure. Next, I set up my equipment and we headed out to the start point.

The men's wave was flagged off at 7.25am, 15mins after the women's wave. I waited with anticipation for the start. Prior to race day, I made sure that I checked out the swim route so that I did not make the same mistakes like my race during Singapore Biathlon. I made a list of everything to bring and a rough plan for the things to do prior to the start. Having done all that, I was looking forward to a smooth race in the starting pen.

My target time for this race was 5hrs 45mins. Splits: Swim 45mins, Cycle 3hrs and Run 2hrs. I incorparated allowances in the timings so that should anything happen, I might still be able to hit it. =]

The starting horn went off and everyone made a dash for the sea. I found a nice line of approach to the floating buoy and stuck to it like a guided missile. I felt good during the swim and did not make any zig-zag movements this time.

Upon coming out of the water for the 1st lap, I felt really good; my Timex showed a 21mins. I was before time. =] Heading back into the water, I was determined to complete the swim below 45mins. However, I beared in mind that there was still the cycling and running leg, hence I was also prudent with my energy usage in the water.

I emerged from the sea after 43mins and was really delighted with my timing! It was a really good swim leg for me and I felt really good. It was evident as you can see in the picture above =]

I jogged to the transition area and was encouraged on the way by my family and some of the NUS Aquathlon members who came down to support us like Patricia aka Xiu Mei, Lemin and Qiurong. Yong Sheng and Desmond from TRI21 were also there to cheer us on, not forgetting coach David who was our official photographer and encourager =]

I quickly changed into my cycling cleats, put on my race belt and helmet and pushed my bike out of transition. I took it easy on the 1st 5mins to get my body adapted to the rhythm that was to carry through for the next 90km. I bit into a honey stick that Nicolas passed to me before the race and it burst at the other end, causing honey to squirt onto my arm and thighs. I laughed and managed to clear up the mess, not wasting a drop of honey. It tasted sweet and light. Nice snack for the start I thought. My plan was to up the pace in lap 2 and drop back abit in lap 3 to prepare myself for the run. I completed the 1st lap in 56mins.

After the U-turn at East Coast service road, I pushed up the tempo and went out for lap 2. It had been a really smooth race so far for me and it made me all the more determined to blitz the 2nd lap for the bike. After the U-turn at the other end at Keppel, I sped up again knowing that there was just 15km to go until the start of lap 3. This was where I started to get complacent and distracted.

2 lanes were sealed off for the cycle leg with 1 lane still open to traffic on the Keppel Viaduct. Huge rectangular orange and white plastic road blockers were placed between the cycle lanes and traffic lane. I saw a male cyclist veer into the traffic lane and there was a huge container truck behind him! Officials were behind him and I wanted to see what was going on..When I turned my head back to the road, I brushed pass the road blockers on my left and was sent flying into the air and subsequently crashing chin first onto the road.

The 1st thought that came into my mind was, "Norman, you are so retarded; why on earth are you not focusing on the darn race!" I was helped to my feet by the officials and escorted to the side of the road. I felt blood dripping from my elbow, knee and chin. I checked my bike to see if it was still race-worthy and it seemed OK. After wiping some blood off with a tissue paper, I rode off to rejoin the race. All this took place in about 3-4mins.

The pain caused by the wounds were like steriods to me. I was woken up by it to stop my nonsense and to focus. I maintained 35-40km/h on the way back to East Coast with blood dripping onto my bike and leg. After the U-turn going into my last lap, I saw Jonathan Ma at the side of the road fixing his punctured tire. I shouted out to him and he mumbled for a spare tire. By then, I was already pretty far off and I wondered whether or not should I stop to pass him my spare. I stopped. After that, I was away again into the race. Before the Keppel U-turn, I saw Jason and Nicolas, by then I was pretty tired and was taking it easier on the last 15km. As I entered East Coast service road for the 3rd time, I saw Nicolas and shouted to him. "Bros, let's run together!"

We ended the bike leg together and entered transition to put on our running shoes. I completed the bike leg in 2hrs 55mins. I was quite glad that I was still within target. =]

All that was left is 21km of run. I wondered how I was going to complete it alone. Now that we were running together, I was quite looking forward to it knowing that we will pull each other through.

Our starting pace was pretty fast, going at 5mins/km. If we maintained that pace, the run will be over in 1hr 45mins. That was 15mins faster than my target time of 2hrs! =] We decided to go until we felt tired then slow down for 1km and slowly pick up pace again. One thing was that was definite was that we were going to cross the finish line together..

At the 1st aid station, we asked for deep heat and I applied it onto my super sore quadriceps. The run was accompanied by the frequent "how are you feeling?", "is this too fast?" and "let's take it easier until the end of the bridge". Nicolas was the one doing most of the encouraging as I occasionally injected some thoughts and words.

We were encouraged by our family and friends at the transition area and was always looking forward to running pass them knowing that somehow they could impart some strength to us. We were determined not to let them down. My gaping wound has started to clot, but the blood on the chin has drew quite a lot of attention.

Concerned spectators were frequently asking if I was OK and fellow racers showed their concerns too. The atmosphere was really charged up. Before we knew it, we had only 4km to the finish line! At the 19km mark, my left hamstring and calf muscles threatened to cramp whenever I wanted to push abit faster. We slowed down but no walking, as agreed prior to the run. As the finishing point was in sight at the last 1km, I upped the pace a little and the cramping sensations were gone, we crossed the finishing point hand in hand with our run time at 2hrs.

As Joshua puts it, this was the best photo taken by coach David. I was really thankful that Nicolas was there with me during the run because I know that I could not have done this alone. He shares the same sentiments too. During the run, he brought up something which I always marvelled at; that we were from the same Primary, Secondary, Junior College and Tertiary institute. We have known each other all our lives, and this was really something to cherish.

This was why the Aviva 70.3 Half Iroman yesterday was the best race I have completed in my life so far. "Happiness only real when shared." - Christopher McCandless

After the race, I immediately went home to bathe and headed out to SGH for stitching work to be done on my chin. Well, at least I will have this scar for life to serve as a memory for the race yesterday where I completed it with my brother. My total time was 5hrs 45mins... =]

Training for the one time you might need it..

Today, I volunteered as a CPR facilitator for the Singapore Heart Foundation as they are having a course at my alma mater, Victoria Junior College. Even though it is the March holidays, the school was packed with students from various CCAs, training for their upcoming season. My eyes darted for the soccer boys; it was an unspoken form of identity, and memories of myself doing the same thing as them years back flooded into my mind.

I saw my coach, Mr Tan, and chatted awhile with him. Through him and Alex (the current VJC soccer captain), I gathered that the season was only 11 days away. The soccer boys already had all their heads shaved and the battle to reclaim the title begins..VJC has always been the favourites, and I am pretty sure that Mr Tan has prepared his team well for the challenges to come in the next 2 months.

Mr James Ho, my GP tutor, was also around. I held a brief conversation with him due to me needing to carry out my duty. The CPR session that the students went through today was different from that which I went through last year to be a certified first aider. This is called CPR 3A where the 3As refer to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. There were quite a few steps left out but the general skeleton was there. I guess the rationale was that some CPR is better than no CPR.

Anyways, I had a great time facilitating and helping the students out when they needed assistance. This session was made possible through Mr Tan who made sure that every sport CCA in VJC was down today. It was good contributing back in whatever little way I can to a school which nurtured me into who I am today.

When the world sleeps...

I was out on my bike, 'bustin' my ass' as Lance Armstrong puts it, this morning. It was the first time in a very long while that I managed to wake up in the morning for training before school. =] The ride was magical..Everything fitted into place beautifully and the weather was perfect. It rained the night before, but the roads were all dried up and the temperature low.

I hit the roads at 5am and cycled to school, then further down West Coast Highway overcoming the 3 uphills as I went 2 loops back and fro, making the total count 12. I felt good today, and it only got better as the mileage increased. At around 6.55am, the sun slowly peeked behind some clouds and turned the sky into a beautiul shade of orangey-purple. I felt like I was in a Disney storybook as I headed back to school =] The planned 3km slow swim later in the day was twarted by bad weather and lightning..Mugging was done instead but more dozing off occured..

Well, I am happy that I've accomplished what I set out to do today. =] It shall be running tomorrow..

Biathlon season ends...now for triathlon!

I took my bike out for a spin today to tuition. After tuition, I met up with Jiajie and Jon Ma to watch Manchester United vs Liverpool at Simpang Bedok. Manchester United lost 4-1! Dang. I thought that the match went wrong in every way possible for Manchester United tonight. Well, the English Premier League will definitely be more exciting now..I rode back home from Simpang Bedok and it feels really good to be back riding again. I have shelved it aside for pretty long as I did not want it to hinder my biathlon season training and races. Now that the season is over, it is time to start training for my Switzerland Ironman =]

This is something I think I have to watch regularly from now on so as to motivate myself for my Switzerland Ironman. It never fails to hype me up whenever I watch it. Hahas..

Jiajie met up with Mika today at Key Power International and she told him that Ironman Switzerland is the most beautiful race =] I have to complete it this July! That is my baseline goal.

Next Monday to Wednesday, I will be doing bike training before school. I will then deposit the bike at Chin Ee's room (thanks Chin Ee!) and bathe before going for lectures. I hope I really get down to doing it!

This was something I saw that could serve as a cycle training motivation. Enjoy! =]

Not forgetting running..Reincarnate NOW!

The tough month is almost over!

Whoots! Today was the NIE Biathlon at NTU, my 4th race in 4 weeks =] It was not exactly a very good race for me as my core gave up, again, during the last 1km. I really have to solve this mystery man..was talking to Coach Tay about it and he thought it was probably due to the sudden intensity that I have placed on my body that it went into shock. Maybe I need to do more transitional trainings..maybe my core is not strong enough..Well, I will slowly uncover it.

I was particularly happy with my swim today! Prior to the race, I warmed up at the diving pool and felt very comfortable in the water. It was this feeling of total immersion and gliding in the water, it was marvellous! Upon plunging, I surged forwards and kept ahead of most of my competitors. The feeling was the key. I never felt so at peace in the water before. It was so pleasurable! =] I managed to come out 4th in the swim leg and was already planning my strategy for the run leg. I decided to keep it relax until the 1km mark and then slowly build up the pace. I almost pulled it off but was hindered at the final stretch by the mysterious force! I felt like shit as it was the final part of the race. Giving up really crossed my mind but I just endured and took the pain in. In the end, I finished the race.

The thing that I am most sad about was the fact that some of the seniors are leaving the team as they are graduating in a few months' time. NUS Aquathlon is like a big family to me, so it feels as if some family members are leaving for some faraway place. Hahas..but I think they might drop by once in a while to check us out..hopefully. I feel like I am emo-ing..bleh.

Also, I suddenly feel that a huge part of my life is missing after the end of this biathlon season..The meeting up with everyone during Monday and Wednesday's swim training, the run sets on Tuesdays, long runs on Thursdays and sentosa training on Saturdays will certainly be missed. Going through hell with your teammates is really a very very enjoyable experience. There is so much to learn from others and yourself. You blossom faster. I look forward to the next season with immense anticipation, hope and thirst for greater success for the team!

Lastly, I will end off with a quote from Qiurong during my conversation with her after my race. "Years later, you will look back at this race and realise that this was the race that made you faster."

OCBC Cycle Singapore Prize Ceremony

The 4 of us attended the above-mentioned event yesterday at El Toro. It was clear that the prize presentation was not the main thing on our minds as we tucked away at the freaking killer concept food that was provided by the restoro bar. I strongly recommend that you try this place out! =]

Jason and I both agreed that sometimes in life, you need something like this to affirm you that you are not going through all those insane trainings for nothing. This is the kind of thing that will motivate you to scale greater heights, to put in more during training, to go through hell and back. The 4 of us are really blessed to have had the opportunity to experience this. We had a whale of a time and I hope to be able to experience more of such. =]

Support..

serene says: hey i read your blog, congrats for sing bi =]
norman says: =[
norman says: u read it so u noe i'm pretty disappointed rite?
norman says: but thanks rene..that means alot..
serene says: yeah
serene says: but you gained so much more from it, don't you think?
serene says: a result is just a result that you celebrate for days, perhaps weeks or even months
serene says: an experience is sth you gain for a lifetime

That was it. An experience is something you gain for a lifetime. I realised that I was still pretty disappointed or should I say discontented with my Singapore Biathlon results..However, I will use this experience to catapult myself further. Jason, if you're reading this, I hope you do the same too. Brother, Switzerland is the bomb, the biggest of them all! 'The experience of a lifetime', in your words. =]

The girl who silenced the world at the UN for 6 minutes

This was something Nicolas and I talked about regarding the nature of man while driving home from school...She really summarised everything beautifully, smart child =]

At the core of it all: An epiphany

Core definition from www.dictionary.com: the central, innermost, or most essential part of anything.

Today, I competed in my 3rd race in 3 weeks, there's still 2 more to come in the next 2 weeks! =] The race today was different from the previous races; today, I was racing with a bunch of friends who together with me had gone through 1 year of training for this event. I was racing with my team - NUS Aquathlon. It is amazing to see how I have changed over 1 year; last year's race expectations were different from this year's. I completed the biathlon last year in 1hr 48mins. Therefore, any timing this year will make me feel good about myself theoretically, but no..

Today's swim was ok..I felt good for the swim out to sea. It was at a comfortable yet slightly fast pace. I made a mistake by sticking too close to the lane rope and got boxed in. The swimmers were super rough in the water, my goggles got slightly pulled off and sea water infiltrated the left one. It was a war out there. Upon the final turn into the stretch heading back to the beach, I got disorientated and I think I swam outside the demarcated lane. There was no one (marshaller) who came up to me to direct me back! When I realised, precious time had ticked away. I was aiming for a 27-28mins swim, and with that mistake my swim time became 32-33mins.

Whilst in the water heading back in the correct direction, I was thinking that perhaps I had been too slack. I should have checked out the swim route prior to the race! With a rough guide of the route, I would have been in a better position to estimate where I was in relation to the beach. Well..as Randy Pausch puts it in his book, The Last Lecture, ''experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted." I believe that was what I had gotten in the swim today and from all the races back in 2008, experience..

Upon exiting the waters, Lincoln was there to cheer me on. I think he sensed that I was abit disappointed with my swim time as I told him the night before that I wanted to hit my target time of 1hr 15mins. "It's alright! Catch up on the run, you can do it!", was what he shouted. Off I went into the transition area, slipped on my shoes, took my running vest and bolted out for the 10km run. I was still filled with the confidence based on my 10km timing in the Newton Active Run last week and was aiming to run a 43min 10km in order to hit my target. I knew that it was possible, but I was wrong..

For the initial 5km, my anterior core section just died on me; it felt very very tense and I could not extend my stride length to go faster. I could only maintain a 5min/km pace. I have never ever felt this way before in my years of running, this was a first. Part of me wanted to just give up and seek medical attention, but another part of me wanted to go on as I was not competing for myself. I was spurred on by teammates Nicolas, Jon Ma, Zebin, Joshua Li, Kep Kee, Joshua Lim and Lemin who had made their 1st U-turn and were heading off for their remaining 8km. I hang on at that freaking slow pace.

I prayed for the pain to go away, asking God to take it all away. It was then that I got my epiphany. I have always taken part in endurance events because in the process of doing them, I find God's provision and love. He has never failed to help me whenever I needed that extra boost. He was always there for me. I looked within and asked myself, "had I done the same for Him?"

At church last night, Pastor Pacer was expounding on "Is Jesus your Lord?" He brought up very interesting points that modern day Christianity has evolved to a state of self-centredness from that of God-centredness. I could not agree more. More often than not, I find myself praying prayers like: "God, please help ME...", "God, I pray that you give ME..." It is all ME, MYSELF and I. The message preached nowadays has been diluted to the state that people receive the wonderful gift of salvation because something is promised to them. "I receive Jesus into my heart so that I can have a peaceful life ahead", "I receive Jesus into my heart so that I can experience His blessings".

Is Jesus really our Lord? Or is He just a vending machine, called to in times of need, forgotten in times of peace? Jesus owns us, not the other way round. It is expressed clearly in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

My cramped up core muscles also made me remember a concept I learnt while reading a book entitled: Stop Acting like a Christian, Just Be One by Christine Caine. "Just as our physical core is responsible for every move our body makes, our spiritual core is responsible for our every thought, emotion, reaction and decision." I got it now, He was trying to show me the importance of the spiritual core through the phyical core. I now understood how hard it was to run with a cramped up physical core, therefore I could parallel it to how hard it was to live in this world with a weak spiritual core! This was the wake-up call I needed.

My spiritual core is indeed pretty weak, and I have been doing nothing to try and strengthen it. As with many things in Christianity, a divine paradox once again shows up: building up a strong spiritual core will make life so much more easier to live, but to build up that strong spiritual core is not easy. I likened the run to the road of life, with a strong core, my run will be so much easier..

Soon, Shaun and Coach David overtook me at the National Sailing Centre. "Hang in there Norman!", shouted Coach. Aldrich was now also catching up. "Come on Norms, hang in there". I decided to give it a shot. I figured out that now I understood what He was trying to tell me, maybe He will take the pain off for the remainder of my run, which was about 5km. I gave chase to Coach David and Shaun and managed to catch up with the latter. After the 2nd U-turn, I upped my pace and my core loosened up more. I felt so energized and decided to revise my target to hit below 1hr 20mins.

I spun my necklace with the cross now behind my back as it was bouncing about infront and maintained the faster pace. I then realised that I was like 'carrying the cross' as stated in Luke 9:23, "And He said to all, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."" It was getting really personal this time.

When I crossed the water point, I took a cup of water and gulped it down. Another realisation dawned upon me! My goodness, could you believe it that all this took place in my head during the 10km run! The water served a purpose only temporal; it quenched my thirst for the time being. It can be likened to what the world offers in terms of material possessions and the like; they will satisfy you only for the time being, after which you will be in search for better alternatives. When you take your focus off God and His will for your life, your heart begins to seek after false loves. As John 4:13 beautifully elucidates, "Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."" Jesus is the only way to true satisfaction.

I finally managed to see the finishing point in sight and made a mad dash for it, hoping to hit my revised target. I crossed the line at 1hr 19mins flat on my Timex. Aldrich immediately congratulated me and helped me out. During the course of the run, I did voice out to him that my core was gone. He encouraged me throughout the entire race to hang on. My last realisation came, that spiritual support is very important in our walk with God. The people we hang out with, the support they give be it spiritual or not is very important to sustain us through life's tough patches. I feel glad that I had set a personal best which is a huge improvement from last year even though I believe that I could have done better.. However, whatever I gleaned today is still so much more apart from the race. I will end off with quotes that impacted me from my captain and boss, Aldrich, who will be stepping down in 1 week's time. Whoever is going to be captain will have really freaking huge shoes to fill! =]

"Don’t worry, you've built your base and nobody can take it away from you."
"Don’t burn out, take it easy; you’re only year 1, there’s still next year."
"This is just a small race, look at the big picture."

Finish strong!

The end is very near..All that the team has trained for the past 1 year will be put to the test this Saturday at the Singapore Biathlon. Today, we had our last swim training prior to the race and I felt really good coming out of the water after training (or should I say before the end of training). I did not complete the last set of 5 x 50m sprints as I really felt pretty drained from all the sets before that, and the last thing I want is to get super drained out before the race this Saturday.

We did a 400m race-pace swim followed by 2 x 200m and lastly 4 x 100m. The timings decrease for each decrease in distance. I did a 7min 05secs for my 400m and was shocked. I could never imagine myself hitting that timing. Although it is really not that fast, but to me it is an improvement and I am really glad that this occured in my last training prior to the Singapore Biathlon. All the hard work I have put in for my swim is slowly showing and I hope to do well in the sea this Saturday.

1hr 15mins is the time I wish to hit this weekend. I can do it, I must do it, I will do it. Game on.

I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard. – Randy Pausch

When I run, I feel His pleasure..

I ran my 2nd event this year, the Newton Active Run 2009 at Seng Kang. I still remembered what I said in my previous post; this year has proven to be right on track. =] It is really very satisfying when you train so hard and see the improvements. I felt such joy today.

I left house at 6am (the race starts at 7.30am) fearing that I might get lost on the way to Seng Kang, and if so have back-up time to reach there on time. I indeed got lost! I missed a turning and ended up in a totally different place. I called Mummy for directions and finally managed to reach there in one piece. I parked about 1 LRT station away from the race site and did a warm-up run to the start point. There, I immediately saw Joshua. We later saw Sunny, Mok and Zebin at the start point prior to the race. It was clear who the winner was going to be, at least that was what I thought.

My aim for this event was to clock my personal best for the 10km distance. I wanted to hit below 42mins. Whilst chatting away with my camp medic (back in Sungei Gedong) and now school mate Benedict, I came to a realisation:

Me: Wah, damn sians man.
Benedict: Why? You nervous?
Me: Ok lah, just feel abit sian lors.
Benedict: Hahas, why sians?
Me: It is always like this, at the start point you think why are you here in the first place; during the run you think to yourself, why am I torturing myself? But in the end after the race you will want to do more races.
Benedict: Hahas, yah man.

The air gun went off and we ran. I hit 3mins 40secs for my 1st km, it was way too fast to sustain for me. Subsequently, I dropped the pace to about 4mins/km. At the 6km mark I was already feeling really jaded. I thought to myself: There is just 10 x 400m intervals left. Hahas..So I kept pushing and at the 2km mark I gave all I had. Throughout the run, whenever I felt really tired or shitty, I remembered what Eric Liddell said: "When I run, I feel His pleasure". I did not want to have any regrets after the run, so I kept the pace and focused. My eyes were on Him.



When I crossed the finishing line, the clocked showed 40mins 11secs. I was elated! I had done my personal best and it was even better than what I intended to do! Praise the Lord! =] After speaking to Josh, we figured out that maybe the timer was started 20secs later because when he ended the race, the timings on his watch and that of the timer were different. Josh and I started together. I did not manage to get my time on the watch because even though I started the watch, I abandoned looking at it for the last 2km. I did not want to get distracted or have my emotions stirred by a tiny device. Therefore, if Josh is right, my timing will be 40mins 31secs =]

I hope that the Singapore Biathlon 2009 next week will see all our training with NUS Aquathlon pay off. We must do well. =]