Haha it's weird ah.. Really.
I haven't blogged in 12 days (that's really long for me) and my viewership is still going at a pretty steady rate..
And when I actually DO blog, it fluctuates like mad...

Anyway, I've got many things I wanted to share but I've got no time ):


But one thing that's still quite clear in my mind is our CANOE MARATHON 2009!
It was a cool experience man!! (:
Disclaimer: I really don't wanna go into every single detail of it although it's tempting, but please read through yeah? There's a reason for it. Thanks to you {:

I learnt a lot from it even though it was just stupid paddling and colliding into boats.

The first blessing was that I was able to even TAKE PART in it!
I really thank God for sam tan for that (:
Hehheh, cos in the holidays, I haven't exactly been going for training regularly..

Well I didnt pon all!!
I was sick for 3 weeks! (seperately)
So those 3 weeks I didnt manage to attend training and everyone thought I pon..

But oh well, I guess I could've put in more effort into attending trainings when I can so yeah.

So anw, Sam went for trainings la, so she's obviously like super strong and fast.

I started to go regularly aft art told me about what people were saying abt canoeing.. Haha.
And I tell you, it's really so different when you're doing it for God.
I was able to give constant amount of strength for the whole 5 or 6 rounds of pretty hard effort, and I haven't trained for so long!! But of course, I was tired la haha.
So it's like, woah, where did my strength come from?

But anw, when it came for the application for the marathon, coach said that he'd either put me and sam on a T2 or sam alone on a T1, depending on her.

So after much debating with her whether I should go or not, I went.
Then coach sorta like "scolded" me, like "this shouldn't happen again etc etc"

So yeah, then fastforward to marathon day.

I was on bus 14 going to dhoby to take 16 to kallang.
Hahah. I was kinda behind, so they left first..

Then when I reached dhoby, I saw 16 in front!!!

So I was like "Uncle can open the door?" then I pointed to 16.
I wanted to chase the bus uh.

But when I ran, the bus left the bus stop....
Then I was like "Ahhhh.. Crapp"

But the bus 14 uncle told me to get on the bus, then he drove me to chase bus 16!!

Cool right!! HAHA.

Thank God for him man seriously.
He chased all the way to Nicoll Highway, then I caught it :D

Yay so I wasn't late! (:

Then after that, we slack slack abit, then the race was gonna start alr.
So we went down to paddle around and get familiar with the place.

Then all the 'T' boats lined up at the starting line.
It was super messy uh... All the paddles in the air rotating here and there haha.

But anyway, when they gave the signal to start, it was super cool!
Everyone started paddling and since all the boats were like SIDE BY SIDE,
paddles kept banging on people's boats etc etc.

But anyway, Sam and I managed to break away quite quickly :D

Many boats came from behind and kept hitting us off course, and they still scold us..
I shan't mention schools haha, please be guilty.

So anyway, we took off pretty quickly. And this hwachong T2 was in front of us (rmb this first).
Yeap, so we needed to paddle 14km = 3 rounds of the course.

There was this part (medeka bridge i think) that we were supposed to turn.
Coach told us there were what, 3 buoys to turn around to consider it as ONE round.

But at that bridge, there were only 2 buoys..
So me and sam were like omg where's the third one!

Haha we saw one no doubt, it was at the other side of the bridge.
And apparently that was the BOUNDARY buoy....

Stupid thing. So we decided to go around it HAHA.
Only we took a detour and turned, I tell you... It was embarrassing..

So many people overtook us while we were turning. Even our own school boats.

So we lagged behind...
Then we were like, crap.. I think that wasn't meant to be the third buoy.
So we faster chionged to catch up.

And after a while, we caught up with the hwachong T2 HAHA. (see that's where they come in)
Yeah, but it still feels like we were super behind.

So anyway, we paddled hard effort all the way, as hard as we could.
Really, I was very suprised at how much strength I had in my arms.
I don't think it was me that was paddling entirely as a matter of fact.

I was really scared that I would slow us down.. Heh.
So I kept telling God, "Give me strength to paddle! I want to do my best!"
And idk man, I think He really blessed me (:

Even though there were times my arms suddenly felt like it was burning,
it goes away after I put God in the picture heh.
Yknow sometimes you get so distracted till you leave God out..

But after I put him back in place, the burning sensation was hardly felt.

But you know my butt still hurts from that day.
Because we kept going slanted, so we kept paddling on the left side.
And we were paddling so hard and so fast that my butt slipped and sat one the "headlands" of the seat.

Cos you know the seat is "UU" shaped right. HAHA. Like two depressions for your butt cheeks kind.

YEAH, so I sat on the tips instead of the depressions....

SO ANYWAY, during the race many K boats and C boats knocked into us.
I was trying to control my patience quite bad..
The worst thing was, they still went like "T2!" in the fierce tone.

This C boat pushed the tip of our boat from the back after we accidentally brushed against his boat because
1) he was turning diff directions from us (going to portage)
2) the current pushed us..

I apologized lor walao.. Even after he said "T2!" in a frustrated way.
I felt quite good about it HAHA.
Then he didnt even apologize for turning our boat like 90 degrees?!

But nevermind, there were a few nice K2's (:

Yeah, so we ended the last round with a super burst!! HAHA.
It was kinda like those sugar rush kind that we chionged all the way till the end.

The hwachong boat was sooo close in front of us, but we finished behind them haha.

We finished our race, I felt happy, like seriously happy.
Not because we finished.. But I dont know, it's just like a,"ah i love the world!" feeling.

Hahah. After a super long while, it was prize presentation.
We were quite unsure of the results..

Because we realized that even JC and Poly can enter under "Novice" category!!
So we were like, crap... I think cannot alr la.

There are 3 categories: Novice, Junior men/women, Senior men/women.

So novice is the lowest, then junior then senior.

Yeah, so basically, there were 28 schools.
So imagine the number of PEOPLE.

1) Anglo Chinese Junior College
2) ACS (Independent)
3) Bukit Panjang Govt High Secondary
4) Crescent Girls' Secondary
5) Front Catch
6) Gan Eng Seng Secondary
7) Hwa Chong Institute (High Sch)
8) Hwa Chong Institute (College)
9) Innova Junior College
10) Kanoe Sports
11) Meridian Junior College
12) Ngee Ann Polytechnic
13) Nanyang Technological University
14) National University of Singapore
15) National Civil Defence Cadet Corp
16) Nanyang Polytechnic
17) PA Water Venture Club
18) Paddlers Gateway
19) Pioneer Junior College
20) St Andrew's Junior College
21) St Andrew's Junior College Alumni
22) Singapore Institute of Management
23) Singapore Polytechnic
24) Serangoon Junior College
25) Tampiness Junior College
26) Temasek Polytechnic
27) Temasek Secondary
28) Individual member

So then they announced the results, for novice, t2, 14km. (our race)
Sarah and Yunhui got 3rd!!! (they are only sec 3 this year!!)

Guess what we got...........










Like "is this really....?"
"2nd leh!"
"the poly jc uni all so strong, and I never train for so long, can win 2nd?!"
"we went extra distance around the buoy, still no other T2 overtook us?"

Ngee Ann Poly got first position.
Haha. After I thought about it, I realised, God's so fair.

He blessed us with results, but not first, I guess probably to bring down our pride.
I was thinking about it, if I hadn't told sam to "just go around the buoy" and think I know it all..
We might've won. Might have only.

But no matter, 2nd is good!

Really, after reading different people's blogs (from google blogsearch) about the marathon, I've seen how stressed they were before the race, during the race and how much they want the medal.

That drive only lasts for a while, really.
Because after that race, what if they don't win the medal?
What if the medal is ugly and cheapo?
What if smth happens like the boat broke a hole or smth?

It's as good as all the hardwork that the person put in, being taken away.
Because you work hard, and the process of everything is for That Goal.

So if the goal is gone, what has your hardwork and effort become?

Nothingness, really.


That's why, if you don't want to waste your time and effort, set a goal that won't ever diminish, one that will NEVER fail you.

(meaning, it won't disappear or be out of reach for you, it will always be there, just waiting for you to work hard enough to reach it)

I feel quite sad for those who didn't get their expectations met, be it in position or in getting a medal.
Because they just need to know that all these things, can never please them all the time.

Medals are just a once off thing, the second of fame you get when you receive the prize is nothing after a few days.

Who will remember?

To the audience, there will definitely be SOMEONE who get's 1st 2nd and 3rd.

So actually, there's nothing really special about those positions if you're not the one winning.
Thus, people won't rmb. It's logical, I feel.

The only one goal that you can depend on is, God.
He and Him alone.

Other worldly medals will come because of your long term goal, Him.
It's so true isn't it?

And this thing,

I would say, is all His to take! (:

Thank God for that whole day of learning man!
It was a great encouragement to me.