looks quite incoherent with all the random postings of quotes.

Bruce Lee's limits
Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We'd run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me "We're going to go five." I said, "Bruce, I can't go five. I'm a helluva lot older than you are, and I can't do five." He said, "When we get to three, we'll shift gears and it's only two more and you'll do it." I said "Okay, hell, I'll go for it." So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I'm okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I'm tired, my heart's pounding, I can't go any more and so I say to him, "Bruce if I run any more," --and we're still running-"if I run any more I'm liable to have a heart attack and die." He said, "Then die." It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, "Why did you say that?" He said, "Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level."

what i actually wanted to say was: 2013

so i finally got my hands on a singapore jersey. but it's not quite what i wanted, with a big milo logo splashed across the back.

and perhaps, just as well, i was denied my moment on the podium, albeit the 2nd highest step. due to some amazing messup from the organisers (or the people relaying the info), i was told since there were only 2 entries in the asian competition, no medals would be awarded.

So 2013, what if you believe?

Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.
-- Bernadette Devlin

don't quit

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow,
Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Unknown

hope

"Outraged at the gift of fire to man, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create a beautiful mortal, Pandora (All-gifted). Each Olympian god and godess gave Pandora a gift. Hermes gift was a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. Prometheus had warned his slow-witted brother Epimetheus about accepting gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus was dazzled by Pandora's beautty. Pandora brought a container with her. She was forbidden from opening it. According to the story, her curiosity won out and she opened the container. A legion of evil things, designed to afflict man, swarmed from the container and scattered over the entire earth. Hope was the only good thing in the container and it is said that hope kept mankind from perishing from the plagues in Pandora's box."

"Do you know the story of Pandora’s box? Pandora opens the box and lets all the evils out into the world, and then hope comes out of the bottom of the box. Did you ever wonder what it was doing in there in the first place? Don’t you realize that hope is the most devastating evil of all?

Because without hope you’ll never be disappointed.

I'll take my chances.

interesting... Strength - to face what u fear/dread, do it 10x over n make each one better than the last.

more thoughts on marathon world champs

today i went to watch the junior doubles and senior singles.

Was extremely impressed by the swedish junior girls who were monstrously fast at the portage. They managed to overtake the spain and hungarian boats during the portages, and consider that the other two crews were also running at top speed.

but what an eventful morning. the women's k2 juniors race started. one of the favourite, the great britain crew capsized barely 1minute into the start! More drama came at the end, when the K2 junior men were finishing. Norway looked all set for a 1-2 finish right up to... you guessed it, less than 1 metre from the finishing buoys and the 2nd placed norwegian crew capsized! the rules say you can't swim across with your boat, the boat has to cross with all crew members inside the boat. so the poor boys had to be rescued by the safety boat, make a turn and come back, in the end they placed 8th i think. after that the frontman was inconsolable...

Women's k1 senior was won by renata csay in good time. She pulled off for a lead right from the start, and basically paddled the whole way herself, without washriding. Good efforts to spain who tried very hard to catch her. awhile later was the c1 race, first time seeing the legendary attila vajda in person. He is huge!! and so were a couple fo the germans and swedish guys. ah, and yes, the japanese team also who looked built for 200m paddling. pretty tough to carry all that weight for 25-30km.

i think the china lady did a great job, not sure of the exact positions, but i'm quite sure she came in within top 10 out of 23 boats, beating several europeans along the way. and in the men's race, was crazy from the start. TEN boats in the leading pack, then south african frank mcgregor pulled off for a 45s lead until the 3rd round when he decided to rejoin the pack. Up till the last 800m, there were 5 boats in contention. the top 3 boats were separated by probably 2s.

ah, and as usual the ducktours and merry band of commerical boats were not being nice.

so there, the biggest takeaway for me from this world marathon champs is that the gulf between asians (and me) and the europeans is really huge. but not all is lost. I was pleasantly surprised that i managed to keep up with them for at least the first 200m of my race and it wasn't an all out sprint. so a lot more hard work is needed and yes, i have been inspired.

Outclassed... and i'll be back

editing from an email i sent to the canoobs yesterday.

so yesterday was the race. I'm now 2nd in Asia and 11th in the world for U23 women's k1. But let me qualify that, there were only 12 boats (and 2 from Asia). i was technically 12th (2h21m13s) but the 2nd placed boat (Italy) got DQ-ed. She was riding Spain's wash with only 400m to go and collided into her as they were turning, causing Spain's boat to spin. my guess is that it was totally unintentional, see below for the exciting paddling conditions we had.

Overall it was a good experience, the best part of the race for me was the first 200m. The marathon start is unlike the sprint start, it goes something like this, oh, and it's a holding start so you have a human boat holder behind you holding the stern of your boat:

"10 minutes to start..."
"5 minutes to start..."
"Boats please come in... 74 back please, 73 back please, 79 back please, 82 hold your boat, 81 back please, back some more please, 74 please get into position, 72 back please, 72backplease73backplease74backplease75backpleaseREADYGO!"

in the morning races for the juniors, the singapore boats got washed from the start. But my start was ok, Coach said it was good (: If the race ended after 200m i would be 5th! My lane draw was highly exciting, sandwiched between Hungary and USA. So we started, the trick is to keep paddling forward and make the boat holder strain to hold you back, and I managed to stay just slightly behind the Hungarian, and there were only 3 other boats on par!!

But after 800m, the rest caught up (including Spain, the eventual winner). Then only the other asian boat, hongkong was behind me. She caught me after 1.5km (and there were 20km more to go!!)

I had hoped for the weather to be extremely hot and no wind. Those were the exact conditions at the start. Coach said "It was difficult, but i managed to get the conditions you wanted, so have a good race (: " In the morning, a couple of juniors from the other countries pulled out due to the heat. But the hot weather favours me, haha.

So it started off bright and sunny, but by the end of the first round, the winds started getting really strong, sky was perfectly clear though. Halfway through the 2nd round, it started raining and before i knew it, at the 3rd round it started pouring like mad, thunderstorm, lightning and all (not kidding!); i could hardly see anything. It was even difficult to spot the gigantic buoys that we were supposed to turn around. Luckily i had mananged to find and install a foot pump in my boat, otherwise i'm quite sure my boat would have sunk. When i went under the helix bridge, there was a brief respite from the rain and my entire body felt so light from not having the rain pounding on me. then awhile later, reality hit literally when i came out from under the bridge.

Oh, and on top of this, as i mentioned before, the Duck Tours, River boats and Bumblebees + PUB rubbish collector boats + PUB speed boats + the crazy (and not so useful) 'safety' speed boats were all happily zooming around and creating wash, despite the commentators 'scolding' them repeatedly. Heard from my mum that a couple of US supporters in the stands got quite worked up too. My race was supposed to start at 10.15am. But we started closer to 10.30am because when we aligned, 3 ducktours were approaching us and the waves were crazy. So had to paddle out and realign again.

yea, we are no match for the Europeans. totally outclassed us. I got lapped by the first 4 boats (denmark, hungary, spain and italy). just as i was reaching my 4th portage (5th for them), was somewhere near the esplanade, lightning struck just behind us and the hungarian girl screamed!

I almost caught the Hongkong girl though. Her portage cmi, so although she came in to the first portage much earlier than me, i left the pontoon only slightly after her. I heard her last portage was horrible, not really her fault though, cos the mega longkang under the esplanade started spewing rubbish and according to my teammates it created a suction. So she was pushed out and had to circle back to the pontoon (all these while hardly being able to see anything). I got caught by the suction too, but i did a stern rudder so it was much better. I thought i was quite far from her, but when i finished my 5th portage, i saw her just under the helix bridge. The original plan was to chase hard form the 4th lap, but it started getting colder with the rain and paddling hard when it's cold is not a good idea for me. anyway, she was having difficulties with the rubbish being caught on her rudder, and i managed to catch up quite a bit, but not enough. finished about 2 boat lengths behind her, but those 2 lengths took me 30s+ to finish. crazy conditions.

also on the course were the U23 men's C1. 14 boats. 1 of them was singapore, ming sheng. he's also from the national team and also more of a 200m paddler than marathon. He came in 11th. 12th and 13th were Japan. then 1 DNF. the japan guys confimed didn't have a foot pump so their boat was almost swamped. and it is impossible to portage with a swamped boat, must definitely empty (then the rain fills it up again!)

i wonder what they'll write for race course conditions. each race is supposed to have a race report where the temperature, humidity and wind speed is recorded.

oh yea, and we have this thing called feeding, where your support crew and provide you drinks/ cool you down (alot of the overseas competitors had people pouring water on them and sponging for the other races) from the 2nd portage onwards. My plan was to drink on the 2nd and 4th, and maybe 3rd. In the end i only drank on the 2nd cos it was already so cold and water was everywhere!

yea, so overall it was a great race, eye-opener. and today was well, probably the toughest conditions i have ever paddled in for such a long duration. after the race i went back to the singapore room (3m by 2m, no ceiling) to rest. Slept for ~1.5h, woke up, took my heart rate. 90 bpm! but still glad i did it. initially i didn't want to do marathon, then Coach submitted my name (without me knowing). then i heard he won the marathon world cup as a junior and now he's a 2x world champion in k4 200m. So i did it.

What if you believe?

If I didn't paddle, I would lose a part of me

Technically high school has been awhile:

An Athlete's Pride

"I'm a high school player. I'm a team player. I play with my friends and with some of my enemies, but I respect everyone when it comes to my sport. I know I'm not going to get a multi-million dollar contract to play professionally. I know I may not even get my name in the paper. I play for love of the game. For the pride and honor, for the blood, sweat and tears it takes to make the team, to earn the spot, to win the game. I play because I can, I play because I know that my life would be empty without the sport I play. I would have a lack of everything my sport gives me... integrity, courage, talent, fearlessness, pride, strength, stamina, will, and the heart of a champion. If I didn't play, I would lose a part of me. I'm an athlete. I'm a girl. I'm a champion, not because my team always wins, but because when we don't, we learn from our mistakes. We try to fix them, and most of all because we have fun. I have built lifelong friendships and memories because of my being an athlete. I leave everything on the field or court and continue to push myself. I am never happy with second place, but I have learned to accept it. I have learned to get over and through my anger and be the athlete and player I have always dreamed of being. I don't play for my parents, for my family, for my friends; I don't play for my coach or my teachers or my school. I play for myself but when I'm playing I represent them. It isn't about winning or losing, but I hate to lose. I won't settle for a tie, and I am not satisfied with 100%. To play, you have to sacrifice everything, your body, your time, your sweat, blood, and tears, everything... for your team. I am a player, and athlete and a champion, not because I know what it is like to win, but because I know what it is like to lose. I know what it is like to feel the anger and pain that comes along with "second best." I have been that girl with tears in her eyes, walking out to receive the second place trophy and clapping as the other team, my opponents, receive the first place one. I know what it is like to lose, to win, to want to quit, to want to cry, to not want to get up. I know what it is like to hear the cheers and yells for you. I know what it is like to feel the pressure of everyone on your shoulders, and I know what it is like to choke under that pressure. I know what it means to be an athlete, a true player, and that is why I play. I AM AN ATHLETE, A CHAMPION, A TRUE PLAYER."

haha, i just realised blogger can't do underlines.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you