Brian Boyle - Iron Heart

60% blood loss. Heart moved across his chest. Pulverised organs and bones. 2 months of medically induced coma.

Fast forward 3 years.

Ironman finisher.

another proof that nothing is IMpossible

Stan Chart 2009 - A Spectator's Perspective

this was the first time that i was watching a race rather than taking part in it. taking into account my long term goals next year, i decided not to run with a shin splint that is taking longer than usual to heal (probably cause i've still been running until last week).

i reached the race site just in time to see mok come into the last 200m. he finished with a time of 2:43. he was the top singaporean. considering this was his first marathon, it is an understatement to say that this was a good debut.

ashley was 8 mins behind him at 2:51 to finish second sinagporean. been hearing alot about how he'd been training. must have paid off.

saw the rest such as (in no particular order) junyang, bear bay, mark, baldwin, lucas, josh, zhixiang, eddy chun kiak, nicholas, elston, sanny and quite a few others finish. it looked so fun.

most importantly, i was down to watch the rubicon-huggs runners come in. saw uncle rodney, doing his umpteenth marathon. then there was just, my best friend for 15 years doing his first marathon. he only picked up running this year with the AHM, then decided to do the 42.2 today. he did about 5hours plus plus, which for a first timer doesnt really matter. first time just complete can already. my first marathon i cramped and walked the last 10km, so this was quite an achievement for him.

inside, i was feeling happy for everyone. some hit their PB's some didnt. but they finished, and the smiles on their sweaty faces meant it was all worth it. the time and effort spent training were all worth it.

obviously i felt sucky (understatement). the top 2 singaporean men were both uni students, which goes to show how the younger guys stepping up to the marathon distance are making quite an impact in the scene. a few months ago this was my dream too, to do a sub 3:10 to qualify for boston. never is easy to come to terms when there is a gap between what u want and what u can realistically get is too big to cross.

i just have to be patient and know that with the rest time i will come back stronger and faster. in the mean time, go mok and ashley. go boston (if u decide to go) and experience my dream for me. hope to join u guys one day. cheers.

I stayed up for 10 hours to watch the whole race and it was worth every single 600 mins

looks easy? looks are deceiving. 17 hours of racing compressed into a 1 hour plus show.

mind made up

i've decided. i will not run stan chart this sunday.

reasons being:

1) dun want to worsen my shin splint into a stress fracture. let's take it easy now so that i can build my base for next season =)

2) minimal training. rather than do a sub-par marathon, i should be patient and then aim for another marathon where i can actually perform.

3) if i want to take this whole endurance sport thing seriously, then i should take the signals that my body is giving me seriously too.

4) next year's aviva, sing bi, ivp, and frankfurt.

cheers to me. i'm growing up. =D

i still want to thank my sponsors for stan chart. rubicon (a head hunting firm) and huggs (coffee and sandwich cafe) for the running top and shorts. sorry i will not be able to represent you all in the marathon. i will be there to support and wait for u guys to cross the finish line though!

now to find someone i can borrow a camera from..........

dream dream dream

why do i see myself crossing the finish line of stan chart overjoyed and in disbelief?

when i know almost for certain that it will not happen?

i maybe able to run, but im not sure whether my legs will hold up for 42km with minimal training.

my longest run so far is only 20km.

why?

but if i dun have this dream, then where will i be?

after all, isn't life about dreaming?

I dun watch American Football, but this is pretty amazing

Play of the day: Grant's Kenneth Acker's amazing punt return touchdown

RP Bi

almost cant believe that it's been a year since this race happened last year. how time flies.

last year i took part in the relay team event and swam 400m while norms was my running partner for the 1.5k run. we got third that day.

this time i was in the individual category with josh and dex. there werent really any preps for this race, mainly cause it is so short (450m swim and 2.4km run - though we all agree that it was not 2.4km. way too short)

NUS was the only uni participating, alongside the other polys and this time, singapore sports school. scott ang was there. scay kid. he swims damn blooody fast, not to mention that he's representing singapore in the youth olympics next year.

JJ chartered a super duper nice van to take the team to RP. after a short warm up, we were soon up on the blocks to start.

my swim was stiff. i was still aching from gymming on thursday, so my back felt like a block of wood (or whatever is stiff). i saw the 2 swimmers from SSS gaining a ridiculous lead over all the rest of us. my only thoughs were just to keep pushing so that the deficit would not be too big out of the water.

finished the swim in 6:25 at third position (definitely not at my 100%). got out of the pool and headed to transition. one of the SSS kids was still at transition while scott was already running out. at that point i was about to put on my shoes when i noticed that the shades on the shoes were orange. it was josh's! (the perils of having the same shoes with same lock laces next to each other) i jumped into my own box to get into my shoes.

i realised that i had too many things in transition for such a short race. race belt, shoes, shades, singlet. wah lau. so i bit into my race belt and grabbed the singlet and ran off with my shades on my head. i had to change while running so as not to waste time.

scott had about 25s over me, and i had no choice but to push real hard on the run to catch him. at first it looked like i wouldnt be able to do it, until slowly but surely the gap between us closed that i knew i had a shot at this.

i told myself to keep up the ridiculously painful pace i was running, and soon after i passed scott to get into the lead. then we hit the slopes of the run course. wah lau. damn painful. but i knew that after the slopes it was just another 100m or so to the finish. so i kept going at it till finally near the end i saw that i had a comfortable lead and i could pose for the ending. it was a sign of thanksgiving to God at the finish line.

the night before i actually prayed for victory. it was the first time that i had made this kind of request. usually i just pray for a good race, but never to win. but the night before i realised that this was a race that i could win. so why not right?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything , by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,, present your request to God. - Philippians 4:6


my run time was 7:46, so total was 14:11.
josh came in 4th, while ZY won her race as well! orlanda, delphine and dex also took part and finished in good time. Nic and JJ got 2nd for the relay cat, with ben and zhan yuan finishing up the rest of our team's performance. thanks goes out to norms as well who drove all the way down to woodlands to support us!




another rewarding day for the team! the oldies certainly showed that we are no pushovers!