Last race

The IASAS swimming tournament in Manila can be summed up in one word: epic. The privilege of competing in IASAS is not something that one can gets automatically just by being a member of the Varsity team – only those who are deemed to have earned their spot are selected. I had my last race ever last Saturday. It wasn’t an individual event – it was a relay (400m freestyle). For this race, there were four people in each relay team, and each person in a relay team had to swim 4 laps (100m) each. My individual time for 100m freestyle was around 1:09 (I think, I have to check this up). Not only was it my last race, but it was the last race of the entire three-day tournament.

We were pumped up like crazy. It was amazing – all I had in my mind was doing well in the relay. What happened the previous two days of the tournament were irrelevant – we (the relay team) had to focus ourselves on what was happening there and then – in the present. We had a few minutes to get ourselves ready because the girls 400m free relay went before us. I wanted to cheer for our girls relay team, but both I and my relay teammates were just too busy getting ready for our race. The other five teams were also there behind the timers and the diving blocks, stretching, watching the progression of the girls’ relay and performing their personal pre-race rituals.

At the conclusion of the girls’ relay (I don’t remember what place our girls finished), I got together with my relay teammates. We needed to do well in this race – relays were were double the points one could earn in an individual race, and the points were desperately needed by the whole team. Before the race started, other members of the swim team who weren’t in the relay began cheering. Though it wasn’t enough to get my nerves down, it got me ready for the race and made me feel energetic.

I wasn’t the first/starting swimmer for the relay – I was swimmer number three. The first relay swimmers stood by the diving blocks awaiting the starter’s whistle. But before that happened, the announcer introduced each relay team to the crowd of watching swimmers and spectators. When we were introduced, the cheers for us were louder than the rest (I swear it was). Afterwards, everything became silent. The starter blew the three whistles, indicating that the first swimmers should step on the blocks. Then yelled out through the speakers, “take your mark,” and then a beep signaled the start of the race. Suddenly you could hear the deafening cheers from spectators sitting at the bleachers and at the other end of the pool.

I continued my pre-race ritual of swinging my arms and stretching as the first swimmer completed his leg of the race. He kept up with the others. As he neared the completion of his fourth lap, the second swimmer stepped onto the blocks and began his relay start, which consisted of following the approaching swimmer with his hands outstretched, with his hands getting closer to his feet as the approaching swimmer approached (for lack of a better word). As the swimmer was an arm’s length away from the wall, the second swimmer swung his arms forward allowing him to gain maximum distance on his dive, and began the second 100m of the race.

I was up next. The anchor (the fourth and last swimmer) reminded me of the importance of this race: we needed to do well, the team needed the points. As the second swimmer neared the completion of his leg of the race, I stepped up on the block, and began the motions of the relay start. And off I went.

I’m a mid-distance swimmer, so I can swim 50-200m events. As I was swimming 100m, I had to sprint all-out. I had to maintain a fast stroke, yet at the same time ensure that my pull could get me far enough, and that my legs remained kicking. It was tempting to look at the other lanes underwater and see how they were faring, but I didn’t. If I turned my head and looked at the other lanes, I would have been slower. In contrast to being above water, all I could hear as I sprinted were the splashes of my stroke and the breaths I took. I’m the kind of person who thinks about everything at once. All I had in my head was finishing that race, and finishing it well. I didn’t worry about what would happen the next day, or regret my poor performance in two of my individual events the previous day. For the first time ever, my mind was in the present.

Everything went smoothly: my stroke was long but fast, my legs continued kicking, and my turns were in good order. My heart beat faster and faster as I completed my last lap. In order to go as fast as possible, I had to keep myself from breathing. When I touched the wall, the anchoring swimmer dove off, and I climbed out through the right side of the pool. When the race was done, the coach told me that I broke my 100m free time, from 1:09 (I have to check this) to 1:02.

We finished third, and got a bronze medal for the race. My last race ever.

Egged on

I haven’t been on here for a while – sorry guys, I’ve been quite busy.

I came back from Singapore on Sunday. The swimming exchange was bloody awesome. I made new personal best times for 200 m free, 100 m back, and 50 m free (I only swam three or four events – and a relay… I think). I was housed by an Irish-Australian family. When we got to their house on Friday, I swear they stuffed the both of us with so much food: curry, Ben N Jerry’s ice cream and cookies. They gave us cookies to eat during the meet for the following day in case we got hungry. After the meet, the team went to one of the nearby malls for dinner. SAS had their “homecoming” thing happening right after the meet. We as a team collectively decided not to attend, mainly because the American concept of “homecoming” seemed alien to us – though some of the Americans on the team attempted to explain what “homecoming” was about. In the end, we didn’t go – it was an SAS thing, and in any case, we wanted to go around Orchard Road, eat dinner, and some of us wanted to do some shopping.

While around 26 of us were eating dinner, two people (a guy and a chick) sitting next to me at the dinner table began talking – in French (they take French class, so they can more or less speak it). The girl (she’s a senior by the way) spoke to the guy (a junior) in a gossipy tone. In my head, I asked myself: why the need to speak French? The freshman girl sitting next to the junior also seemed bewildered, but kept on eating. The guy (some people deem him to be odd) seemed bewildered by the course their conversation was taking. I don’t speak French, but I do take Spanish and I know that there are some words that are similar, because French and Spanish are Romance languages. I couldn’t really understand what they were saying, but the senior kept on glancing at the freshman girl (who didn’t know what was going on), and laughed when the junior gave matter-of-fact answers, which seemed funny to her.

After dinner, the team split up – some people stayed at Causeway (that’s the name of the mall we went to), while others (including me) went to Orchard Road on the MRT. The train station was underground, so we had to take an escalator. I was in front with my roommate, who incidentally is Singaporean and knew his way around the city and the MRT system (which by the way is really easy to use). People at the back of the pack were laughing. I looked back – some of the girls and guys with us were in gossip mode, laughing and whispering to each other. The junior guy and the freshman girl at the dinner table earlier were a few steps behind me on the escalator. I was busy looking for the the place where we could buy tickets, while at the same time I overheard their conversation, which went more or less like this:

Freshman girl: What were you and [senior girl] talking about?
Junior guy: She was asking me who I liked on the table?
Freshman girl: Oh really? Who was it?
Junior guy: You.

As I walked out of the escalator and headed for the ticket-selling machine, I felt the urge to laugh, and in all honesty, the first word that came to my head upon hearing that conversation was “nasty”. Then I looked back. The freshman girl seemed slightly uncomfortable. The people that trailed behind them walked and glanced at them briefly – observing them, scrutinizing them. I don’t think they knew what happened on the escalator – otherwise I would’ve heard about it.

We got to Orchard Road. Most of the girls with us wanted to go shopping, while we guys couldn’t really be bothered, and decided to just hang out in one of the malls that lie along Orchard Road. The freshman girl went with us. We all agreed that we’d meet up at Borders (its a bookshop-cafe) by 8:30 pm. I decided to walk around Orchard Road on my own for a bit, and everyone kinda split up. I came to Borders a little early, and the guys were sitting at one of the tables. The junior guy was there with them. I asked where everyone else was, and they said that everyone else was on their way. The freshman girl took a taxi back to her host family’s house on her own early.

**

We went to Changi Airport for the flight back to Jakarta at around 10 am. I basically ate lunch there with a few people (Burger King). The newly-built Terminal 3 is awesome. After boarding our Singapore Airlines plane, we went to our assigned seats. We weren’t the only school team returning to Jakarta – our school also sent the rugby team and the girls basketball team – so the plane was packed full of high school students. Some people in the swim team decided to do some seat-switching. The junior guy decided to switch seats so he could be next to the freshman girl. Incidentally, senior girl was on the same row. She went on gossip mode again, and started laughing and talking to the people in the row in front of her. The freshman girl seemed uncomfortable. The junior guy, lacking the sense to know that he’s being used as a tool of amusement, was oblivious to it all.

As the plane began to taxi out to the runway, and the in-flight safety video was turned on, instructing us on how to put on our seat belts, and warning us that smoking in the lavatories was against Singapore law, I feel asleep.

2008

The new year has arrived. The time to reflect on the previous year has passed, and the time to look to the future has arrived. I don’t like making “resolutions” for the new year. Whenever I try to make resolutions, I always seem to forget them.

A lot of things will be happening this year – for me anyway. I have two more batteries of exams to endure, finishing up my remaining university applications (and awaiting subsequent acceptances and rejections), the culmination of my high school swimming career (three years on the team – just because I’m talking about it here it doesn’t mean I’m the best haha) and of course, graduation.

It might just be me, but sometimes people get too carried away with looking to the future and forgetting about the present.

New year’s wasn’t too bad. I went to a family friend’s house for dinner, then took my dad to the airport. He went to Davao and he’ll be there till Friday to meet up with his side of the family.