Second Day of Pol-Ite on 31.01.10

Setting: Bed
Mood: Happy/ A little depressed
Thought: I got thrashed in 200m finals =(

So, the whole Pol-Ite Track and Field is over. That's rather a depressing relief seeing that I didn't do very well in one of my events. *starts banging head on my pillow, instead of the wall* Sit back and allow me to walk you through my victories and well, failure. Haha..

So the day started at 11am where I met my team in TP to take the coach there. GOD. The coach was nicer BUT the seats were all still wrapped in plastic. And the coach smelt weird. Yucks. Haha.. Okay, be thankful that I don't have to take MRT to Gombak Stadium. I remember when I had to make my own way there for a competition. GOSH. I was hyped up and all warmed up in the train and by the time, I was already cooled down and my muscles were sleeping. So, I have to stretch and do my drills again. SIGH. Anyway, I took some shots on the bus. Haha.. Then I fell asleep :) What? I know I am an athlete but I was tired so I slept. Haha.. What's wrong? Power nap, people :)

We reached Gombak Stadium at around 11.45am and gosh, Mr. Sun sure was cheerful that day. I think we were all pretty grumpy because of the heat that was making our skin burn and turn tomato-red. No. I think it was scorpion-red. Anyway, Darren, Joe, Zi Hian, Ka Wo and Eugene went to eat at the opposite coffeeshop. Sad for Joe, nothing halal there. Haha.. Malay :) His real name is Jauhari, by the way. I forgot my 200m Heats starts at 3pm so well, I ordered Cha Siew rice. Nice. I didn't finish it anyway. Haha.. Lets go into the individual races now!

200m Heats
Coach and I compromised a plan. I weren't suppsoed to do 200m for this POL-ITE. Its like this. I was BUGGING her for two weeks to let me do both 200m and 400m even though they were quite close to one another. At that point in time, 200m was on the 30th and 400m was on the 31st. Just to side-track abit, Nanyang Poly (NYP) went to push 200m into the second day which is 31st, therefore, we have to come up with a plan.

So at first, Coach let me have the impression that I am not doing my pet 200m. Fine. Then when I saw the event lists, I was SHOCKED! 101% shocked cause my name was in 200m! So well. Great. She said sheepishly that " I must have put your name down while I was half-asleep." Nice one, Coach. First you told me I am doing 200m 0.5 hour before the 200m race, that I am a reserve for one of my team mate. I am fine with being a team mate. Its just that she told me 0.5 HOUR before the race. Nice. And of course, I got whacked even though I came in Top 8. Now, she tells me this 2 hours before the race. At least there's an improvement. I think my Coach loves giving me a surprise without any joy (有惊没有喜).

Coach wouldn't hear of me doing 200m because.. (very true)
1. I stand a better chance in 400m
2. The lactate may not clear that fast since the events are very close to one another.

Its stupid to put all the events back-to-back so closely right?! Damn. Anyway, our strategy was to stride through the 200m Heats and Finals (not my style but oh well..). I was fine with that :) So I happily strided the 200m and came in 3rd for my Heat (Heat 2) and 6th in qualifying into the Finals with a timing of 29.03s :) Haha.. I think if this is IVP, I will not be in the Finals already! Hahaha..

I walked around and took a power gel- Strawberry Banana flavour =/ YUCKS. Haha.. Time to get ready for my 400m Finals!

400m Finals
While I was starting to go to my lane for 400m Finals, the Call Room asked competitors of 200m Finals to report. Like hello? I am not even through with my 400m Finals and here you are, yelling for 200 Finals athletes. *speechless*

Just to recap, I qualified in second position into 400m Finals with a timing of 66.10s on 30.01.10 :) The 400m finals made me furious. First scenario: "On your mark, Set?" Then something happened and all Lanes false-started. I think the gun didn't sound correctly. Instead of a "BANG!", it was "Pfft" Anyway, it was a lucky break because no warning or green flag was raised. Haha.. There is this new rule that you are disqualified after the first warning. Usually, its after the second warning. Haha.. Actually, I doubt they will disqualify ALL of us. Haha.. Then they will have to get the results from the Heats. And YAY! Its going to be in my favour too because I will be in 2nd place :) Haha!!! Anyway, the best thing is all 3 TP competitors are in Finals- Divya, Rita and me :) You hardly see this in IVP. Haha..

So, where were we? Ah, yes! The starter tried a second time. "On your mark. Set?...." Before the gun sounded, Lane 1- NYP, false-started and she was DQ. When the second gunshot sounded, I spring-jumped and my shin totally split :( MAJOR UNHAPPINESS. I shot an exempletive and kept rubbing my shin to ease the pain. Damn. You know how it works right? When someone false-starts, a second gunshot will ring through the air and then that's the part where your acceleration becomes a waste :( Either way, the starter started a third time and this time, it was successful :) At last! Haha.. I chased Divya, who was in Lane 3 and then just followed her closely, hoping Rita will follow me too. But okay, I got cut at the 300m mark so GREAT. Esther Tan from NYP overtook me and I came in third. Which means, I lost the silver medal by a HUGE 0.98s :( I wasn't happy at all. Not one bit. But okay, at least I got into the podium, so well, that's good right? Right :)

200m Finals
With only 15 minutes rest and a few urgent stretchings plus strategizing on the 200m Finals with Coach. Well, we deided to just stride through since there is a better chance of clinching a medal for 4x400m Timed Finals! Haha.. And its a Team thing so yes, I would rather get the Team a medal than one of my own :) But its better to get both! So yes, I came in 6th for this race with a timing of 29.51s. Well, I am still depressed that I got thrashed in 200m. Haha.. Then I have to get ready for the last race of the day!!!

400m Timed Finals
The 4x400m Girls' consists of ( according to leg runners): Head- Divya, 2nd runner- Rita, 3rd runner- Tse Xin, Anchor: ME! Haha.. I have been Anchor since donkey years so oh well. Haha.. Divya got a huge lead, as usual, I think she did a good 58-60s for the 400m since the lead was about 50m apart? GOOD JOB. Even though we got the suckiest lane- Lane 7. Rita got the baton and was striding/ jogging till the NYP girl cut her and well, then she started sprinting :( When I saw her running form after Divya passed it to her, I told Tse Xin "Rita, gone already. Later you just maintain and try and keep the gap small." Then Tse Xin gave me the " Sigh, I try.." look. Haha.. Tse Xin took the baton and maintained the gap of around 30m and well, I had to really sprint again, exactly like how I did on that fateful day during IVP. Haha.. I locked on target, who is the NYP girl, and well, CHASED HER. I closed the gap to about 10m but she already crossed the finishing line. I think she knew I was chasing her too cause I think we heard each others' footsteps and breaths! Haha.. With this, I just sprinted across cause I was afraid someone behind me will overtake me. Haha.. But its fine, we got Silver :)

The Baton is a POWERFUL thing. I thought I wouldn't have the energy to do a good 400m but damn, I felt a new leash of energy given to me once I got hold of the Baton! Its seriously something that is unexplainable yet I can feel. But okay, I collapsed on the field right after I crossed the line. Sick + Shin Splints+ Unable to breathe due to phelgm blocking my nose = You can hardly blame me for collapsing right. And okay, so I cried A LITTLE. Haha.. And I rubbed deepheat on my right eye while rubbing my shins :( But my eye is fine now. Just that you might be able to see a little fireball rollng about in my eyes when I am angry. Haha.. Just joking! Before I forget, I crossed the line with a timing of 4:34:53 :) Slower than IVP but it doesn't matter. We got 2nd!!!

So yes! I got two medals for my birthday next Sunday! Happy as I am, I still think Nanyang Poly is a bad host and organizer. Just my own opinions, nothing personal.

Some stuffs they did bad:

1. They change race event times and cramped all the events together.
2. A 400m runner will NOT run a 10km. So why can't they slot in the 10km race in between some sprint races? Wouldn't that be better?! GOSH.
3. They report the wrong athletes who qualify. Bummer.
4. They gave out the wrong medals during prize presentation. Honestly, they gave me a 3rd for 100m Hurdles Girls' bronze medal when I was on the podium for 400m prize-giving. Awesome NOT.

Some stuffs that they did well:

1. They helped to solve our problems fast enough.
2. They printed out the qualifying timings fast enough.
3. They are overall, polite. LOL.

So yes, this is my reflection on the race. Note to self: Never ever go all-out in a race that you were not supposedly to do in the first place :)