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4 months…. that’s how long since I put on my running shoe to go for a run…. (beside the recent IPPT test)…. and man!!!!, It was damn shag but at the same time it was a great feeling!!!.

I met up with a friend of mine to go for a run tonight, as we had not been running, we set a short distance for ourselves, just to test out where had my standard of running had drop to.

We decided to run from Downtown East to a canal just after the Loyang Temple, the distance, 6km. Ha, and guess what, just above 1km plus, I already start to feel my leg getting stiffen up, and even before I cleared Pasir Ris Area, my singlet was already wet and i’m already panting…. In my mind I was like “Gesh, can’t believe it… am I getting old or what? I had yet to reach the turning point and I already going to shag out…. ha, you must be joking.”

Determined not to give up, I started to think about my purpose of running and my missed opportunities in the past two marathons. I reminded myself that my purpose of running was not only to keep fit but also to use it to remind myself that whenever I stopped running, my fitness will start to drop, and that’sserve as a reminder to my life too, whenever I stop working hard, things will start to deteriorate, at the same time running also remind me that, as long I continue to work hard, I can increase my distance and timing as time goes by and it’s the same when it come to our life. As long we continue to work hard and improve, our all aspect of life will improve as time goes by.

Next, is my goal to run my marathon, twice in the past two years, I had fallen ill at the last moment and thus failed to attend the annual running event. Is time to break the cruse, and for this year, I’m determined to start my training early and set my physical condition right so that I will not make it 3 times in a row that I will miss the marathon.

Amazingly from the few seconds of self-thoughts, I managed to gather my energy to finish the run and in the end, I was able to last the 6km run and not feeling tired at all. Yes, I was totally soaked with my perspiration but I feel great and refreshed!!!

It’s really great to be running again, now I just can’t wait for the next run and this time round I will go for a further distance and trust me, sure and slowly I will be running a longer and longer distance in no time and of cos, when MARATHON 2009 come, I will ensure that  I will be fully prepared!!

Total points earned 22pts, 5 pts from Sit-up, Shuttle run and 4 pts for Chin-up, Standing Board Jump and 2.4km run.

Above is my result for my Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) test today, and for that I got a silver award for my fitness. Yeah hey!!!! Celebrate!!! hahahaha!!!

Frankly speaking, a silver  is ready an okay results but at the same time, I’m aware that the results is way way way off my standard.

However, I am still happy and that’s because it is a well-deserved results,why? It is because, I had not been training for months!!! Ever since December 2008 when I was down with cough that cause me to miss the Standard Chartered Marathon, I had not put on my running shoe to go for a run. 

And in fact, the only sport or exercise that I had been doing is soccer and that had only happened 4 time for this year and at most I played about 60-70mins per match. Playing soccer alone does really improve my overall fitness..

So with the lack of training and I still managed to get a silver is really not so bad.

Whats more important for me now, is that I’m know where are the shortfall in order for me to get a GOLD standard. and this time run, the shortfall wasn’t my weakest station in chin-up, it was actually my pet event RUNNING!!! This morning I clocked my third “career” slowest timing at 10mins 49s, and people, guess what, that’s what 3 months with running can do to you.

Anyway, it is a good thing to just get a silver as it turns up to serves a motivation to get me moving again towards my Gold Standard. The good news is that the silver results is for my last year window and therefore, for this year window starting from 10th march 09 to 9th march 10, I will go for my  GOLD.

SO, needless to say more, is time to put on the running shoe and start my training again, and in the near future, the Gold award will be in my hand. HA, are there anyone care to join me in my quest?

Whoo HOO!! What A match! ha! Singapore Slingers 91 and Darwin All-Stars 68….. hahaha That’s the final score for the basketball match that I  just watched today!

HA,what a great experience it was, the match was my first ever professional basketball match that I watched LIVE in person MAN!!. 

Despite the low attendance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, I was quite surprised that the atmosphere was still pretty happening. There were people cheering, clapping, pushing the team on and I think that about 60% of the crowd were Caucasians. So, I’m not even sure which team were they cheering on… hahahaha as you see, all the 10 man on the court, none of them were Singaporean, they are all foreigners and even the 2nd team were all foreigners. For the Singapore  Slingers, is only when you come to the 11th man then he is a Singaporean!!

Well, nothing wrong with that, but as the first Singapore’s professional Basketball team, I do hoped to see some local breed in the team. Ha and of course, I’m aware that to assemble a team of Singaporean it is easier said than done. In fact it is the same situation for most of the team sports in Singapore, there are just not enough local talent to go around.

Firstly, I want to confess that, I don’t even know much about Singapore Slingers other than the fact that they were formed in 2006/07 to be the first Asean-based team in the Australia National Basketball League (ANBL). I have to admit that if it is not because of the free ticket that was given by my boss and  my interests in Basketball(the B-ball is my fav. sports game), I will not even go a  match like this. 

I’m guilty as such, that I’m one of the lot that doesn’t really support the local sports scene. Other than the national team news on table-tennis, bowling, badminton and the Singapore Lions(soccer), I hardly pay any attention to the local sports scene. I was more interested in the Barclay Premier league than the S-league!!.

The reasons of having no interest in them are mainly, because that I don’t even care and I deem that the sports standard here are just not good enough for me to support. Ya, I know, who am I to make such a comment, I wasn’t even a school team player of any sports lack alone being a national player. 

Well, it is just that there are really nothing much for me to support them….. at least that was how I thought in the past. However, after today’s experience in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, something just struck me. I was like “Hey!  The Slingers are no so bad after all, they are pretty entertaining, how come I never ever thought of coming to watch and support this team, based on the way they played, they really deserved some support.”

It made me realised that it is so common and easy for people to condemn the local sports scene, and there are really not many local sports supporter around. Come to think of it, if there are not many people supporting the local sports, how can the local sports scene grows? If we still behave like the past, waiting for the quality to come and then support(which I’m equally guilty of), I can bet that the local sports scene will never grow. 

So, I guess it is time for me to change side from being a non-local sports supporter to a local sports support. As today, I felt the same adrenalin rush that I get from cheering the Singapore Lions when I was cheering for the Singapore Slingers. The feeling is the same, it is a feeling of national pride especially when you heard the word “Singapore”.

From now, I am even more convinced that I will give the local support more support then before. Regardless of the nationality of the players, as long as they are donning the national colours of Singapore, I will continue to support them. It is time to give our sportsmen and sportswomen the support they needed so that, they can draw more encourage and motivation from us rather than the pressure and stress from wanting them to prove their worth first before we support them. As now I believed that if there are more fans around then the players will have more things to fight for other than the prize and glory.

So 加油! Li JiaWei (Table-Tennis Singapore National , China-Born), Ronald Susilo (Badminton Singapore National, Indonesia-Born), Shi Jia Yi(Soccer, Singapore Lions, China-Born) and the lastest Darren Ng (BasketBall, Singapore Slingers- Australia-Borned) Make Singapore Proud and hopefully, because of your success, more Singaporean will support and enter the national local sports scene!