oh god. final land training yesterday and that realization only struck me when it was over. when i was dumping my workout gloves and weights logbook into my locker and it dawned on me that i'd never have to use those if i didn't want to, ever again. i wouldn't ever need to bust my ass off doing 110pds/10reps for lat pulldowns, bench 86/30 till the lactic acid builds up and explodes, or knot raffia for string roll (which we had affectionately christened 'spring roll' in futile attempts to make the prospect of that exercise somewhat more bearable), or do nauseating 4x1.6km intervals at 5pm ever again. yeah. so is this how it ends?
 
philip's right- part of me, like him, does yearn for days when i can be lazy. after one plus years of committment to this sport i love, i've almost forgotten what it's like to go home early when school ends instead of training till dusk, eat anything and everything i want (okay perhaps i've attained moksha when it comes to this, hahaha quan!) and generally have all the time on my hands especially on weekends to blow. but i don't think that'll suit me. i just can't give up what i've gained over the past year. i can't go back.
 
i'll miss the training sessions-  seeing gs do her rubbish vibrations during weights, being suaned by weiqi and vania, our team runs, our circuit trainings, ab work (in which gs vibrates (AND gyrates) awfully, again),  next-day-wake-up-with-hellish-backache 4-3-2-3-4 kayak rotations. Going to kallang gym and being buaya-ed by stupid mat bodybuilders (there you go, vania!). pullup trials under the watchful eye of huilin. 6k runs to the esplanade and back, following the oft-frequented route by shine and her fellow apple-eater. collective groans from the entire team upon hearing that jiao lian wanted us to run before training. rowing 4 2ks and countless 500s and getting all sunburned and parched under the merciless sun. complaining about the oilspills and dead animal carcasses at kallang. hating wakeboarders and speedboats to the core for delaying our launching. doing weird things like one-stroke starts. the thrill and exhilaration of racing and being in a k2 that flies.
 
our team dinners and team outings- stayover at zhen's house with sharksfin soup and pizza and deutscher fussball on tv to boot, yami yogurt and subway saturdays with sheryl, gs and the rest, and not too long ago cheesefries wednesdays (okay i admit!) LAST YEAR after training. team dinner after southernislands expedition when the dessert vanished from the plate within twelve seconds after having arrived at the table, carol being the main culprit. weiqi being mock-impaled with a greasy pork rib knife from kenny rogers' by gs. taking rubbish photos at the esplanade, most notably the shot of me gesturing at gs's ample chest which was nicely illuminated by a ray of light. psycheup session at lyd's house with nail-painting exploits pre-sdba,  slicing our own leftover bananas from dragonboat competition onto the waffles at cafe cartel, which carol promptly devoured, being none the wiser. those hilariously raucous team chats at fuzion or tcc, which inevitably always culminated in a most undistinguished array of candid photographs being taken amidst the forore, which would, upon close examination later, prove to be most incriminating. (how can i ever forget the shot of gs's inflated assets HAHAHA) mag urging vania not to  attempt to "make a mountain out of a molehill" in perhaps undisguised reference to the aforementioned assets.      
 
the team. zhen sheryl gs mag weiqi shine lyd vania leqi carol. the ten of you mean so, so  much to me. inexplicably, i'll miss suaning and being suaned. i'll miss the training together, running together, rowing together. the encouragement, the spirit that's lacking in other teams but most definitely not in ours.  the guys team. though our teams mightn't be as close as we'd have preferred them to be, we're still all raffles canoeists together and that's what really matters.
 
a week to finals, and then i won't know what to make of everything.  i'm relishing the idea of competing, but then again, i'm dreading the time when everything'll be over. i might cry. i don't know. when it finally fully sinks in that i've rowed my last race as a raffles canoeist.
 
oh well. Till then.

*  *  *

RAFFLES CANOEING

batch of 2003-2004

 

*  *  *

 
===================================
you said it was like this
i was torn between two worlds
one full of promise
and the truth i knew would hurt
you say i'm no angel
trying to put the past behind
 
so now i try to find
a place to leave all
memories in my mind

we try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away
the story of my life
 
see i was just thinking
now my life is on the road
the straight and the narrow
on the route that i've been showed
you know it's not easy
to try to change your ways
 
so now i try to find
a place to leave all
memories in my mind

we try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away
the story of my life
 
a place to leave all
memories in my mind
 
we try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away
the story of my,
try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away

the story of my life
\\ kristian leontiou