What does my future lies?

MIDNIGHT!/ Saturday, July 29, 2006

Haix. The 1st interschool sport climbing competition today was tough! Well, at least that's how I feel. It was a disappointment not being able to reach the top, and especially so for the second route, since I was so close to touching the tile.

From afar, the tiles looked alright and manageable to climb. However, perhaps because of height disadvantage or poor techniques or other factors, it was tough reaching for some of the tiles. For the first route, I fell off at approximately the half way mark,not being able to grab a tile. Sigh. Was demoralised then. And when I was being lowered down, my stomach felt empty and I felt hungry suddenly!

Then for the second route, because I had gotten a warm up from climbing the first route, I was able to push on even further, till I reach the second last tile. In the beginning though, I supposed I used the wrong technique to climb. I was crossing my legs when climbing. Instead of placing my left leg at the left tile and my right leg at the right tile, it was the other way round. (Understand understand? It's difficult to explain the scene in words.) But then, for me, using this method was easier to climb. And I discovered another method to push myself up too---to place both hands on the same tile and then pushing yourself up. This method is more time consuming, but it works when your hands are getting tired. So I climbed and climbed and struggled at some parts, but I managed to get to the third last tile! The distance between that tile and the second last one was far, so I had to really stretch and used my armpower to reach for it. By then, i didn't have alot of energy left, so my few attempts wasn't that successful. And before I knew it, the time to complete the wall was up and I had to come down. Boo. :(

And both my hands were totally tensed up after the climb. That shows how much strength I used! The wall is much worse than the AJ rock wall.

Although I didn't perfrom very well, I'm glad for this experience which I have had today. It has made me realise where my weak points lie which I'll need to improve and in future, I'll be able to share the experience which I have with ODACians.

This sports climbing competition has also made me love climbing more and more! When I was up there climbing, I felt great. There's just this wonderful feeling which I don't know how to describe, especially when you're high above. If I had reached the top, I'll proabably be able to experience something even greater I supposed. But never mind, I'm setting further targets for myself now.

And I got to see afew familar faces today at the competition! It's an added bonus because I didn't expect to see them. I saw claire, shu hui, emmeline, eunice, graham and zhi geng! All of them climbed expect for claire who came down to support shu hui. And I had a great talk with eunice, catching with her and cheering for the climbers at the same time. Hee. Seeing zhi geng before heading home was another surprise, becuase I hasn't seen him for a long long time (he's my primary school so go figure when was the last time I saw him) and the fact that he recognised me! I was able to recognise him, since his features didn't change alot but I did! So it was a shock when he waved to me. I sort of dao-ed him though..and graham too. =X.

Mr chin, issac, cheeyong, vanessa and shenglong came down to support us today, but then no j1s came down..thus at times, I felt left out. Oh wells. I still thankful though! Having seniors beats having no one to support you when you're climbing! SRJC peeps cheered for me too! I could hear their shouts distinctly when I was climbing. Thanks so much eunice and emmeline! Ohh, and the organising commetitte only provided harness and not chalkbags. So, thanks to jean siew who was climbing after me, for providing me with the chalk! =)

While waiting for the results, we had dinner at burger king. At 1900h, the results came out. In a way, the results were a consolation. Hazel and I were ranked 16th. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Howver, half of the number of competitiors were also ranked 16th. Only 10 people maganged to complete both routes and 5 others completed one. Thus, the remaining who failed to complete any were ranked 16th. For the girls, the top 8 individuals moved on to the next round. Pathetic, isn't it? The open category females were much better. In fact, all the other categories were much more exciting compared to the 'A' division females.

As for the guys, since most of them completed (i wonder how they do it?), the top 16 were involved in the next round. And jeremy was one of them! *claps* He was ranked 14th. In the knock out round, although jeremy was fast, the victorian climbed even faster. Nonetheless, he did a great job!! And for that, he earned himself 2 blue blacks, one from the first climb and another from the knock out round when he he knocked against the tiles. =P

By the time jeremy finished his climb, it was 8 plus and all of us headed home. The seniors took a train while I chose the bus since it was a faster alternative to go home. Besides that, I had to go to the optican at bedok too. So now, because I went to the optican to get new contact lenses, I'm broke!! I'm feeling the pinch from spending $285 on my contect lenses.

Past. Present. Future
7/29/2006 11:10:00 PM <3

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