Tuesday August 17, 2004
I’m tired, and bored. Missed my 9 a.m. class today coz i was up till wee hours of the morning watching the swimming finals. Crazy huh? Kind of making me reminisce the good ol’ days of competition. I used to swim competitively for about 7 years, just in case people were wondering. Wasn’t that good a swimmer, but manage to make it to Nationals. All my childhood and most my adolescent years were spent in the pool, toiling away for something which i thought would make me great. Didn’t turn out that great, but was a good experience nonetheless.
It’s like when i watch the competition, i can emphatise, i really can. I know how it feels to stand on the blocks and how for a minute everything else is shut out and all you hear is the gun bang and off you go. I know how it feels to be in the last few metres of the race and someone’s on your tail but the lactic acid is burning through your muscles so bad you feel like you’re gonna loose control of your limbs. I can also feel the elation of when you touch the wall and your name comes up on top of the score board or when you do a personal best time and how proud it feels to be standing on the podium and having a medal put around your neck (didn’t manage to get on the podium that much though 
)
Anyway, i have a profound respect for swimmers. It’s hard to be good, even harder to be the best. Too bad i didn’t have the talent, or the size to go further. Loved every minute of it though. No regrets. GO OZ!! (Not being unpatriotic here, but Malaysian swimmers are really not up to that standard….yet..hehe)
Gonna go watch swimming now, 
very inspirational post there…
i really connected with the protagonist (ie. YOU, lol)
you should make a film with that material! 🙂
too bad i’ve always been a terrible swimmer…
*flashback*
once in yr 4 or 5 (YES, when i was still a little chubster) i thought i’d do my school “house” proud (remember school colours, etc?) by entering the 100m backstroke becoz every house/team got a point for anyone that entered a race…
ANYWAYS, gun goes off and everyone’s going psycho with the backstroke, there’s water flying everywhere and i’m freakin out not only coz i was HELLA NERVOUS, but also coz i was FAT and i couldn’t really swim…
so i make it about 25 metres down the pool and that was it for me….i was choking on water and i’m like “Screw it, there’s no way i’m gonna finish”….so i freestyled back to the starting blocks and gracefully exited the pool…OMG how embarrasing.
that’s my story, i hope you enjoyed it. needless to say bel, i never got on the podium, let alone finished a race, ROFL.
SO YOU DID WELL!
since fat matt had do to his little trip down memory lane perhaps i should join him.. i was a skinny kid, and during all my years of highschool i never participated in a swimming carnival ONCE!
‘How can that be?’ I hear you ask? I’m from the bloody tropics! Well people from the tropics (as you should know m’dear) are pretty lazy and our definition of swimming consists of lying on a rubber ring sipping pina coladas and tanning. Mind you when there’s a shark around I can swim pretty fast.
Lovely post though mdear, makes me wish I was more sporty… but only for a split second.
xoxo
isa
Matt, matt…..you crack me up!! I can’t stop laughing reading your comment here….not that i’m making fun of you or anything…..but you must’ve been sooo cute. heheh…. Well…now that you’re all ‘hunk-ed’ up….no more ‘fat’ comments about yourself k? hehe….You’re a good boy…..keep it up!
haha awww such nice words.
thanks for the kinda words bel 😛