angels and demons race!

or angels y diablos in my mind... i've no idea why it comes out in spanish in my head everytime i think of the words "angels and demons". ah well, must be that i'm starting to think in... a language with a semblance towards... LATIN... OR ITALIANO :) 

we won! fion and i took home the top prize at the race! huaaaaaaat ah!

thanks to the following people (in no order of favour! :P):

• kenn and sharon (who "sacrificed" themselves at the race)
• zee beau-tee-ful ms seet (we mels are just great isn't it?hehe) and her husband-to-be ryan who gave her that "lift"
• victor, our ABC colleague, who made a "difference" to us!
• regina, fion's friend, who took time away to help us... 
• vania, who gave me the e-copy of angels and demons, years ago. 
• AND!!! how can i ever forget... my numero uno, mas mas bueno (here i go in spanish again) internet crew... CHRISTINE!!! 

i can't tell you enough of how much i put myself thru for the race... reading angels and demon on my laptop late into the night, watching the trailers again and again, writing notes onto a primary school notebook, memorising facts (thinking it helps! yah right!), researching into the race (googling all the possible combis of the race related items. i learnt this from my last incarnation as a marketing researcher)... and i was at a party the night before with some friends... i drank lesser beer that i really would like to (since i am going beer free and deepfried free till i complete my half-iron race) RATS! and i took cab home to sleep, as my friends partied on. by the way, the band playing at timbre on friday night was really good. 

and being kiasu, i've had lots of water after i had all that beer! see, can have your cake and eat it... if you are ready to do so. 1.5 litres of water to dilute that 3.5 mugs of beer and 1 mango margarita :) magic!

so really, only 20% of that advance work helped! the race was a real toughie. it was intelligent and unexpectedly so... i really underestimated that the race questions would be related to facts and stuff. but fortunately, there was a lot less running than expected. 

i only trained 8km for running this week in preparation of the race. reducing my run load and resting monday, tuesday, thursday and friday was really a great strategy. i could actually stride today (when i needed to) and discovered that my body is more or less healed from the earlier fatigue that it was crashing through. really really great! 

fion was a great race buddy! as i always say, look for someone who complemented you. i strategise as she pulled together our resources. and she was ready to be supportive when i needed her. what can i say? ymca programmes colleagues are super! :) 

strategies that we used for this race... 

1. allies. we had friends who helped us along with things. 
2. knowledge. we left as little things as we could to chance. knowing that the first leg would determine very much whether or not we make it to rome, i planned waaaaaaaay before the event how i was going to take down the first station at bugis. unfortunately, the train came only 6 minutes later (SMRT, HELLOOOOOooo... Why so long interval? Got do your work or not one?) and some groups caught up. 
3. REST: as i said earlier we had plenty of time before arriving at our 2nd station. we twiddled thumbs, sat down, drink water and stared really hard at the mrt map that we were given. 
4. do your homework. research showed me 7 of 10 stations 2 nights before already. if you are serious about winning, do your homework. lay out your plans, but be ready to morph the plan at the shortest possible time. 
5. be ready... at all times. if only you knew how much i exercise... every wednesday, i do a long run. every sunday, i swim, run and do yoga... now am organising 100km bicycle rides in the hot sweltering unsheltered desaru every once a mth at least. (and i really don't believe in errr... bouncing around on studio floors or airboxing. i take muay thai for agility purposes.) and yes... thanks to ceaseless training... i outsprinted quite a few pairs when we disembarked from platform to control station. i think i may have shocked quite a few girls on how i could outstrip them quickly. hmm.. 

so yeah. if you want to win, you need the following: beauty (like me and fion :P), brains (like us again) and brawn!!!

its not hard... just have to develop some... FORM. 

could be FORM of structure, FORM of training, FORM of discipline. its simply... form! 

time to dream of rome sweet rome. nights world!