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Discovering my talent for running through football
It was 1982, I was just 3 years old. Lazying in the living room, clutching my milk bottle with both hands, sucking down the warm MILO that my mother had just made, my eyes were intensely locked to the television set. It was a Charity Shield (presently known as the FA Community Shield) match between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. The memory is still very vivid.
At that time, I didn't know which team were which and I don't even know anything about football but I was just intrigued by the things that were happening in front of my eyes. Groups of people kicking and chasing after a ball and the emotions that were poured into the event by the crowds that were sitted surrounding the green field with their singing, chanting and shouting including my father and elder brother who seemed to be immersed with the game.
I was like a kitten, following every movement of the ball - up, down, left, right, I just couldn't take my eyes off the tv. Maybe it was the bright red coloured jersey or perhaps the movement, interpassing and guile of the players that made me pay more attention towards the Liverpool team. One thing for sure, after defeating the team in white 1-0, and lifting the Shield, Liverpool FC was etched in my heart and soul forever.
Ever since then, I have been supporting Liverpool FC, though at times, when I was still young, I cheered on every teams that wore red jerseys as I thought they were Liverpool. But I know, the very next day, I used my father's motorcycle helmet as my very first ball as at that time, there was no ball lying around in the house. As it was almost round, I kicked it around the house.
I suppose it was when my father forgotten to bring and wear his helmet while riding to work and was stopped by the traffic police one day as I had hid the helmet so that I can play with it, that he bought a plastic ball for me from an indian provision shop. It was a cheap plastic ball but it was my favourite toy. I slept with it, eat with it and even took my shower with it. I brought it along and kick it around wherever I go. My mother just could not stop me from kicking and playing with the ball in the house as sometimes I will accidentally break the displays and at most times, left the ball's marks on the walls.
Seeing my craze for soccer, my father brought me to an open space like the void decks or the basketball courts to impart some of his knowledge on the basic technique of soccer like kicking and stopping the ball on me. He even encouraged me to join the other kids in the estate where we were residing, for some kick-abouts to hone my skills.
When playing soccer in a group or a team, being very young, kids do not have positional sense. So you can be a defender or a striker, or even a goalkeeper, every where the ball goes, you will follow. It will be like bees swarming on a hive. Everytime the ball is kicked, all the players will charged towards the ball and crowd around it. Thus, to have more chance of touching the ball, one better run hard and fast and that was what I did. There is no way to dribble the ball from one point to another with other kids surrounding you and kicking furiously and wildly for the ball. The only way was to kick the ball and chase after it. It was not pretty but it was certainly effective.
The first few games was tough. I could not even managed to complete the game as I got tired quite fast. I was panting heavily. But after awhile, I got the hang of it.
I suppose playing in such a way for a few of years has helped in increasing my endurance, stamina and even speed in running as by the time I was schooling, I was galloping up and down the field with ease while playing for my primary school's soccer team. This time, my positional sense was much better but as a midfielder, lots of running still has to be done.
During my primary school days, I still did not think much about my running ability as I was more focused on the beautiful game itself though I came in top positions during the school's sports meet in the track and field events. However, I only took notice of it when I came in 2nd for my secondary school's cross-country meet, defeating almost all of the school's running team except for one who came in first, without proper training and etc. I was amazed by my achievement and started to train even harder during my soccer training in the runs and sprints exercises, and never looked back since.
I won top accolades during my secondary school tenure in the cross-country meets as well as the sports meet in the track and field events. By the time, I was serving my National Service, I was chosen to represent the Officer Cadet School running team as well as the Guards running team after being posted there after my graduation as an Officer. During this time, I've ran many half-marathons and came in the top position as a team.
A year after my National Service, my life took a drastic turn. I was involved in a road accident that left me with an amputated right arm and paralysed left arm. For a few years, I cooped myself up at home, not doing anything except for making trips to and fro the hospital for doctor's consultation and occupational therapy. Though I do not have suicide tendancy, I just lost the zest for life.
However, my life took another turn when my doctor told me to do some running to increase my endurance and, to increase my leg muscle and strength as muscle from thigh and nerve from my diaphragm will need to be harvested and planted to my left arm in the hope of regaining some function in my left arm in the long operation. Heeding my doctor's advice, I did some brisk walking before moving to slow jog at the park near my house.
Within just a few weeks, I was doing normal runs at the park and even staircase runs at my 14 storeys apartment. With the encouragement of my family members, I took part in the Swissôtel Vertical Marathon after just three months of running. To my surprise, I came in the 76th position out of 297 participants in my category, and not only that, I was the first disabled person to compete and complete the vertical marathon.
Due to my achievement, I was invited by the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) in December 2008 to train in their athletics program. I made steady progress during training and made my international debut at the concluded Arafura Games 2009 held in Darwin, Australia. It was a medal-winning start for me as I returned with a Gold in the Men’s 1500m and a Silver in the Men’s 800m. My recent achievement was in the concluded Asean Para Games 2009 that was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where I won a Silver in the Men's 800m and broke the meet record set in 2005.
This showed that although the accident has taken away most of my arms, it diminished none of my running prowess and mental strength which I have discovered through football. I have football to thank for.
Even now, in this condition, I do still play football with my neighbourhood friends every now and then, as my passion for this Beautiful Game can never wane. Luckily, my legs are perfectly fine. As for Liverpool FC, though this season is a season to forget, but 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.
“This blog post is submitted as part of Sony Ericsson’s Extra Time campaign. You can read the other local football stories here. :)”
North East Run 2010
North East Run 2010
Date: Sunday, March 14 2010
Venue: Pasir Ris Park (Car Park C)
Flag-off: 6.45am (Men's 16km)
URL: http://www.northeastrun.com/
It was a bitter-sweet event for me. Early in the morning, a few days before the event, the phone in my house rang and a news was given that my great-grandmother had just passed away. She died due to a freak fall in the toilet. She was 108 years old. Though directly, she was not my great-grandmother (she's my grandmother's mother's sister), my family and I was quite close to her. It was quite a sad moment for me and it filled me with this question, "Why before every running event, somone that I knew, passed away?" It happened before Standard Chartered Marathon. It happened again before MR25 Ultra Marathon. And now this. Is this merely coincidence? I really hope so. But it gave me the opportunity to dedicate my run though I don't really need it and I pray that such thing would not take place again for my future running events.
On the flip side, a couple of days to the event, I was given the news by my doctor that the nerves that were 'worked on' during the last operation were still showing sign of regeneration. Hence, my intended operation will be postponed for another six months before they carry out another test as he will not like to take the risks of jeopardising the regeneration process. I was thrilled. This will give me the chance to take part in several more running competitions, and at the same time, allows me to earn more money to cover the operation and other expenses.
The day before the event, I just stayed at home and spent a couple of hours in the morning and evening on stretching as my groin was still feeling the strain which incurred during a speed-endurance workout a week earlier. I also took that 'lull' period to massage my knees as there are still some niggling pain especially on my right knee as I have twisted both my knees during the last MR25 Ultra-Marathon.
As this was my first running competition for the year 2010, I was really hoping that I'll do well. I was very excited. On the day of the competition, just like before, I drank a glass of black coffee and consumed a few slices of banana with peanut butter spread. With my mum's help, she applied deep heat cream all over my legs and at the back of my body. For this race, I wore my New Balance lightning-dry top, 2XU short compression tights, New Balance lightning-dry socks and Adizero shoes.
I was delighted about the transportation pick-up venue. Unlike the Standard Chartered marathon event, where the pick-up point is in front of Yishun Stadium and I have to walk very far from where I'm residing (there are no public transport as the pick-up time is before 5am), for this event, the pick-up point was in front of Yishun MRT Station. Thus shorter walking distance.
Upon reaching the competition venue, I immediately deposited my bag and find a good spot to carry out my stretches. Though the size of participants is much smaller compared to Standard Chartered event, it was still quite huge. Half an hour into my stretches, the emcee announced on the speaker for all runners to gather at the starting point. I quickly made a bee line to the very front row of runners, just before the starting line and I was surrounded by NUS runners including Mok Ying Ren who was just in front of me.
The funny thing was, at such a point where the runners are sardine-packed, touching shoulders-to-shoulders and raring to go, the emcee invited instructors from Fitness First to the flag-off podium to conduct the warm-up. Couldn't they have conducted the warm-up when the participants were at the open field? Thus many participants seems annoyed and their response to the instructors showed that. A few participated in the warm-up, some just stood and watch, while many just going-through the motion.
After about 10-15mins, the event was flaged-off by North East CDC Mayor, MP, Mr. Teo Ser Luck. A few runners sprinted forward. As for me, I did a few paces of striding to give a space between myself and the surging crowd to prevent being trampled on. I came across the sights of people being trampled on and it's not something that I want to experience. After about a km into the race, I felt good with my pace. A quarter mark into the race, I was among the runners in the front pack but almost reaching the half-way mark, the pain in my right knee appeared. It was so sharp and sudden. I stopped immediately to ease the pain and walked a few steps forward.
By this time, the pack that I was with was far ahead of me. To make matter worse, a part of the running route was climbing stairs to the overhead bridge. I tried to run but the pain was just unbearable, hence I walked up instead. By now, many of the back runners had already passed-by me though some gave me a rousing support and cheer and a few was surprised that I managed to reached that point at such a quick time.
After the pain had eased down, I continued my run but at a much slower pace. Everytime the pain shoots-up, I had no choice but to slown down my pace even more or to stop and take a short breather before continue to move, first by walking and slowly progressing to run. I was very frustrated about the re-occurrence of this pain but I was determined to complete the race.
At the last 2km of the race, I was given a surprise. Mayor of North East CDC, MP, Mr. Teo Ser Luck was suddenly running beside me, out of nowhere. At first, I was quite intimidated by his presence but I just took up the courage to say 'hi' to him. He replied my greeting and we started having small conversations while running side-by-side. I was impressed by his running prowess as he had started running from the very back of the crowd as earlier he had flaged-off the event. So he must have ran at a very high tempo.
During the conversation, he remembered and personally congratulated my achievement in the last Asean Para Games where I won silver and broke the meet record in the 800m. We both parted ways after crossing the finishing line before he gave me a shoulder hug and another short congratulatory speech.
He was a very friendly and down-to-earth guy. It was really an honour and a privilege to ran with him and to have an informal chit-chat session. It was just awesome.
All in all, it was a great day though I wished that the pain was not there. As for the event, it was organised quite ok but certain areas can be improved to make it better such as -
1. Conducting warm-up at an open area instead of the starting point.
2. To have more water points along the running route.
3. To have a better running route where runners don't have to stop and wait for the vehicles to stop as that will cause
many runners to lose momentum and time.
many runners to lose momentum and time.
4. To have power gels/snacks points along the running routes for the longer distance, if possible.
Web Designing
Besides doing online self-learning on graphic designing after my accident, I also dabble on web designing with html coding and javascripts. My first web design project was designing my very own personal website using free hosting and platform provided by tripod.
I got rave reviews from family members, friends and anonymous surfers. I was even requested to design a few of my friend's personal websites and blogs, and I did it all for free as I was using it for practise and also, to stretch my creativity and imagination.
After several free projects and positive feedbacks, I advertise and offer my web designing service in a forum and a couple of free advertisement platform websites. Happy to say that since then, I have been involved and completed many projects.
Other than html and javascripts, over the years, I have also equipped myself with Adobe Flash, CSS, PHP and etc that I have self-learnt and incorporated into my projects to create more eye-catching, interactive and search engine optimised (seo) websites for my valued Clients.
To help my Clients to carry out self-editing on the contents of their websites with very little or no knowledge on web designing, I also have incorporated Content Management System (CMS) into the back-end of their websites.
To help my Clients to carry out self-editing on the contents of their websites with very little or no knowledge on web designing, I also have incorporated Content Management System (CMS) into the back-end of their websites.
If you would like engage my designing services, and would like to request for quotation, feel free to contact me. No obligation. My design charges are very competitive and negotiable.
Here are a few of my recent works:
Sailability Singapore
Details: Non-profitable Organisation Website. Providing sailing experience to the disabled. An ongoing project.
Tools : Html, CSS, PHP, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Javascripts, Search Engine
Optimised, CMS.
Lawn Bowls Association for the Disabled (Singapore)
Details: Non-profitable Organisation Website. Offering lawn bowls (a non-strenuous sport) to the disabled.
http://www.disabledlawnbowls.org.sg/
Tools : Html, CSS, PHP, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Javascripts, Search Engine
Optimised, CMS.
JS Athletics
Details: Corporate Website. Providing coaching in track and field events, cross-country and road running for both
abled and disabled athletes. http://www.js-athletics.com/
Tools : Html, CSS, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Javascripts, Search Engine Optimised,
CMS.
