The 15th of April was a significant and meaningful day for us. It represented a day when we ran the race of our lives. It was a race around Singapore looking for 7 checkpoints altogether. Only when we found our next checkpoint were we given the clue card to find the next one. And we had limited transport!
So it started off way early in the morning when the whole cohort-LOVE 4/1 and 4/2 assembled in the PARADE SQUARE. The first challenge was the suicide runs-each group had to finish 15 and then we set off to find our maps and clues to head to the first checkpoint-SEMBAWANG PARK!
Morning Reflexology Exercise! at Sembawang Park
Puzzling it out at SUN Plaza!
One Pit Stop was at AMK HUB ... and we had to find 100 smiles!
Then we had to proceed on to MAC RITCHIE RESERVOIR to find the memorial tomb of LIM BO SENG. And then the rain poured on us…but many of us persevered some walking in the rain just to reach MacRitchie on time!
Paying our respects to Lim Bo Seng
By this time we were already very stretched and tired but it was only the encouragement of our friends, our coaches and even our teachers that we persevered and pushed on even though some of us had blisters, leg cramp and pain. It was only in our mind! Stretching ourselves made us feel proud of ourselves and make the IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE!
The Mental Challenge at NYP!
For each station we had a target timing to meet. Each of us pushed ourselves to meet that timing. The most stretching leg of the race was the long walk to GAMBAS. We forced our tired legs to go…the mind over the body. And through sheer determination, encouragement and belief, we did it. And were treated to a nice water massage at the SEMBAWANG HOT SPRING!
Chilling out at the Hot Springs!
And onward we went to the STADIUM-our last checkpoint. All of us made it there through challenging ourselves beyond our limits and hanging on to one another to the end. We did it together as a team. And each team cheered for one another all the way to the STADIUM! We had a nice treat of spaghetti and fried dory with jelly…Then it was time for our final challenge…the mental and physical challenge.
MENTAL : solve the puzzle and put the pages of the book together in running order. Each page is connected to one another. Each page is either a zoomed in picture of the previous one or a zoomed out image.
PHYSICAL : The physical challenge was to complete success claps till the mental challenge was solved!
Clapping our way towards success!
Stretching ourselves mentally as well!:)
It was very stretching because now more than ever we had to work together as a team. If the ones who attempted the mental challenge took it lightly, we will be letting down the participants doing the physical ones! Each of us has a talent. We need to work with each other’s strengths to meet a common objective!
And finally we did it. After 970 success claps and almost an hour doing it! It has been a real struggle for many of us but yet again we proved to ourselves that we could do it together if we believed enough!
So the last challenge we had was to run back to school-and we had one MRT ride to help us! So one by one we had to join up our teams and made this meaningful run back to school. Many of us gave it our best even though we were so tired and we encouraged each other all the way to the finish line! The satisfaction when we saw our school gate was AWESOME. We did it.
So from the RACE it was a good example that we were better than we thought we are. We could achieve the impossibek because in IMPOSSIBLE is the words : i m possible. Whatever we believe we can achieve. And together as friends we encouraged and inspired one another to the finish line! And in the end what mattered was not who came in first, it was the times we had together, the struggles we face together and the fact that we all did it. There was pure satisfaction and meaning in just that. We could do it for this camp, so could we do it for any challenge in life now…
