Thursday, April 14, 2005
A Dedication to AcXcountry '05
the seniors were supposed to give a speech but it was never carried out and so i shall write mine here. my dedication to
AcXcountry '05.
Dear Brothers,
13th April 2005 has come and gone like a gust of wind. It came and went but I will always hold the memory dear and safe in my heart and i do pray you all will too. I look unto all of you, every single one of you as brave souls, and courageous people.
All the events of the past, ever since August when we returned to training after a break, some longer than others as some trained for track whilst others didn't. We trained easy, simple trainings at first, then as the December holidays descended upon us like a fog does the land, we began training under Mr Samuel Sim. Who will forget the rushing to Ginza Plaza in between morning and afternoon training sessions? Who will forget, especially amongst the seniors, the time when Jonathan first joined us for training and we fought and battled those 80 flights of stairs? when he raced up against us. Certainly not I. Who will forget the pep talks by Mr Simon Bongard, our willing volunteer and who we deem the true teacher-in-charge of AcXcountry. The ones some of us will miss even though they extended trainings by considerable length. That was last year in the December holidays.
Swiftly as it came, it departed too and we found ourselves in the midst or re-orientating ourselves to school and to the new school timetable of 20-minute periods. The following three months were filled with the hardest workouts but we survived them all.We had no morning trainings but did have 3:18s, which started off with 2minutes rests followed by 1minute ones and finally 30seconds rest. We too had to deal with the 400s and the fartleks. We did all this with encouragement from one another and help from Mr Lawrence Ang.
Time flew and 13th april arrived. We had done our physical and mental trainings, and we were ready. We gave our best with some of us doing quite well, others not. But let us not blame ourselves let us not cry. We have each other and our unity is the AcXperience. something not even Victoria, the champion school for this year can understand.
This is my salutation to you brave souls and courageous ones.
Here is what i say to you all, the B division and the C division, in nor order of merit for we are all equal and one team.
Kevin: Thank you for captaining the team the way you did and thank you for being an inspiration to me at one point or another. Thank you for believing in me and the team.
Xide: Thank you for being the vice-captain and the person behind the scenes for the races we have participated in, for bringing the team entertainment and your patience.
Khing: Thank you for being the one to answer my questions when i needed guidance and help. Thank you for encouraging me to join cross-country in the first place and thank you for not giving up.
Tie Zheng: Thank you for cheering the team on even though you were not running and for consoling me after my race and i felt down, knowing how close i was to winning. Thank you for being nice to me.
Seet: Thank you for joining cross-country last year and training with us. Thank you for going through everything together with the team and being with us throughout this season.
Sebastian: Thank you for trying hard. I will not ever blame you for today and I beliebe neither will anyone of us. Thank you for training so hard, wanting to help us win.
Victor: Thank you for being the humourous guy, the one to make me laugh and the one who laughs with me. Thank for the passion that you carry for and with the team.
Paul Crosby and Wenhao: Thank you for helping the team out in the short period of time you have been with us this year.
C Division: I do not know you all as well as I know the B div, but this I say to all of you. Strive hard, want it, believe it. Those of you in secondary 2 this year, train hard and bring back the title next year and remember the legacy of your seniors.
God: Thank you for such a lovely team of dedicated brothers. Thank you our unity and our friendships forged and reforged in steel, never to fade. "A cord of three strands is not easily broken" and we are "A cord of twenty over strands" never to be broken. Thank you for your love and protection over this team.
I end with the following.
"We, AcXcountry '05, have chosen the path less taken,
We hath forged a cord of countless bonds in this path that now by us lays trodden." Live on, the legacy of
AcXcountry '05!
Lau Wen Loong still running at 1:44 AM