august 25

can you spot me?

Last weekend I found my long lost love again. This 'old flame', caught me off guard, reminding me of how much in love I was and still am with it. One year, one freaking year of having to watch from the sidelines, only God knows how much I miss doing it. I was overwhelmed by the whole experience, devouring every minute with hunger and passion I've never known existed, feeling great about myself despite the sunburned and aching everywhere, not caring whether I win or lose, as long as I get to do it.

The Perhentian Island Challenge was definitely the first of its kind for me, as my previous races have never involved the seawater and beaches in general, swimming in particular. Plus this time around I was in an all-female team, in the mixed-category, where we have to compete against men as well. My new teammate and I, we managed to team up quite well with all odds against us. I don't really know how to swim, she doesn't do kayaking, in fact that was her first time during the race. So we sucked in water.

I learned a lot about myself from the experience, my strengths and weaknesses, on how to lead, how not to get discouraged by injuries or glitches or the heat for that matter, how to push myself further, and not just give up. At the end of the day, I came to appreciate my old teammates better, as now I realised you guys had worked much harder compared to me, who was pretty much just a follower, the one doing the easiest tasks or none at all. I realised how depressing it is to watch someone quitting when you know and believe that she has so much potential, and that she can do much much better and offers so much more by not giving up. I was spoiled, I feel bad now, I will work harder next time insya Allah.

Nevertheless, I swam for a distance of nearly 2km, not bad ey for such a lousy-I-Just-Know-How-to-Swim-Late-Last-Year-tu-pun-slow-cam-kurakura-pun-lagi-laju swimmer. Ada life jacket la tapi, but still, saya tau ramai yang berbangga dengan saya hahahahahaha!! note : dulu pakai life jacket pun boleh lemas ok, so it was quite an achievement, or at least to me.

Beautiful island, great food, great people, great sponsors, great race, I definitely could NOT ask for more.

I'll be back, and next time, I will win.