By Leslie Tan/Red Sports
The day I tore my ACL while playing football is forever seared into my memory. It was March, 2002. I jumped up to head a ball but a stronger opponent out-muscled me, sending me hurtling back to the ground while my left leg was fully extended. I heard two popping sounds echo inside my head. Then the most excruciating pain swept over me.
And that was the end of my football days.
I opted to go for an anterior-cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and spent a few miserable weeks in a cast. When the cast came off, the sight of my atrophied quadricep muscles of my left leg was deflating. Eager to get back to running again, I asked the doctor: “So, can I run again?” He said: “Yes, but in a straight line.”
And that was the beginning of my triathlon days.
I started running 3km and thought I was going to die. I kept going and jumped into the sea in October 2002 for my first triathlon. 200m swim, 5km bike ride, 2km run. I thought I was going to die.
I qualified for the Singapore Biathlon in 2003 when I passed the swim trial wearing running shorts at Tampines SAFRA. The navy guy looked at me after I barely qualified in under 40min for the 1.5km swim in the pool and said: “Your stroke, not bad lah. But ah, you damn slow lah!” I went to buy swim trunks after that.
So since then, I’ve basically doggie paddled my way through the ocean, cruised by on a bike without bike shoes, and jogged the requisite 10km at triathlon after triathlon because, you know, it just gives me an excuse to hang out in the sun.
I mean, there is nothing worse than getting stuck in Dilbertian hell, listening to your boss drone on in endless meetings and having to put together Microsoft PowerPoint presentations no one wants to read while the sun is shining outside. After all, we were designed to move. Not sit.
And so last Sunday, when I got the chance to jump into the sea again at Tanjong Beach, Sentosa, for a Singapore Sprint Series biathlon, it was just joy. Joy because I could feel the sea breeze. Joy because I could taste the salt water. Joy because I could see the sky above.
There is something soothingly addictive about triathlons. For one thing, no one yells at me anymore, unlike during my football playing days. (Of course, I wasn’t that good, that’s why they were yelling at me.) And the longer I trained, the calmer I felt, the stronger I became. The one or two times I went back to kick a ball, I realised how unfit I was before I trained for triathlons.
The other wonderful thing is to jump into the open water. Now, I must declare, open water gives me the creeps. The only way I will jump into the ocean is with 300 other guys and safety boats around. You would think I’d get over it after so many triathlons but it just never goes away. And each time, I have to suck it up and jump in again and just focus on counting the strokes, looking at the sky and saying a prayer to get through the 1.5km swim. But there is something so primal about bobbing up and down out there in the open water, with no sound except your own breathing and that of the waves crashing over you. You feel … alive.
I suppose the contrast comes from our air-conditioned existence. We work in air-conditioned offices, travel to air-conditioned malls in air-conditioned cars and buses, and sleep in air-conditioned homes. You can spend a whole day without realising you live in the tropics.
So after spending a couple hours in the sun, swimming, running, biking, there is a reconnection to something bigger beyond the fabricated existence of urban dwelling. Away from the maddening crowd, the overflowing inbox and the overcrowded estates, there is time to think and be.
And so when I finished the sprint biathlon last Sunday at Tanjong Beach, in an event that gives you the time and space, I felt grateful to have the strength to swim and to run, to enjoy the sun on my back and the wind in my face.
Red Sports. Always Game.
Editor’s note: Race 2 of the Singapore Sprint Series is scheduled for Sunday, May 4, 2008. Look out for the post-event report.
Thanks for dropping by Clarence. 😉
i felt serene after reading your writing. i think you did a wise and brave choice to leave the comfort of the office and embrace the nature and the unknown.
You inspired me bro.
Jesus bless,
yOung and learning owl