NVM 2007.

After 2 months of "training", the day we were all anxiously waiting for finally arrived. Eeks.

At 9:30am, the team met at Raffles Place MRT. Changed into out "team jersey", and proceeded out of the train station. I never really knew how the building I was going to climb that day looked like.. and never really did bother to find out..

It was not hard to figure which one it was when we got there.. haha.. it was the one that seemed like it was touching the clouds.. EEEKS.


Replubic Plaza. 66 Storeys. Said to be the tallest building in Singapore. (really? i dunno.. haha).. look at it.. it's all nice, polished and shimmery under the morning sun.. it would have been nicer if i din have to climb it. haha! by this time.. i'm already feeling the adrenaline.. and also regretting.. "why? why? why did i ever think of doing this?"

While doing our warm-up run rond the Singapore River, I asked Eleanor "why did i do this to myself?" and she's like "we always say that but we still join.. year after year.."..haha.. i tot it was funny.. but it's so true too.. let's see if i join again next year! haha.. (lionel!! lover's challenge? da jie, daddy, aaron... family team???)


Took a couple of photos while doing our stretches since the river seemed like a nice place to chill.. esp sunday mornings cuz there's hardly anyone..
10:56. after reporting, we were escorted to the start line.... i need new shorts.. haha!
nearing the flag off line.. YIKES... oh.. we manage to take these photos only because Lek decided to bring his cam all the way up..

the clock that is there every year. between each team, there's a 2-min interval.. so that teams will not clash.. 11:12 was our flag off time.

ahhhh! finally at the top.. it seems so easy when u are looking at these photos.. one photo ago we were at level 1. the next photo and we are at the 60th storey. haha.. if u notice me, i am damn shagged.. haha.
more photos taken at the top. had to make use of the camera cuz lek took pains bringing it up there!!

the team and i with republic plaza at the background. (from left to right) ze bin, lek, meng heng, eleanor and me! we were all wearing the NVM 2007 shirt.. nicer compared to last year's.. meng is in yellow cuz he's extra! haha. no la. cuz he's in the sub-com. heh.
Kenneth is in black cuz he's extra too! never climb also take photo with us?!?! tsk! haha.. actually he did climb.. recce climb.. and he was pretty fast.. even without training.
When collecting our goodie bag, we manage to get a sneak peek at the prizes. and they were not too great.. if u can see, there's a hamper labeled men's open 1st i think.. and it has tomato ketchup, condensed milk, maggi mee, etc.. yikes.. first prize and that's what u get? no thanx. haha.. we were thinking if we really get something like that hamper, we would donate it to some old folk's home.
and so we left, not really anticipating a win.. went down to city hall for mos burger and then to smu to study.

one little joke that i wanna share. at mos burger, ze bin ordered for eleanor..
and halfway through the meal, eleanor asked zebin: what are u eating?
ze bin: mos burger
eleanor: i know mos burger.. what burger is that?
ze bin: mos burger!
(and this went on for quite some time)
then me: the burger he's eating is called mos burger. like what i'm eating, it's a plain hotdog.. but it's also called a mos dog.

heh. ok. so after mos, we went smu and was settling down before starting to study when meng called ze bin..

shouting through the hp loudspeaker, we heard him say "we got 4th!!!!! ok wait wait. i confirm then i call u back" and hung up.. anyway, it was confirmed and we had to rush back to claim our prizes.. haha.
this shows the times for the top 9 teams for team open category.. our team is "the fifth element"..
YAY!! medals.. haha..
Last year, we had medals, vouchers and 3 hampers of food and drinks.. and sigg bottles for each of us. this year. we had medals, vouchers and one plastic bottle. hmmm.

last year, we got 5th climbing 43 storeys. this year we got 4th climbing 60 storeys. and the prizes........ hmmm..


left: last year's medal. right: this year's medal..

So. NVM 2007 came to an end.. it'll be next year (if we join) that we meet and train again. This year, the climb was really really tiring. And i want to apologize to my team. Let me explain myself. at the start, i was chasing behind lek.. and by the 5th storey or so, i was really damn tired but still continued.. by the 11th storey.. i dramatically slowed down. i realized that i started out too fast.. totally not my pace and it was a big mistake. after that, i cant even walk fast enough.. the 3rd team's timing was a mere 1 min ahead of us. and i think i'm the cause of us losing that place. i could have done below 15 mins but i did 15:24.. i knew i could have done better. my legs did not ache. i was just out of breath.. i'm really sorry!! i'll train harder next year and learn form my mistake! i promise!!! sorry sorry...