Freezes! Good morning to you too. See my number? Stylo mylo...hairstylist to the rescue. For the love of a teammate. A silent prayer before the race. Gals of different colors. Go Virus Go! Isobena for you? Meeting of minds. Cyclist's techy trainer. Cool cyclist at the start.

Sunday, June 15, 2003 - The gentle sun shone warmly, the breeze blew gently and the ground has dried after the rain. Thank God for the wonderful morning.

The Changi Ferry Terminal Car Park gathered a sea of cyclists in their beautiful attire, super cool bikes, gears and alien-like helmets. Slithering amongst them were skaters in their skins, guards, shades and equally gorgeous helmets.

SACA time trial on the Coast Road finally saw some speed skaters joining in this exciting event. The birth of a new beginning?

After the registration, skaters and cyclists began their round of stretching and warm ups. This being the first time cyclists saw speed skaters taking part in their time trial, they were a little awed by the fact that skaters are actually skating on the roads like them. Though many have seen skaters on the roads often, being in the cyclists' time trial is something new and interesting.

"How fast can you guys go on these?" asked one Australian cyclist (obviously not used to seeing us around). After explaining to them that some of the fastest guys can hit up to 50 kmph, they were pretty impressed and said, "That I must see!"

At 8.45am, all the skaters gathered at the starting line. This was an open event with the guys and the gals skating together. There were a total of 17 skaters with 4 gals and 13 guys. The distance was 12.5 km on the straight Coast Road.

The funny conversation with my friend Kao was abruptly halted as we were waved to the starting line. All the skaters were doing their stretching and last minute checks.

I was second in line after a guy skater. After he was flagged off, I waited for 1 minute for my turn. I skated off as soon as I heard the word "Go". I had a good start and immediately got the momentum of the wheels. The head wind was pretty strong but otherwise all seemed to be rolling. Perhaps I did not have a good warm up skate, just couldn't seem to pick up the speed. My legs felt like jelly. I could see from a distance, the guy in front pushing away. I huffed and puffed my way up the road, as I saw the figure getting bigger, the turn-around point soon appeared in the horizon. We all started to engage our T-stops as we looked back for traffic before doing the turn-around. Though the road was "closed", there were still cars on the road and I consciously did a solid T-stop, so much so that I lost quite a bit of speed there.

After the turn around, I continued to push hard to gain the speed I lost. On and on I skated. Soon, Jasmine skated pass. I began to skate faster and continued to give chase. As I passed the guy, I continued to skate hard and strong (at least I thought I did). The head wind seemed to have picked up and the lactic began to build up in my legs.

Yong Quan skated pass shortly afterwards and he was going really strong. On and on I went until I came to the stripes on the road, which almost killed my legs. After the wobbling massage, nothing much was left. I had to go on my "reserve" energy to finish the last leg. As I approached the turn around, I again had to T-stop to slow down and look out for cars from behind. That has cost me again.

"Go Jenn Go!" I heard them scream, so I just gave my all and rolled pass the finishing line. Wheeeee... that was a good run.

The rest of the skaters started coming in one by one. Everyone looked like they were giving their all as they sped past the finishing line. I found myself screaming at the top of my lungs, "Go Mun Wai Go!!! Go Eddie Go!!! Go Joelle Go!!! Go Kao Go!!! Hey Colin Go!!! Go Guys Go!!! Come on Clara Go!!!!"

I was actually getting really high from cheering them on. That was really fun!! Finally, all the skaters made it back and everyone was happy with endorphin in their blood. They exchanged timing, giving high-fives, low-fives and patting each other on their sweaty backs. It touches my heart to see what a good exercise could do to the face - people were grinning from ear to ear and panting from breath to breath. Wonder if anyone's HR monitor went off in the midst? If I had one on, would certainly have busted...hahahaa.

"Wah... Yong Quan, you were like a jet man... must be your hair lah..."
"Aiya... I didn't do proper warm up lah..."
"This morning too rushed to take my breakfast leh..."
"How come you skated with that constipated look on your face hah??"
the skaters went on and on sharing their experiences on the track...

Soon, the cyclists in their coolest looking gears gathered in line for their turn. I found out later that they actually have a "Good Look Cyclist Award" Wah! that's really happening man.

The skaters were shouting "Go Cyclists Go!!!" One by one they went off sending shrieks of cheers and claps from the crowd. There must have been easily 100 cyclists on the stretch. Someday, perhaps we skaters will be too.

After they did the calculations of the timing, the top 3 Men and Women emerged. Yong Quan was 1st, followed by Fabien and Jonathan. The Men's timing was fantastic with the fastest at 21.45 mins. With Yong Quan at only 16 years old, he has a long way to go. Go Guys Go!!

For the Women's - Jasmine was 1st, followed by Joelle and I (this was given immediately after the calculation by Sandy). However, on Wednesday, he called to inform me that I was actually in 2nd place. There was a mistake made by the timer! The women's timing was also great with the fastest at 27.45 mins. Congratulations and well-done gals! Go Gals Go!!

As for the rest of the skaters, they were all WINNERS in their own rights. Some were there for the 1st time and were obviously nervous; yet they persevered and completed the best they could. Veteran like Eddie did an impressive timing of 26.41 mins skating on his 4-wheels recreational skates. Mostly, we all came for the fun and we really enjoyed ourselves.

As I truly believe - Atheletes will be awarded by the effort that they put in. If you want the timing, you put in the training (advantage of the age, the better boots, the better wheels, the better bearings, blah blah blah...)

Congratulations to all the skaters who have put in their juices to train and special thanks to SACA, Sandy and the sponsors for making all these possible.

My heartfelt thanks to my team mates who were there to support me despite their injuries, commitments, etc... Love you all!

See you next round folks.