Sunday, February 21, 2016, was a very special day for me and my parents. I would be spending the whole morning in Sentosa with my parents watching me race in an Aquathlon in one of the beaches of Sentosa called Palawan Beach. It is quite a good spot for this huge local race to be held since it is spacious and to my surprise, clean even though the transition area where I had to change into my shoes later on after my swim was quite muddy.

I had a slight problem despite my readiness for the event because my eyes were accidentally sprayed with a little sunblock while my mom was spraying it on my face. So, just don’t feel weird when you see me either wearing sunglasses when it’s not hot or myself squinting in the photographs. We also arrived early at 9.30a.m. in spite knowing our event was 10.40a.m. since it was recommended to check-in one hour before.

 

At around 10.00a.m., I warmed up as the other youths, kids or adults did their actual laps. Ten minutes before it’s our turn to compete, I stopped doing my moderate warm up not to lose that much energy and headed to the starting line.

After a long wait under the hot sun before we had a short briefing we one of the crew members and waited for the buzzers for two minutes.

Three…two…one…GO!!! The buzzers went off as we all started this exciting event. Even with all the pushing and turning, I tried to stay on track and managed to finish my swim in a short three minutes. We all zoomed towards the transition area all out and I dried myself up and wore my shoes as fast as possible without pulling the tongue which my dad reminded my tons of times during practice.

Because I used a lot of energy during the swim, I felt that I slowed down during the run but didn’t give up even if I was tired with other kid behind me. Our running track was on a wide road which was of service for this event, which was fine to me. I just continued in an average speed before sprinting for the last hundred meters with the other kid whom caught up with me, and we were neck to neck. Eventually, I completed the challenge and got my finisher medal and wore it around my neck. Tired, I praised myself for completing this event before I went to get my swimming items and the live results. And, from what I know, I was average and it was not bad for a first time experience.

After a short shower, I drank a bottle of coke before walking back to the train station where we departed towards Vivo City, a mall in Harbourfront and had a comfortable lunch at a restaurant called Marche to celebrate my achievement and my parent’s anniversary.