Its almost time to say goodbye...

"Break My Fall" by Tiesto Feat. BT



The next song in the DJ Tiesto's Elements of Life has been added to my ipod for my jogging playlist.Anyway decided to take a break from my assignments and do a blog post before I go back to fight the assignment monster.

Well as the post title goes, this is a post dedicated to the my DS Trainers. Its been a great almost 2 years but its almost time to say goodbye. Well for those who do not know what I referring, thats the name of a model of Asics shoes.

This pair is rather important to me(not that my preivous pair of DS Trainers is not) as it marked the road back to getting my stamina. Well the story goes like this:

2003 marked the year I transited from a boy to a young man in the eyes of every Singaporean. Its the year I enlisted into the Singapore Armed Forces as part of a liability that every Singaporean male has. Unfortunately I enlisted with a heavy heart which my closer poly friends might remember why. And to add to it, I passed the pilot computer test as well. Which sort of added fuel to fire.

Having not passed my IPPT, I went into the ptp batch which means extra training to get me fit. And while I failed most stations, my 2.4km was ok thanks to me forcing myself to jog before I enlisted. Time passed and my fitness improved. I broke the 0 barrier for my pull up and my weakest station, the standing broad jump was almost there. Short of about 5 cm to pass.

I was than called up for the 2nd stage of the pilot test which was the interview. 'Smoking' was one of my stronger points and I smoked my way through the interview ending it with the answer to if I had to bomb a target and the blast area will effect a nearby church, will I still do it. I said something like I will check it out if its a cult church first, than I dun mind the extra damage. I passed the interview and the final medical test went well.

The last test was to get into OCS to qualify to be a pilot. With that in mind, I pushed myself every time there was physical training, especially when it came to standing broad jump. Which also led to me injuring my ankle. But of cos that did not stop me from pushing on.

Posting day and I was sent to SISPEC. Rather expected as somehow I was rejected for pilot due to some medical reasons(which up till now I was not given any answer to). Yet I continued to push harder in SISPEC. Chances of OCS cross over was there. Than one faithful day during SOC(which I finally cleared), I fell awkwardly and there went my ankle. Off to the specialist and I was out of course and later downgraded.

Fast forward to SOCE where I was signaler. My first chance at the 21km AHM came up. despite recovering from my ankle injury, I managed to hit the 12km mark during training thanks to my first pair of DS Trainers. Think it was the 9th in its series(Thanks to my bunk mate Russel back than). Nice soft gel technology to help with the impact. Unfortunately I never got to run because I was PES C2L2 no lower limb exercise. But I never gave up with my jogging.

Fast forward to the 2nd chance at 21km AHM. I went for upgrade to PES B which means I am fit to run the 21km. Just got my new pair of DS Trainers 10 as my old one had to retire. Again I hit the 12km mark during training and was looking forward to hitting the 16km and finally the 18km before the 21km itself. And once again I did not get a chance because I had to go for some exercise. Disappointed I stopped my interest in jogging.

Fast forward to start of this year, something happened and I was really pissed at something or someone. Went to find my pair of DS Trainers and hit the track outside my place. 4.4km at one shot. Considering I have not jogged for so long, I nearly "died" but it felt really good. I decided to carry on.

8 months later I am getting ready for my first personal test, to finish the 12km run tomorrow morning. I finished 6km comfortably and wacked 10km on tuesday and another 6km again on friday morning to keep my level there.

Unfortunately while it will be my first attempt at the 12km tomorrow, it will be the last few times I will be bringing my DS Trainers for a run/jog. The sole is wearing out and I would give it 2-3 more jogging sessions before its time to get a new pair.


My DS Trainers...



Signs that its almost time to get a new pair...

Well thats about it today. Will blog about how my first 12km run went when I survive it(which I hope I will).

Cheers,
Kenneth.