On Hexam.

Pole Vault, 3.12m PB.

4534 points, managed to get that number on the right of my name a little higher =)

Though I am happy that I managed a PB, I can’t help but feel that this was supposed to happen a few years ago, the steady improvement of a few hundred points comp after comp, so that I would have been somewhat decent at this sport by now. Instead it has been 4 years of dealing with injuries and setbacks that just take the wind out of you more often than not.

But it is what it is and I guess there’s no point feeling jaded or short-changed, just got to make the best out of what is right now and push forward still. I feel that finally I’m getting competent on my weak events (full results are on my results page), especially the jumps. Got a few events wrong so there’s easy points to be gained (in retrospect I ran my 400m wrongly and chickened out for hurdles after hitting hurdle 3 instead of going for it still) so I believe I still can push that number a little higher before the end of this season where I will be heading back to Singapore.

The decathletes. =)

The other decathletes once again was an awesome bunch, I can’t really quite put it into words but it’s a real brotherhood and only other decathletes will understand. Michael Sweeney (top right of the picture above) was unlucky that he fouled out all 3 attempts in his long jump, but still gave all the other events his best shot, which is an incredibly hard thing to do.

Into the 1500m, the last event, I knew I was in trouble because my left foot was hurting and my legs were gone. Michael wasn’t going for a score because of his no jump earlier so he paced me for a 5min 30s time, intending to fall back after 2 laps to conserve energy so that he can go back to his training cycle sooner after the decathlon.

1 lap in and I was in trouble, falling behind the pace that felt easy during the previous decathlon. My legs were well and truly flat, with my left foot hurting, I was unable to keep my strides open. Falling behind, Michael quickly noticed it and slowed down his pace to keep just ahead of me and keep shouting words of encouragement to keep me going. There were also strong headwinds in the home straight so every time I will tuck in behind him to shield myself and tried my best to keep up.

Despite that, I kept dropping pace and was barely hanging on, crossing the finish line eventually in 5 min 43s, my second fastest run in a decathlon. I knew without Michael pacing me, it would have been a much worst story.

That weekend was also the last of the Olympic qualification window and it was sad to see some of the other guys in the group not make the score they needed.

Needless to say, a lot of dreams came to an end that weekend, not just at the Hexam track but throughout the world of sports. I guess that’s just the way the world is, it’s pretty harsh sometimes and not every story have a fairy tale ending.

But like these guys, they handled it with grace, tried their best, gave it everything and lived to fight another day.

For myself, it also brings a close to this chapter.

As I’ve mentioned before, I became a decathlete to prove to myself that I could see it through to the very end, and I did.

They say it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, and she’s sung.

But somehow, I’m not quite done yet.

One last dec in August before I end this 2012 season, let’s go.