Clouds of Witness
08.12.07 - 10:38 p.m.

The Singapore Marathon 2007

It has been one of the most interesting and eventful 2 weeks of my life, what with...

Meeting Mr Douglas Gresham (!!!) ... an extraordinarily well-travelled, sharp-witted and humorous white-haired British-Australian gentleman whose stepfather is the author who has had the most impact on my life (besides GK Chesterton).

This mindboggling event came to pass because we wrote to him for copyright permission to stage Till We Have Faces for Hall Play, and he was kind enough to arrage to meet us as he was passing through Singapore en route to Australia. So a party of five nervous Keviians went to meet him at Raffles Hotel where he was staying!! Imagine shaking the hand of someone who knew C.S. Lewis! Two Degrees Of Separation!

Heh, we were very shy at first but it developed into something "unexpectedly interesting" as he put it! .. I guess we started to warm up a bit perhaps after he asked -

Mr Douglas: Now, what would you like to know about "Jack"?

Us: !!!!!!!!!!!!!...........

Mr Douglas: You'd better ask now... because 5 minutes after you leave this place you'll be kicking yourself and thinking, "Why didn't I ask that?"

So it turned into an utterly delightful conversation which lasted about two hours - a small part of which was spent on Hall Play itself and the bulk of which was talking about everything under the sun (from the Narnia movies to some of his colourful life experiences, to the benefits of homeschooling, the Christian perspective on some social issues, some jokes about French people, and why aeroplanes don't drop to the ground with a "plonk" when they fly upside down - as one would think they would, going by the aerofoil effect) - full of treasure, one of those where you go away feeling that your worldview has been expanded.

Who would have thought that choosing to do this Hall Play would lead to such an extraordinary event!

* * *

Running my first full marathon with Jeremy Mong! We have conquered the 42 km!!

And so all the training of the last few weeks paid off! :P we'd planned to run this since last year already (shows how long we've been running buddies!), and ran the Army Half Marathon this year as part of 'training' (which in itself we didn't train for, and completed in less than ideal conditions). Still, we didn't have time to train properly until our O & G posting was over - which meant we built up very quickly - going from 5 km to 30 km in just 6 weeks (kids, DON'T try this at home)! ... a sure recipe for osteoarthritis in later life, since the recommended training time for a marathon is 6 months not 6 weeks heh... though I guess it helped that our baseline distance as running buddies was already around 10 km. In fact, at the end of our 30 km training run we'd felt a lot of "pain! pain! pain!" every step we took. So we were quite nervous before the 42 km, wondering what higher level of suffering to expect!

We were given a lift by Jeremy's kind father in the wee hours of the morning to the start point! The run started at 5.30 am (though what with a long baggage queue and a long toilet queue, we only made it to the start line to start running at around 5.45). From beginning to end we were blessed with excellent weather - so cool for the first 10 km through Marina South and back to the city centre we were hardly tired, and then when it got sunny at East Coast there was cool wind throughout. Our training also paid off, and when we crossed the 21 km mark we were in much better shape than we'd been after finishing the AHM.

It got hotter towards the end, but it didn't seem that bad... in fact, I felt better towards the end than I had during that AHM that we hadn't trained for heh. In part because we ran at a much slower pace, and had wised up to the need to drink water before we felt really thirsty. And we were also equipped with our first power gels (we used one each at the 18 km mark as an experiment - yecchh! so sweet) and got a free PowerBar at about 28 km... so I'd never been so well-hydrated and well-nourished during a run in my life - we were running slowly enough to eat and drink without getting a stitch!

The trying part of running a marathon isn't so much fatigue as the ache in the legs that eventually develops - I was reminded of the description of the Little Mermaid in Hans Christian Andersen's story - how when her feet touched the ground it was like "walking on knives" :P That's what it feels like after a while haha (though I think it's a sign that we didn't train enough). But it's not so hard to keep running when there're lots of other people running at the same time. And we met Sunder along the way (who unfortunately had had diarrhoea and had needed to go to the toilet at multiple consecutive rest stations!!) and Victor Lee as well, and knew that a couple of our other classmates were running the marathon too.

And besides, after encountering suffering for a while one just gets used to it and one's pain threshold rises again so it doesn't seem that bad heh. A parallel for what life itself is like!

It's even rather exhiliarating!

Our target was 5-6 h, and we ran it (ok, ran 25 km and hobbled 17 km of it) in 5 h 50 min! :) Not bad for two crazy people who trained up in 6 weeks. I'm proud of us! And I couldn't have done it without my running buddy - if not for him I wouldn't have had the motivation to keep on running and might have ended up just sauntering along haha.

Next year... maybe I'll run again!!! Er, maybe :)

* * *

Other highlights have included:

Francophone girls' outing with Mohana and Yanying to watch 2 Days In Paris

Preparations and our first rehearsal for the VCF Christmas play! Matthew and Teck Tee made me laugh till I got a headache

Fun and good conversation with Jan, Susan, Joon Hwee, Jeanette and the elective students in Opthalmo posting - Chris, Grace and Siying

Settlers' Cafe with Janice leading us in a frantic game of the spooky strategy haunted house game

Ben and Jerry's ice-cream at Vivo City - Sweet Cream and Cookies, Strawberry Cheesecake and Chunky Monkey!

Dragonboating and lunch with the CF today

How wonderful!

* * *

Of the many things that were said in that conversation with Mr Douglas Gresham, two things he mentioned struck me quite a lot. One was "Always teach a child to search for the truth, because if he grows up always searching for the truth, he will find Jesus sooner or later." It's something I identify with and I've known, but I hadn't thought to put it into those words. Another was "Christianity isn't for wimps, because wimps won't last - it needs strong men and women who can stay the course."

* * *

Looking back and thinking about how I started long-distance running because my heart had been broken, I'm reminded of how God used that grief to discipline me, just as running itself has disciplined me, and I'm so much better off for it. On long runs I still remember everything: I used to cry and run and run and cry, and eventually ran and cried longer and longer distances until... I sweated out all my tears haha. And God sent good friends, great friends, into my life through running. And it has so toughened me in body and mind that now I run further than I thought I ever would, and it takes a lot more to make me sad now than ever before!

To mix two metaphors, it's exactly the lesson which we've been learning at VCF CG this week as well, and also at church homegroup this season - how running the race for God means we'll be shaped by God like a pot by the potter, not a pleasant experience while it happens, but it will make us more fully the pot he wants us to be and that he sees in us :) and how, when we give our lives to Him, bad things that happen to us, though it may seem to us that God has abandoned us, are a sign that He really has us in His grasp more strongly than ever at that time and is using the experience to reshape us and make us more beautiful and useful - into what we will be most fully ourselves being.

May I always remember to continue to keep myself in the hand of God and let Him shape me as He desires through everything that comes my way... thank God that He does!

* * *

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

- Hebrews 12:1-13