The Living Room:

http://livingroomscribbles.blogspot.com/2010/04/dee-man-on-mission.html

Dear Micheal, 

I would like to add my deepest appreciation to you for your contributions to the Special Olympics. When Ho Ching informed me of your achievement, I told her the Special Olympics is truly special - and probably the only sports events that has brought tears to my eyes. In a world full of greed, ego and brash consumerism, I found that it was a celebration of the human spirit, the sanctity of every human life, hope and mutual encouragement for the athletes and their families. 

Please stay in touch.

Warm regards,

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
Minister for Community
Development, Youth and Sports

" I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. "  - Robert Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

In many cases the story line ends with the exultation of crossing the finish line...but not always.

Fortunately my return home only took 37 hours vs the 65 to get to San Pedro de Atacama. Along the way fellow racers could be spotted by their distinctive shuffles and swollen and taped feet, myself among them.

When I finally returned to Singapore I was just looking forward to seeing my family and soaking my feet in a hot tub. However my plans were disrupted in the most wonderful way when I was given a surprise welcome home at the airport by about 40 Special Olympians, their families and the staff of SOS. It was very emotional with the kids holding up signs, giving speeches and providing me with flowers and a Special Olympics medal. Along with that came a whole lot of love and affection. It ended up a giant photo and hug-fest and just reinforced my conviction that these kids are so very special and worthy of our support.

The parents there were clearly and rightly so proud of their children and their accomplishments. The staff was beaming with appreciation for their efforts which make such a difference in the lives of these athletes.

For me the finish line in Atacama was but another checkpoint, this was the real finish line. To all the Special Olympic's athletes I salute you and I thank you. I thank you for the inspiration and strength you gave me at some very difficult moments. I thank you for your determination to win. I thank you for being brave in the attempt. I thank you for your teamwork. And I thank you for the love of your families and the appreciation you show the Special Olympic's staff.

You are Champions in life and I am honored to have raced on your behalf.

I woke at 10am and immediately made my way to the MASH, er Med Tent. Feet were all the rage and it was a blister convention. Eric from Redwood City CA took great care of my feet (thanks mate!) and bandaged me up well. A quick breakfast and I was ready to go.

At the start I was surprisingly fully refreshed and knew the end was no more than 2 hours away. I ran slowly until my feet were numb and relaxed at the edge of town. When I hit the last 300 meters of the finish in San Pedro the excitement was overwhelming and I was on a high. The last 20 meters was fantastic! I crossed the line wearing my Special Olympics of Singapore shirt, poles raised and a dubious pair or rose printed tights which earned more than a few unrepeatable comments. I hugged Mary at the finish and told her I couldn't express the difference between how I felt now vs just 12 hours earlier at CP 4. My tentmates were all at the finish and Rollie ended up about 5th overall while the Help for Heroes team of Rob, Peter and Andy came in 2nd in the team event. As were were taking photos we were already discussing our next event...

So now it's over, and yet it's not. Finishing the Atacama is just the beginning because the real goal are the Special Olympians of Singapore who we need to get to Athens for the World Championship. While I have been out of touch for a while I have just received a number of e-mails with substantial commitments including one from a loyal and regular backer of my escapades for the needy...for $25,000 (you know who you are and you are the greatest!).

Yet we're not close to being done with the main mission and I ask everyone (in particular my Singapore friends and colleagues) to dig deep for the intellectually disabled and make the SOS dream a reality. Every little bit helps and no amount goes unappreciated.

I hope this blog has demonstrated I am not just asking for funds but am willing to go to extreme lengths to 'earn the investment' we are making in those who are less fortunate than us to allow them to show what they can do and fulfill their aspirations and dreams.

Thank you and I will have a few more posts yet so stay tuned. And finally thanks to all of you for your personal support and many kind words of encouragement.

Started 730am...finished about 5am...22 1/2 hours...A Stern Day...need sleep...leave again in 7 hours...

Please excuse in advance this long post but it was a very long day...

Today was a stern day filled with hardship and pain but also amazement and a miracle or two...

It started as all others did with the morning ritual of my tentmates waking me up from my deep sleep. Between Nyquil, eyeshades, earplugs, a comfy sleeping pad and bag I was usually out for the count. With an early start at 730am I'm up at 6am and will use every second of that 90 minutes to get ready to go as the checklist is long.

This morning I'm trying to shed backpack weight as any extra weight will be with me a long way. In fact yesterday to relieve the tedium of the long days I had worked out that I was taking about 1,300 steps each kilometer, thus over a day like today I would be taking about 92,000 steps. My backpack weighted in about 5 lbs over the average so that meant that over just this 70k stage I would be subjected to 230 tons of incremental weight-steps.

Also the heels of my trailrunner sneakers have come detached again and we're out of superglue. With no heel padding I'll be trying to land more on the balls of my feet which will have consequences later. I will carry an extra filled water bottle today (thus 3 total) which is a tough call as it is about an incremental 70 tons of step weight.

The Long March is 70k divided into 5 checkpoints (CP) and the only cutoff is to make Stage 3 by 9pm. Warm water for food is only available at Stage 5 so dinner will be late. I have four power bars, banana flakes, and two packets of energy drink to get me to CP 5 and a hot meal.

Start
Getting to the 1st CP was one of only two sections rated Extremely Difficult. It was over the salt flats for 15k again. Leaving it seemed we were racing over a frozen lake. It was flat and cool but fortunately I had glacier sunglasses as the brightness off the white salt was extreme. As I had taken out my hard plastic insoles to accommodate my swollen feet I could feel every sharp ridge of the hard salt rock. This felt like stepping from one bottle to another and would come back to haunt me. To do this section you had to carefully place your steps as there was largely no path and it was easy to roll an ankle. Poles were essential for stability, as a few who fell and had bad cuts learned. Going this 15k at 2,300 meters (7,500 ft) took almost 4 hours and there were about 10 of us in a group.

From CP 1
As the heat rises I decided to fill the third spare water bottle. The ground is less salt and more hardened mud with ridges. It remained flat and at least there were some paths to follow. Key again was staying on the balls of your feet to navigate ridges and here I began to feel the beginnings of a blister under my center toes. Hottest part of the day across vast open terrain I'm slowing down already as the blisters on toes, heels and now balls of my feet come into play. Was caught by a charming lady, Bez from Young, Australia who has a 30 acre vineyard outside Sydney and we spent an hour talking travel and wine and debating vigorously oaked vs unoaked Chardonnay. It was to prove a wonderful diversion and the last on-trail conversation of the race.

CP's were mainly for getting water refills and moving on. The volunteers waiting for us in the sweltering heat were always cheerful and helpful. There was an important lesson here as everyone from fastest to slowest greatly needed and appreciated the words of encouragement as bursts of pure oxygen.

From CP 2
Bez caught a second wind and slowly left me in the dust and alone with my thoughts. My only two rules were 1) never stop, and 2) never look back. Only one would make it through this stage. The trail to CP 3 was smoother ground varied from sand to packed gravel and undulating all the way. My pole rhythm was good and to break the monotony I rotated from single poling to double-poling. Such was the excitement in my day.

When I reached 30k my feet were going, ankles were very sore and to even step up a foot required a effort with my poles. The realization I still had 40k to go caught up with me and almost cracked my confidence. I say almost as the most extraordinary thing then happened. I looked to my left and saw a dog! My first reaction was I had gone crackers in the heat. I broke rule #2 to see where he'd come from. I could see for miles in each direction and no one was in sight. What was going on here?

It was a sign. A few stages back before entering the dried ancient lakebed I said a prayer to my Dad to watch over me and here it was...he had sent our departed dog Bosco in spirit to keep me company. I got down on one knee (ouch) with Bosco and shared some food and water with him and gave him a good petting. How did I know it was Bosco? When he laid down he crossed his front pays just our dog did. Unbelievable! With this my doubts departed and my confidence soared. From here on it it was only about how long, not if!

When I stood up to go 'Bosco' ran ahead about 100 meters. But then he stopped and sat next to the next trail marker (little pink flags). He did this over and over and he got a right good petting everytime I'll tell you as we chatted about all our great times over the next two hours. At the giant 100+ meter sand dune Bosco left and disappeared as I climbed up and down that huge dune to CP 3 at 6pm beating the cutoff by three hours. When I finally reached the CP under a truck was Bosco looking at me as if saying "Look, I'll come with you but I don't have all day so can we pick up the pace a bit please!". I laughed out loud for the first and only time on the trail.

From CP 3
The wind was howling here at 30-40 mph for a good long time so I fully covered my face and headed off alone as Bosco just wanted to rest in the shade with plenty of water...smart dog. At 730pm the sun went down and I put on my windbreaker, and fleece hat for the cold and my headlamp for the dark. Now navigation would be required by glow sticks and finding the postage stamp strip of reflective material on the pink flag. I figured I'd have 7-9 hours alone in the pitch black as there was no moon.

Now I don't have such great eyesight in the dark so seeing the glowsticks and flags was proving vexing as I'm sure I was veering around looking for them. I had found by counting my steps that they were rarely more than 130 steps apart so if I hadn't seen it by then I had to stop. But after a half dozen times of this at my heel is none other than Bosco again (thanks Dad). So together we walked through the hard clay winding riverbed until CP 4.

I was delighted that there at CP 4 was the husband wife team of Mary and Alisdair. Alisdair was my CEO for Asia when I was at Morgan Stanley and Mary created the concept of the 4 Deserts (company name) which does the race series in Atacama, Sahara, Gobi and Antartica. I give due credit to Alisdair for marrying such a charming ultra-marathoner and disappearing into the desert for a few weeks at a time to provide our course briefing in the am and provide words of encouragement. Mary could tell I was in the hurt locker and tried to cheer me up, but I was having none of it. I said "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" and off I went. They told me I could sleep at CP 5 but said it was better to keep on to camp. Yeah, right, I was going to crash and relieve the pain at the first available chance. We agreed Bosco should have the truck ride home and I bid him farewell reluctantly knowing he had done his job and fufilled his mission. I didn't see him again but will never forget him.

From CP 4
At this stage the pain was just silly and I felt like a very old man doing this very odd walk where my foot would hit and leave the ground flat, no heel to toe. Try that around the office. I was just glad it was dark and no one was around as I felt like I was in the Monty Python skit 'The Ministry of Silly Walks'. Just then I calculated I still had 20k to go. For my Singapore friends this is equal to walking from the very southern part of East Coast Park to the Tanah Merah ferry terminal and back again, but with no Chili Crab at Long Beach in between.

After a while and needing a diversion I stopped to look at the night sky. At altitude, with no ambient light, and no moon the sky was ablaze with stars and the Milky Way extremely bright. While we mostly are used to looking for star formations, in ancient southern cultures they focused on the dark spots in the Milky Way to create 'dark constellations' like the fox to base their astronomy on. It was interesting to consider how ancient societies around the world would see generally the same thing in the sky and create their cultural legends and stories. I thought I must find a book which compares cross cultural astronomy. As I was about to set off I saw a shooting star, but more on that later.

As I marched along with my goofy steps I would calculate how much more time it would take to the next CP. At this point I was getting very hungry, the glow sticks were starting to jump around like fireflys, and I was clearly losing focus. I calculated my arrival time at another hour and I hit another low.

My next inspiration was Sir Ernest Shackelton and his voyage on the Endurance. As a fan of his expeditions I took great comfort in what he endured and felt my situation was less than his so said to myself "quit whining and get one foot in front of another". I looked up at the stars again and yet again saw another shooting star, more on that later. Off I marched and to my surprise it was only 300 meters to CP 5. Seems I had forgotten when I left the last CP. Rest at last.

There were a number of people sleeping and I intended to eat my freeze-dried Mexican Chicken Rice and get a snooze as it was now 2am. As I sat by the fire the warm food refreshed me and I resolved to just get on with it. So without sleeping off I went for the final 10k.

From CP 5
Can 10k be too bad, sounds like a cakewalk, right? Equal to 25 laps of the track at the High School, what's the problem? A lot it turns out. As I was looking for one of the glow sticks I rolled my ankle. Fortunately I had my poles to catch my weight and avoid a sprain but the tape on my left foot blister pulled the skin off. Ouch (I had an alternative saying at the time)! I wasn't too far out of CP 5 and was tempted to turn around and look back to see how far a nice nap was.

As I didn't want to violate Rule #1 and stop I pressed on. I took a moment, turned off the headlamp and for the 3rd time checked out the night sky. While not a shooting star I did see a satellite and when I resumed walking contemplated on my 'shooting stars' (two traditional one modern) and thought of my Grandmom who said to wish on shooting stars. For an hour as I hobbled along I contemplated my three wishes which I decided would be:

#1 To finish this event in good form
#2 To get the SOS team to Athens, and
#3 To continue to find events worthy of the support of my friends and family to help those who need us.

On this note it was just a matter of grinding it out until camp. While not the last to arrive I was close to it. But so what, I had finished the hardest day. I took off my sneakers and went to sleep. It was 530am and we were off again in 8 hours to the finish. No Nyquil tonight as sleep came easy.

As I said, it was a stern day, and I looked forward to tom'w.

For Singapore donors,

1) Online donation
http://specialolympics.org.sg/
Click the 'Donate Now' button
Under 'Donate to Programme', enter donation amount for 'Atacama to Athens'
Click 'Add to Giving Cart'
Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'Check Out'
Rememer to select 'Request Tax Deduction' and enter the required fields.

2) Cheques
Payable to : Speical Olympics Singapore
Mail to : Block 2 St George's Road #01-65 Singapore (322002)
At the back of cheque, please indicate name, NRIC and address for individual tax deduction,
and indicate company name, business registration number and address for corporate tax deduction

For US donors,

1) Online donation
http://www.specialolympics.org/
Click 'Donate Now'
Select 'Target donation by country or state'
Select 'Country' and then 'Singapore'

2) Cheques
Payable to : Special Olympics
Mail to : Special Olympics, Attn: Web Gifts
               1133 19th Street NW, 12th Floor
                Washington, DC 20036-3604
Memo: Special Olympics Singapore

US donors are eligible for tax deduction. Special Olympics International will issue tax exemption receipts to you.

BIG THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!

The postings on this site are my personal views and do not represent the positions and opinions of Temasek Holdings