A man discovering his masculine heart, defined in the image of a passionate God, the strength and wildness men were created to offer in the DRC, Africa.
Yesterday was my worst Balik Pulau climb ever! It was so bad that I took 4 breaks (Usually 1-2 at most). My lungs felt like bursting, my lower body muscles....totally 'beh ki', I was panting for air and I know I looked like sh*t. Uhhhhhhh...it's only a month without hill climbs and my body system has forgotten totally bout it. I guess training on flats does not help in climbs even if you increase your mileage.
Last night's state training was wicked! I really enjoyed the killers and those jumps. Killed many of us but this was the challenge that I need. During our killers, coach said that something that struck me, "Aren't you going to try at all?". It's so true, that we are the one that always limit ourselves. No matter what...keep trying. Try try try till you get what you want!
Arg...! My back. My legs. =.(
After bathing, I continued my movie "Hachi". It teaches me loyalty! If a dog can remain faithful and loyal to it's master even after he dies. How much more can I do the same to my love ones. I like the Akita. So cool!
It's the final showdown for the national team and the last chance to get back our pride and dignity with our national jerseys on. So did we managed to beat the giants? Our coach said this in our dressing room, 'We are facing giants today, and every giant can fall!'. I was inspired by this quote and was pretty fired up and motivated to slay this giants (Aussies) down.
The moment came and we went out there to sing our national anthem and literally face the giants. We were all pretty pumped up and excited until they dismissed from the middle of the court without giving a handshake. And this really pissed some of our players and it affected them pretty badly. Racism statements started coming out from their mouth and I could feel the negative energy flowing through. What difference are we from them when we start doing that? Our weakness for the match was 'sportsmanship' and professionalism on court.
One of the lessons that we learned as a team throughout this APAC campaign was knowing the value of wearing the Jalur Gemilang across our hearts. And showing the true spirit of warriors and fighters. I would say we did improve from day 1 but it wasn't enough to secure a win.
I have nothing much to say about the game. I guess from the previous journal entries, you would at least know how we fare in international tournaments and how we play. Much has to be improved and worked on, especially the mental then the physical.
I salute the players who tried hard and gave everything out during this game. The Aussies are physically stronger and faster than us. They dominate almost the whole 60 minutes but we managed to reduce to gap but playing really hard in our defense.
Final score, 10-0 to Australia and 21 broken hearts (17 players + 2 coaches + 1 manager + 1 official).
[IronMan 2010 Malaysia is this weekend! uhhh..how I wish I could be there]
The feeling after APAC 2010 is like an injured soldier returning home from battlefield. It hurts mentally and physically. We gave it all but we still fall behind. It was just the worst that I could ever expect. The stats speaks it all. =/ What went wrong I asked myself every night before I sleep?
[me in the middle]
Our opponents got better? They are more hungry? They are faster? More skillful? Better team management? What went wrong?
