-The 12th Avenue-

My Centennial Log!! Dr William Tan, the Living Legend

What a day ... WHAT A DAY.

Today's the DBS NUS Heritage Run event, a 10km fun run/walk that starts from the Bukit Timah Campus all the way to the NUS Sports Track. There's also a Centennial Carnival going on down at the SRC field, and many more other events happening at the same place. Now that the day is over, Im glad that I was dragged by Sin Chang into joining the organising committee a month ago. The salary for my efforts is one thing, but the experiences gained today goes a far longer way than any other rewards.

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Heritage Run

The day got off to a lousy start coz of the bloody weather. It started to pour at around 6am, and things began to go wrong. Many marshallers were late due to the rain. The heritage run flag off timing has to be extended from 7.30am till 8.40am. The marshallers were deployed late, and so were the waterpoints. The initial plan was for me to slack inside the ambulance throughout the event, but i somehow took up the marshallering manager's job due to some logistics cock up. Again, many thanks to the bloody weather for this.

There's a convoy of vehicles following a distance behind the last runner. All the marshallers and logistics equipment will be picked up after the last runner went past them. I had hoped for this to be a smooth operation. I do not believe there's any way for us to finish collecting all the marshallers anytime later than 10.30am. That's about 2 hours from the flag off timing. Even if the participants were to walk casually all the way from BTC to NUS, they should have more than enough time to reach the NUS campus. A bunch of girls proved me wrong. Personally, I do not doubt their ability to walk 10km in less than 2 hours, if they hadn't patronized MacDonalds halfway in their heritage run. That was probably the cause of the horrible delay in the logistics pack up.

Anyways, everything was sorted out eventually, after a few more trips to and from NUS to BTC. It had been quite fun, actually ... to be fully in charge of a bus full of First Aiders and Marshallers. Suddenlly feel very important, hahaha.

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PRU Booth!!

PRU was given a booth for the Centennial Carnival a few days ago. After some brainstorming with Jeffery, we decided to sell Chicken Nuggets, French Fries and Lychee Syrup. Ok here's the dumb thing ... our booth is within a tentage in the middle of the SRC Sports Field. There's a regulation in NUS that prohibits us from cooking or frying anything at the stalls and booths without a proper licence. In other words, all food to be sold must be prepared beforehand elsewhere.

AND SO ... Our ever-resourceful PRU members came up with an outstanding never-before-seen logistics plan. We divided our manpower into 3 teams. A team to fry the food at the Old Kent Ridge Residence Pantry about 200 metres away, a team to deliver the food from the pantry to the booth, and a team to tend the booth and sell/market our wares. Wahaha, and in the end ... i think we still made a loss. But at least we got a lot of leftover chicken nuggets to eat ourselves. Taste quite nice.

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Carnival Stage

Jesus JeSuS JEEE-SUS!!!



A 6-year old boy boy who plays the drums like a heavy metal rocker. Now I've really seen it all. I really need to go out more often.





This little dude's name is Evan or Evans. He's only six this year, and he learns the drums since he was only 2 years old.

God, if that's not talent, then i don't know what is. This puny looking kiddo here plays the drums like the King of Percussions. I don't even know how to hold a drum-stick properly.





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Centennial Challenge by Dr.William Tan



This is one amazing guy. A true legend worthy of all compliments ... and I thought such people were already extinct. Though handicapped physically, Dr.Willian Tan's way stronger than most of us mentally. Since 8.30am, he has been racing around the SRC track continuously in an attempt to hit a 100km record. That's 250 rounds around the track ... on a wheel chair racer that looks kinda heavy to operate.



He accomplished his task at around 3pm ... after more than 6 hours of intensive propelling. All supporters ran alongside with him for his finale round, including the cheerleaders and myself. The atmosphere was truely glorious when he finally hit the finish line. The applause was insane, and Dr.Tan's face was beaming with joy after his victory.

This is a man built from willpower and strength alone. He has accomplished what most people with healthy legs could not. This guy has earned my admiration and respect on all levels, and perhaps Ill include his story on another post soon.
I see a hero in him.

Alhough I have a pair of healthy legs to walk with, Dr. William Tan is definately more complete a man than I am.

posted by JaNuS @ Sunday, September 18, 2005