Always ready for the camera with a bright smile (or an adorable scrunched-up expression), Desiree was only in Singapore for four months but she was a significant part of the #ROCKfam during this period. Actively coming for all our activities and impressing with her excellent athleticism, the farewell was a difficult one as she returned to London to kick off her legal career. Here’s a personal note from the 22-year-old:
If you asked me four months ago whether I would run further than 10km, my answer would’ve been a deadpan NO – no way, not even a single millimetre past that mark. But one Sunday morning four months later, I crossed the 21.1km finish-line in the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2016 to complete my first ever half-marathon.
Of course, this is a matter of little significance to many seasoned runners out there. But having achieved this tiny feat, I confess that my heart brims with happiness. And such has been the way of things since I first joined the ROCKrunners.
I vividly recall my very first session with them. After returning to Singapore from London upon graduating from university, I was eager to try everything and anything. And though joining a running group hadn’t been the top of my to-do list, joining the ROCKrunners was actually the best thing to have happened to me in the past four months.
See, I’d always been the typical solitary runner, faithfully logging miles on my own, mostly on the treadmill. And two years ago, as the story of every runner probably goes, I met with my arch nemesis: the dreaded runner’s knee. Then it all went downhill from there and I was banned from running. From then on, I shied away from running for fear of aggravating my past injury. My confidence in running slipped. Running was not a joy for me anymore – it was painful.
Let me just say that running is not for everyone, and let me add that getting up at the crack of dawn to run appeals to only a certain peculiarly masochistic bunch. But on a whim, I registered to join the ROCKrunners session on 13 August… though I then proceeded to spend the rest of the night endlessly talking myself out of it. After all, I thought, if I didn’t turn up, no one would know and it wouldn’t even matter.
But as fate would have it, on that very Saturday morning amidst near-perfect weather, I found myself heading towards the meeting point at Marina Barrage full of apprehension. I didn’t know what to expect; I didn’t even know who I was expecting to meet – and I was alone!
But I saw a group of people huddled together in their three-striped black RTNT tank tops and shyly asked if they were the ROCKrunners (though it was blatantly scrawled right across their chests). Jean immediately greeted me with a bright smile and promptly led us on our Saturday workout.
Although I was obviously a newcomer, I felt so welcome. I remember Debbie, dressed in a colourful ensemble, cheerfully saying hi and asking if I was new, as well as the sisters Lynn and Yanee, who looked flawless in their sporting outfits. Shan and Raynor, who had colour-coordinated outfits, and Joshua, who had accumulated a pool of sweat by the time we were done with our sprints + HIIT. By the end of the session, I thought to myself: this was definitely worth waking up at 6am on a Saturday morning for. I would definitely be back.
From then on, I became a regular attendee of the Saturday sessions. However, back then I still never thought of runnung an official race. The Asics City Relay then marked my first foray into the local running scene. Initially I hadn’t even considered participating in this race at all, but for this reason I thank my lucky stars that Cheryl reached out to me to join her relay team, because the experience changed the course of my running life forever.
Being part of a relay team came with its own set of daunting challenges. There is the obvious added pressure that you’d be that person to drag the whole team down. And I didn’t wanna be that person. Never mind the fact that I was racing alongside Cheryl and Jean, both of whom are ladies that I look up to incredibly; not to mention that I was a complete newbie at racing. All these factors kept running around my head and I remember being consumed by my inner demons and a copious amount of self-doubt prior to the race.
Yet, the race itself turned out to be a night to remember.
I vividly recall waiting around anxiously at the handover pen for Cheryl (2nd runner) to come back, and the surge of adrenaline upon seeing Cheryl emerge from the crowd and into the stadium, and me flailing about excitedly like a madwoman to catch her attention. I remember launching off on my own leg of the race surrounded by noise around the stadium and then plunging into pitch darkness and deafening silence immediately after. I also remember peering at the national stadium from afar whilst running and thinking, oh my goodness, am I still THAT far?! I’m never going to make it!!!!!
And then entering the stadium to embark on my second loop, hearing the cheers and screams from my ROCKfam gave me all the strength I needed for the final push. Finally, I remember that last stretch towards Yong Kang (4th runner) and how I sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me because I wanted to do my absolute best for the team. At the end, I remember being enveloped by hugs and cheers from the rest, and oh boy was it an exhilarating experience.
That night left us all buzzing from a post-run high that lasted well into the following day. But the experience itself was golden – it taught me that running in a team blessed us with a camaraderie that held a sort of significance far greater than any solo run would ever be able to deliver. And that feeling of experiencing a post-run high together with everyone else was just craaaazy, and crazily amazing.
Since then, the experience opened my eyes to a whole new world of running – one that involved not just myself, but everyone else who shared the same passion for the sport. Despite being a relative newcomer to the ROCKrunners, I never once felt out of place. I’d even go so far to say that they helped me find my ground in the running community and gave me a sense of belonging. They made me realise that there’s so much more to running than just pounding the pavements alone. It was about family, about coming together and egging each other on along the way, bearing the pain together, reaching new heights together and riding out the waves of post-run highs together.
Before I knew it, jolting out of bed bright and early on Saturday mornings slowly became less of a chore and more of something to look forward to over the weekend – it was our Saturday “happy pill”, as we soon came to coin it, and I assure you it’s not a lie at all. We train hard together for sure, but half the time we also spend goofing about, taking endless photos, photobombing, (not) laughing at resident clown Samuel’s jokes, or Phildia’s extremely infectious laughter, and singing along to Cheryl’s completely outdated taste in music.
The next major milestone for me personally was in the SCMS 2016 last December. As I mentioned, because of my past knee injury, I’ve always felt limited in the distance I could run and I could never bring myself to run more than 10km. That was my ‘comfort zone’ – beyond that was an unknown abyss that I feared would bring about a whole slew of knee injuries again. However, I was so inspired by my fellow ROCKrunners and their courage to conquer new challenges and reach greater heights.
Indeed, we may not be the fastest runners around, but I know for a fact that these people are warriors when it comes to running and they dare to take on new distances and give their very best while they’re at it. For instance, in the Great Eastern Women’s Run 2016 in November, I opted for my ‘safe’ 10km distance whilst most of them chose to do 21km.
At that point, I couldn’t even fathom running that far. But seeing their happy, satisfied faces upon completing the half-marathon, I felt impelled to be brave like them and take on a new challenge as they did. And since the SCMS was going to be my last race in Singapore, I finally resolved to pluck up the courage to end my short race season with a bang.
Indeed, it was all thanks to all the support from the ROCKrunners that I managed to forge the most memorable race experience I’ve had to date in the SCMS. There were many times I doubted myself. But time and again they showed me how much they believed in me, such as Yanee and Lynn who gave me sage advice on how to pace myself and when to take energy gels (and thank you Lynn for giving me that honeystinger!), as well as Debbie who said I should gun for a 1:45 finish because she believed that I could achieve it, and Vivien who ran alongside me on all those hour-long runs during our weekly ROCKrunners sessions. And with all that and more, what seemed like an impossible 21km became a personal victory when I crossed the SCMS finish line.
So the half-marathon milestone concluded my four-month stint with the ROCKrunners, and it was because of them that I took this giant leap of faith. Had I not witnessed their sheer grit, mettle and perseverance in each of their running journeys, I probably never would have dared to break out of my debilitating knee injury and challenge myself to achieve more. Instead, I’ve come out of this experience learning so much more.
We set goals. We put our best foot forward. We may fall, but this camaraderie that we’ve created within ourselves keeps us afloat. So we find the courage to keep on fighting. And most importantly, we revel in little victories. Little by little, we build strength in character, until we form a whole.
Though it was a short run (pun unintended) with the ROCKrunners, I can wholeheartedly say that it was the best decision I ever made to have joined them four months ago on that Saturday morning, because now I’ve left Singapore with a heart so full, having crossed paths with these ever so positive and inspiring individuals. And I can only hope that it wouldn’t be too long before I get to see them again!!!!
This time with Rock The Naked Truth has also given me the opportunity to try activities I might have never done on my own, such as Muay Thai, acro yoga, tennis and a whole bunch of mass HIIT workouts in public spaces. The best part is, we got to do all of these things together as a family.
To my beloved ROCKrunners, thank you for showing me what it’s like running with a community, to run with courage and to run not with the intention of competing with anyone else but yourself. You guys have touched my heart in ways you can’t imagine. Thank you for filling my Saturdays with so much joy seeing all of your bright and beautiful faces, and thank you always for leaving such fond memories in my heart. I love all of you and I miss all of you soooooooooooooo so much. Keep on running strong, I’ll catch up with you guys really soon!!!! :’)
ROCKstar of the Month is a monthly award given to an inspiring individual who advocates a positive mindset and living an active lifestyle (see full requirements below).
Requirements to be a ROCKstar of the Month awardee:
- SUPPORT – Believes strongly in the movement and advocates the right mindset
- INFLUENCE – Displays ability to be a positive influence to those around him/her
- ENTHUSIASM – Regularly attends Rock The Naked Truth events
- LEADS BY EXAMPLE – Demonstrates desire to improve lifestyle aligned with the movement
- CONTRIBUTION – Does his/her part to give back to the movement
