I passed my IPPT today! Yay!!!!

I'm really happy! After 19 weeks of training, I have finally broken my mental barrier and achieved a speed that I have not achieved in the last 3 years of my life. I managed to pass with about a 20 second window, my timing was just a nice 12 minutes, 11 min and 59 to be exact.

My running took a dive in JC1 when I didn't exercise at all for the first 3 months, ate junk food almost everyday when I skipped school and had all the parties and alcoholic beverages almost on a daily basis. I'm not an alcoholic. Its just that I can REALLY drink without getting drunk, just a little bit high. Then came my miserable bout of dengue fever.

The doctor said that basically my platelets and hemoglobin count was rather low, meaning that my blood had problems clotting, my gums bled easily and I got tired after walking a few steps. After I recovered, I had great difficulty running. Its was like 1 round around the track was enough to kill me with chest pain and lung pain and a throbbing head and painful knees and ankles. JC2 PE was very simple, my teacher just asked me to run 10 rounds per lesson, own timing, own speed. Yet I can't even finish the 10 rounds!

Even for the NAPFA test, I couldn't even finish the 2.4. I would like run 1 round, jog 2 rounds and walk 2 rounds, by then it would be about 25 minutes already and the whole class would have completed a long time ago. My PE teacher, Nilma (She's ACJC girl's tennis captain in 2000), would just call me off the track and leave my raw score under "2.4 run/walk" blank. I failed all the way throughout the year.

When I got sent to prep course at the Police Academy (Tracom), even 6 weeks of running EVERYDAY couldn't help me. I just kept failing my 2.4. My squad guys were quite sympathetic to my plight as here was a guy who could easily do 10 chin ups but couldn't run (for the others, it was the opposite). Slowly I watched as more than half of my squad disrupted and went home, leaving me all alone to rot in the camp.

I didn't pass my IPPT in Tracom, but due to the kindness of Mat Noor, he just recorded a time of 12.19 (Passing time is 12.20) for me on my IPPT scoresheet to help me avoid remedial training at the Coast Guard.

Even at coast guard, I kept falling out and kept stopping after a certain distance but today, by the Grace of God, I am able to run 12 minutes. I can still remember my timings from my previous attempts: 14.17 at prep course, 13.52 in JOB course, 12.56 at end of JOB course and finally 12 in Coast Guard. I took every long, but I did finally make it! =)

Its all thanks to God really. I hope to cut another minute by the end of the Coast Guard training to 11 minutes flat, then 10, then nine then eight all the way to the legendary timing of 6 minutes. Heh, then the army would accept me as one of their COMMANDOS! =)

The SAF was having some event at the place I was supposed to do my 2.4 run. The track this time is just a route by the river with a marker of 2.4km. Just run up towards the Ritz-Carlton, then turn at a specified cone and run back. The SAF was very nice, they clapped for us policeman as we cut through their event (The pathway cut through the whole event). There were lots and lots of girls! Though I couldn't get distracted, OC told us to run especially well at that portion so as to not MALU the Coast Guard. He also told us not to try anything funny like "bumping" into a girl or taking their water or making a "stopover". Perhaps this is one factor that made me run faster? People cheering you on? Even the slowest and last runner was loudly applauded for his efforts. (It had to be EDMUND! He was just interested in ogling the girls).

I was doing some warm down exercises with the squad when everyone noticed this group of MGS girls, probably canoeists warming up just a few meters away. They were wearing really short shorts and did wear any shoes (odd indeed) and they were doing some leg stretching exercises.

Everyone just stared and stared. I did stare too, but quickly glanced away. SEE NO EVIL. I loudly proclaimed to all the "sinners" to look away and stop disturbing my sister school (Yay, ACS pride again!) Kamarul was commenting on how short and "V shaped" their short were. Some of the guys were going "wah! hot sia!" and "shiok chicks".

Such perverts are going to be part of the police force. RIGHT. When they selected us, they should also have given us a character analysis test. I think at least 3 quarters the squad would fail. But i can't blame the guys either. Its not everyday that we get to see girls in short shorts doing their "warm up" before us.

OC cut short the warm down and told us to leave, with much sighs of disappointment. He knew that complaints could be sent against us and then we would like just die along with him? After all, it is an offence to look at a woman in "that way". Should she feel offended, We could like all be arrested for insulting a woman's modesty. Once again, such a draconian system of law we have in this country. But i think its better since a vast majority of our country's guys are just big time perverts (the rest are bapoks and those who are erm.... celibate?)

I went back to class after a break at the canteen, changed and went home early. OC said he'd fight for us to go home early as much as it was possible. Nowonder they said in Tracom, all the OCs are good people. I think its very true, and applies to all parts of the the police force. But reverse the order of the letters and its a different story.

Going out with grandma tonight to have a mother's day dinner at some seafood restaurant. Skipping cellgroup this week as mum said should I go, it would end too late to take grandma out. Yeps, I did feel like not going as usual. It always starts late. I always come early and have my time wasted. Its not fair. I don't waste other people's time, but my time is wasted like nothing at all.

Its not nice either to voice such things out as I have to preserve the "unity of the cellgroup". I do think that Merf is doing a good job, just that he happens to have members like me in his CG, if the head wants to move, but the tail doesn't, then its just stagnant. Nowonder we have no growth, a poor spiritual atmosphere and no fire, no passion, no love for each other. The girls snap at me often and I don't do much. Sometimes i do feel just so under appreciated. =(

How come I get sad whenever I talk about church, God, church people? Basically things of God? I don't know really. I act so tough in real life to never shed tears, but I cry really easily in church, in cg, even when just talking to God in prayer. When I look at myself through the mirror of God's Word. I honestly do feel ashamed as I certainly cannot measure up to the standards God has set for all Christians. Sighs. I feel so burnt out sometimes, its like I moving on my flesh instead of my spirit. I need God so badly, I'd do anything to have more of Him. However, that anything just happens to be getting out of the world. But its not easy. My heart desires to go to the Father, but my mind desires the sinful pleasures of the world. Its really driving me nuts sometimes. I wish I could just kill my mind.

I love my King of Majesty, Jesus. My heart proclaims this, but my mind stubbornly refuses to accept His Right to Rule me. =( What's wrong with me?

I was thinking on the way home. Most guys want a girl for her looks and her body. But is it possible to just want a girl for her heart and not her body? If so, could I do that? And would ANY girl believe that such a guy exists?