The Cross Country

Dear fellow bloggers,

A "Cross-Country Race" was held on Wednesday afternoon this week. Well, for me, I was in Public Duty on that day, together with my CCA-mates. We were supposed to watch out for any casualities on various checkpoints, including the finishing line. I was assigned to my post with six other CCA-mates, at the finishing line.

The race was a 4.8km distance held in the Botanical Gardens. The starting point was the CCAB, on the track, then winds to the side gate of CCAb, leads to the entrance of Botanical Gardens beside the NUS Campus. There, it goes on around Swan Lake, Evolution Garden, then goes back to CCAB, where the finishing line is positioned. The racers were designated to different groups, where most of the comes from JCs.

After a considerably long briefing, the race began without mishap, but ended with one. As the sky grew cloudy and dark, I was excited as we would be dismissed if it rains, and the race would be postphoned. However, to our amazement, the rain failed to fall, and so the race commenced. After ten minutes, we spotted the first runner emerge from a bend. He dashed across the remaining distance as photographers took pictures of him.

Trailing behind him was a crowd of other runners as they too desperately tried to clinch the best positions left. At that point, runners dragged themselves to the finishing line and most were on the verge of fainting and vomiting. This was our dread. Many fell and lay on the ground, while others leaned against the fence. A pile of runners who had tumbled was in front of us. Dazed, we rushed to help them one by one, until the pile was cleared.

Many runners were grasping for breath, others were trying to stop themselves from vomiting. There were even those who were in a spasm of pain, that they were in the verge of tears. That happened for at least another 2 hours, which was 3 races, when everything finally came to an end. It had been a frightening sight.

I was glad it was all over now. Well, I just hope that that would never ever happen again in my life, or perhaps yourlives too.