A second day of sports


The Home of Athletics
This morning there was an enormous thunderstorm at 4am, waking La Serpiente with titanic booms and light that bleached her room white through the curtains. Destroyer slept through like nothing was going on. We had a brunch appointment at ten, but this early disturbance meant the kids went loopy about nine (when we told La Serpiente she had to clear up her toys) and we had an hour of children screaming in stereo before we got breakfast. Still, we had churros for breakfast (at a Mexican joint that had just taken over from Spruce, a restaurant that I was at one hungover New Year’s Day a while ago) so I can have no complaints.

This afternoon I had the second race of the weekend, 1500m back at the track. This time, there were five people in my age class so a medal wasn’t guaranteed, and I came in fourth. I’d made the mistake of not putting fresh kit in my bag: yesterday’s shirt was revolting, and so I feel great guilt and pity for the poor girl who assisted with pinning the number to my back. I prepared slightly better than yesterday: I had a 45 minute nap instead of watching cartoons from the internet, and remembered to drink some water before the race started. Otherwise, not much different from last year.

However, I ran a 5:26 today, which is about 12 seconds faster than last year. I might not be winning yet, but give it time. You don’t have to outrun people, just outlive them.

My wife and the children arrived just after the race, but the taxi driver took them to the wrong place so we took half an hour to meet each other, after which we walked around the mall. It’s quite a fun place; there’s a climbing wall inside, there was an Under Armour promotion where they gave away free socks, and a Starbucks full of high school children doing their homework while the staff tried to get them to drink more lattes. Bliss.

Climbing wall, Kallang Wave mall

La Serpiente went bonkers again and spent most of the time running around, from store to store, until about six when we were broken and took her home. That meant she fell asleep without complaint and we could do the washing up. Strange the things that excite you as you get older…

Sprinting child


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