Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Safra Swim for Hope 2012

This is the 2nd Safra swim for hope at Safra Tampines.

Swim for hope is a charity event organized by Safra.. last year the funds raised goes to Singapore Disability Sports Council.. this year the funds goes to Children's Cancer Fund :)
The amount donated is determined by us, the swimmers, the more laps we swim, the more is donated (by corporate sponsors) to the beneficiaries!!

Last year, we (swimmers from the mon tri swim group, with the help of Dennis Quek to collate the registrations) came in as a group and completed ~40% of the total laps swam. As a result, Safra took note of our presence and decided to engage our support in this year's event :D

A few months b4 the event, DQ and I met up with Safra organizer, Jay, to discuss some issues we noticed in last year's event and also provided some input based on experience in other events.. and this year we will be given a lane all to ourselves!! Yippee... no need to worry if we kick others or tickle their feet... it's all ka ki lang!:p
Also we found out this year there is a new event called the hydro chain challenge where a team of 5 NSmen will have to take turns to swim to retrieve 4 items, namely the no 4 top and bottom, dummy rifle and SBO...and the final swimmer will put everything on and swim 100m!

The event day happened to be smacked in a busy period for many of us... quite a number of ppl going to attempt the Everest Base Camp climb, Clifford was leaving for Kona the next day, I just got back from Penang the night b4 and was heading over to Hawaii on a fully paid incentive trip, the following week too (would have just missed Kona!! :p)
Yet, on that day itself, many of us turned up very early to make sure we can complete as many laps as possible! But actually it's the hydro chain challenge that started off the day... haha... the continuous lap swim comes after :)

I happened to have a meeting at 10am at AMK that day!! So I turned up in my usual shirt and pants... haha... I look like team manager (which is pretty much my role for the day since I have been coughing for almost a month then, and was advised against swimming until I recovered... with Hawaii trip coming up, I decided to stick to the advice :p But after the trip I have informed the vet that I m gg to ignore the advice... haha... swim or not, cough is not gg anywhere!! :p)



Anyway, I was there early to deliver the BRAND NEW trifam banner (just sent for printing the day b4 in Penang... fantastic service by the printer aka my neighbour) and also the birthday cakes (specially delivered from Penang via Air Asia :p)... also to make sure the Hydro chain team members turned up, especially those that got arrowed :p



I managed to stay until the Hydro chain challenge was over b4 I had to leave... our team got 2nd and 3rd place... woohoo!! Fantastic effort by our not so young NSmen!! The team that got first was a bunch of young NSmen from SIM :p

Team trifam 1 (aka team stirrer) consist of Clifford, Desmond, Sin Guan, Dion and Hui Koon
Team trifam 2 consist of Irvin, Edwin, Alex, Matthew and Nick

When my meeting ended, it was pouring at AMK... I quickly drove back to Safra Tampines and found that it also just started pouring... Great! Just nice to have intermission for b'day celebration!
It was Desmond's birthday and Donald's birthday was also round the corner... so we got the emcee involved in helping to get the 2 birthday boys out and came up with some impromptu games to sabo them! Hahaha...

After some fun time of "win, lose or draw" game, the rain finally stopped and it was time to get back into the pool... as I was rather drenched by them (from running abt... just to get to the car, and the pool, and to find Jay to get the cakes), I changed into t-shirt and shorts... din bother with swim suit since I was getting feverish by then... more reason not to swim (despite having pledged 200 laps) :p

I just stayed on to stir people to swim extras to make up for my 200 laps and another 200 laps pledged by Jerry who was also sick that day and din turn up :p
As the day went on, more and more ppl left for their other engagements... finally it was left with our top swimmers Gary, Han, Donald and Danny... and Enrico who just landed not too long ago and rushed over... and of course there was Dennis and I...

Dennis came, he swam and he was conquered!

Congratulations to our top swimmers with prizes sponsored by our partner, Swim Bike Run Singapore!

Congratulations to Gary for making it into the Singapore Books of Records as the person who swam the most laps in 6 hours! 302 laps to be exact!! That's going to be hard to beat!

Here are some Trifam group photos taken b4 and after the rain...
B4 rain
After rain

Thanks to Safra for organizing such a fantastic event.. and err.. the plaque.. for being a stirrer?

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