20 July 2008, Singapore
Salesforce.com Singapore sent in a small team to take part in Special Olympics Singapore (SOS) fundraising event - Let Me Run With You. This project was conceived to raise public awareness on SOS as well to challenge their athletes to stretch and reach beyond their potential.
It rained the night before so the park was a little wet and soggy when the event started. The shortest run is 3km and the longest 21km or 7 rounds of the Bishan Park. Luke Lin (IT Department), Sher Vin Chua (EBR) and Yiran You (SR) has initially signed up for the 3km with me promising that it would be a breezy and easy run. What we did not expect was the speed of the athletes.
The SOS athletes had trained hard for this - each of them is supposed to run at least one km in relay form with supports/volunteers running alongside with them, encouraging them and keeping their spirit up as they complete each respective leg of the race. They were in fact quite speedy on their feet; some of us had difficulty keeping a pace with them through the 3km run.
The athlete we ran with at the second round was Shirley. Shirley is a slim, small sized girl running in her jeans and sneakers but do not underestimate her size. She took every stride with determination and kept to a constant pace throughout run despite the fact that she ran more than what she had trained for. Due to a logistical hiccup, there was no replacement after her designated 1 km hence we kept on going and Shirley kept up with us. There were moments when she faltered but she uttered no complaint and with encouragement from us, she kept one foot ahead of the other. We did not realize how difficult it was for her until the end of the run when the organizer expressed great surprise (in my opinion, shock) that she ran so much and Shirley panting so hard, we thought she was going to collapse for a moment. And I am humbled by her perseverance that she did not think of stopping even though the distance was quite beyond her. And I saw the power of encouragement and support - I do think that the group of us running with her motivated her to keep on going.
We went over to see the basketball carnival to see how the games are doing. If you read our blog on the SOS Basketball Clinic and Carnival, here is an update: the athletes are good! They play in Unified Teams with 3 athletes and 2 volunteer players in a team. As I sat there, I marveled at their speed and agility and so proud that they are able to play a full game - the marked improvement that they have shown from the beginning to the present. It was indeed a Sunday well spent in the outdoors with the Special Olympics athletes. And boy, aren't they special indeed!