Sometimes you lose a little faith in humanity. This is rather sad, especially following the video I last posted. Me and Erfen watched in disbelief yesterday as Channel 5 News reported the case of sabotage during the Aviva Ironman Triathlon. Apparently, someone scattered thumbtacks on the road in order to sabotage the participants on the cycling leg of the competition, and managed to damage the tyres of 30 to 40 participants.
As someone interested in running (hopefully I’ll be running the KL International Marathon in June), this really made me angry. Training for these competitions is not easy, and it involves so much self-discipline and hard work, and for many people, it’s the sense of accomplishment and achievement at the end that keeps them going. I can accept that there are situations out of our control, such as the weather or the behaviour of other participants, but when it comes to cases of intentional malice, I find it utterly unacceptable.
Who could have resorted to such behaviour? I don’t really want to think that it could be another participant, so I can only think that it was the work of some pranksters. If so, I fail to see the humour in such a situation. For many who are not really looking to try and be the first to complete the race, but who are trying to beat their personal best, such a setback is really heart-wrenching. I read this article with more than a little empathy, especially at the part where she said she felt like wanting to cry every step of the way as she did not have a spare tyre.
If it was another participant, then this reeks of a childish brand of competitiveness that results in the desire to not see others succeed. Perhaps an unintended side effect of our very Singaporean trait of competitiveness? I shudder at the thought.
