By Clenyce Tan (17S07D), Captain

What is track? The definition you’ll get on Google is “a sport which includes athletic contests established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing.” And if you zoom in for specifics, you’ll find 19 contestable events on the national schools level consisting of the sprints, hurdles, distance running, steeple, racewalking, jumps, throws, and vault. We’re sure you’ve heard that there’s no one size fit all, and our sport accepts and embraces that – we’ve presented a plethora of event choices for you to pick.

If that wasn’t enough to draw you in, we can also vouch for the practicality of such a CCA in your daily life. If you’re the type to prefer flight over fight, joining our speedy sprints team will improve the success rates of this option. And even if you’re the complete opposite, and prefer being able to move heavy objects (schoolbags, study notes, canteen tables, who knows?) around with more ease – well, we always welcome new throwers. We guarantee to have open arms to anyone who’d like to give this a shot, even those without prior experience. Some days you’ll find being able to walk at a pace others have to jog to keep up with a really useful skill, and others you’ll be thankful for the well-balanced combination of all-around strength pole vaulting and jumping can lend you.

However, let it not be said that we didn’t warn you- this sport is high commitment. That six packs and mindblowing fitness doesn’t come without hard work, and our team continues sweating away as one to collectively clinch the national schools championship title somewhere around April every year.

Trainings are about 3 times a week (the classic – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) and three hours each session, in a variety of locations from the track to the field to the gym or the pole vault pit – or often a combination, all of which really depends on which event you end up in. We also have some unusual trainings like the annual Botanic Gardens amazing race, beach trainings, pentalon, to name some.

With training intensity increasing especially approaching season, you may find yourself with your head on your notes fast asleep more often than not. You’ll definitely need some mad time management skills, but then again, it’s a sport, what were you expecting?

For that, rest assured that you’ll have a team who’ll stand by you through the darkest days as well as the glorious moments of triumph, who you’ll work with step by step (quite literally) and who you’ll spend countless hours with – training, eating, resting, studying, playing, and the list goes on. You’ll also learn perseverance beyond anything you’ve ever experienced, not to mention a whole bunch of new skills, especially in the more underrated events. You may possibly discover new muscles in your body, and break your limits over and over again.

We can also guarantee that with what you put in, you’ll definitely reap the rewards you deserve. You’ll feel the adrenaline rush on the very last day of nationals, where you’ll get to see your hard work pay off when you become faster, stronger, better, leaner. Plus, we’ve heard from classified sources that trackers do the best at NAPFA every year.

And at the end of the day, if you join us, you’ll be a part of this family who will most definitely be remembered by the tracks that we leave behind.