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Staff News Running a Marathon by Giles Jacobson, Assistant Head of Maths & ICT (Senior) Like many people, I thought that running a marathon would be the greatest physical challenge I could achieve in my life. However, having done it, I still want more! Finishing a marathon is not just completing 42.195km in a few hours, it is the culmination of months of training, at times involving several hours a couple of days a week, alongside your every day demands. The whole experience changes the way you approach life, it helps you appreciate the capacity of the human mind (and body) and helps put life into perspective. In December 2008, Tanglin student Lucas Spencer left not only my form (Y7.7), but Singapore too. Seventeen months later he passed away from skin cancer, shortly after his thirteenth birthday. This tragedy was a first for me as a teacher of over a
decade; I just didn’t understand why. Chris Spencer (Lucas’ Dad) subsequently set up The Lucas Foundation for Children (LucasFC) and having read the different initiatives supporting the charity, I knew I wanted to contribute in some way. The Singapore Sundowner Marathon 2011 would be exactly one week after the anniversary of Lucas’ death, 28 May. If I was really going to run the marathon, it would be this one, and I would try and do it for Lucas. At the start of 2011, I had only ever run 9.6km - seven years earlier when training the cross country runners at my school in Sri Lanka! In January, managing to run 8km on a Saturday morning was a major achievement. In February, 15km was the long run per week. By March, I had topped 20km per run and in April I was laughing at how difficult I found 8km only 3 months earlier! I learnt that ‘endurance’ actually means how long you can keep your mind focused and that the culmination of five months would give me the greatest feeling of my life in those few
minutes either side of the finishing line. If you, as a member of the Tanglin community, have ever said “I could never do that” about long distance running but deep down inside you really wish you could, then the CCA ‘Running with the soul in mind’ is for you. Please contact craig.davis@tts.edu.sg if you are interested! All members of the Tanglin community are welcome. Thank you to those of you who have donated to LucasFC in some way and watch out for the Year 7 Lucas Spencer memorial football tournament coming up in March 2012.
The Rubicons by Grace Burton and Hanna Homayounfar, Y8.5 You might have heard of a stream in northeastern Italy called The Rubicon, which marked the ancient boundary between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, when its crossing in 49BC by Julius Caesar began a historic civil war. You could have even heard of the word ‘Rubicon’ in the context of ‘a point of no return’ but what probably comes to mind at Tanglin when coming across this word is a band, ‘The Rubicons’, made up by Mr (Mike) Roberts, Mr Coates, Mr Coughlan, Mr Meadows and Mr Scott!
rhythm guitarist, Mr Roberts sings and plays guitar, as does Mr Meadows, Mr Scott plays the drums and Mr Coates is the bass player.
The band was started in 2007 by Mr Coughlan, who having played in bands in previous schools, decided it was time to start one at Tanglin. Each member of the band brings a different musical instrument or skill. Mr Coughlan is the
When asked why they like to perform, Mr Meadows immediately answered, “For attention!” The rest of the group agreed that it was a fun way of relieving stress, a social hobby giving them a purpose to play, a good way of learning new songs
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Rehearsing in a Chinatown studio when they have time, The Rubicons have performed at numerous bars, during Alexandra Charity week, and at school assemblies. A particularly memorable performance was when they played a tribute for Mr Woods at his leaving assembly.
and genres, and ultimately that it is more fun to play in a group rather than alone. The teachers also agreed that they don’t like to be known as a ‘staff band’ and that it is a case of ‘band first and teachers second!’ We think they rock either way!
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