NCR Palaro 2018

I am my kids number one cheerleader in their victories.

Also their most ardent supporter + encourager in the challenges they go through.


My 2 kids swam the 2018 Palarong Pambansa-NCR meet a few weeks ago.

The pool in Marikina Sports Park brings back memories both pleasant and crummy.

Pleasant because of the memories for it was the venue for the Batang Pinoy 2012 semi-finals where J swam and qualified for the Nationals. But we dreaded swimming in this venue after that because at that time the tiles in the pool were broken, the lane lines were cracked (nasugatan yung ibang swimmers), the water was murky green from the lack of chlorine that you can barely see the bottom of the pool. Meep! It's a horror story!

But this time around, I'm happy to say that the pool condition improved already. Although, they still don't have a warm-up/cool-down pool and the lane lines are still not anti-waves. On the positive side, the pool looks chlorinated enough to sanitize the water after the influx of swimmers. The toilets are all working, so pwede na din because at least there's a slight improvement.

In lane 3. He's usually pensive when he's getting ready to swim.

Because the Palaro games are divided into elementary and secondary, even if R was still qualified age-wise to compete under the elementary boys, he was put in the secondary category because he graduated grade school when he was 11. So for 2 years now, he is competing with boys way much older than him. It's an open category meet so he was up against all the high school boys upto 18 years old. Keri lang! I told him to consider it a great honor to have qualified for it. A lot of high school varsity swimmers would have wanted to be in his place.

"The Palarong Pambansa is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from 17 regions of the Philippines, organized by the Department of Education or DepEd for the student-athletes from public and private schools at elementary and secondary levels. The meet is the culmination of school sports competition, which start with local school intramurals, followed by the congressional district, provincial, and regional athletic meets." (From Wikipedia)

It wasn't only R who swam, this year marks the last Palaro games for my oldest. J will be graduating high school na and this means this is her last year in the games. Next year, if she still wants to swim, UAAP na sana.

 I don't know why, but most times, I've come home more tired than my swimmers. Talo ko pa ang pagod nila kahit di ako lumangoy.

As with every meet, the parents come out in full support, not minding the long wait times and the unforgiving heat.

As much as I want to protect them from disappointments + frustrations, I can't. Medals can't be won at every competition. Sometimes, the only thing they get to take home are lessons.

Sa totoo lang, as a mom to athletes, may goals din ako for myself. One of them is to be able to have the wisdom to help my kids develop mental strength and fighting spirit. I consider it one of my challenges talaga yung how to keep them positive and hopeful when things don't go their way... because there will be times when they will be disappointed with themselves and their performance. I want them to have a mindset that they should be resilient enough to bounce back from a set-back.

Disappointment, frustration and failure are part of sport. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, the ability to manage these emotions is one of the greatest takeaway of competitive sports participation.

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