MIDNIGHT!/ Sunday, June 10, 2007
:)
checkpoint 3: somewhere between a river. task given: river crossing.After the trail biking segment, we had to wait for sometime before being allowed to continue with the race due to bottlenecks. We ran through part of our biking area into somewhere where there was a river. NTU oac had erected a 'bridge' and we had to cross the river using the bridge individually. Our team had to wait for quite a while before we could proceed, since there was already a team in queue. The bridge was made of nettings..it's quite difficult to explain in words, so I shall save the explanation. It was fun experience crossing the river though, especially since this is my first time attempting river crossing.checkpoint 4: tunnel near paya lebar air base.task given: tunnelling.After the river crossing, we had to run through the 'greenery' before we could reach the tunnelling segment. By 'greenery', it refers to plenty of tall grasses/bushes. We had to run up and down some hill. This part of the race reminded me of our rinjani expedition, when we were descending down on day 4 of the expedition. Coming out onto the road after following the race directions, we found out that our water supply was running out. Ant and jc were starting to have leg cramps as well. That however, did not made us demoralised. The determination, to win the race, was there. Arriving at the tunnelling area, we had to wear a rope-made-into-harness and then lower ourselves down into the tunnel. Then, we had to clip ourselves to a rope, so that if there was flash flood, we won't get swept away. I think tunnelling is bad for you back. We had to bend our back and run through the tunnel! That position, coupled with the running, left me quite breathless for a long while after that. And after the race had ended, my back hurt.checkpoint 5: ikea field.task given: walk on 2 planks provided and complete a series of obstacles.Done with tunnelling, we had to climb up onto the streets again. I struggled trying to climb. Without the help of ant and ken, I doubt I would be able to climb up. Once onto the streets again, we passed by a water point, which ran out of water. Hence, we had to be contented with ice to hydrate ourselves. The warm sun parted a large role in dehydrating us..Passing the ice point, we walked/jogged to the area outside ikea field. And thankfully, they had a water point there! In fact, one of the guys were kind enough to give us 2 ice mountain water. And he told us that we were at the 2nd last checkpoint then. At this station, we were given 2 planks and had to stepped on them. At any point in time, there must be no contact of our feet with the ground. Faliure to adhere to that rule would be equivalent to having a 5 minute penalty. The 4 of us worked as a team and managed to complete this station relatively fast. We had to walk around a distance and pass through poles which we weren't suppose to knock over as well as a spider web. Sadly though, we incurred a 5 minute time penalty because we touched the spider web. But, I think we exhibited great teamwork as well as wits, especially in the way we crossed the obstacles. :)checkpoint 6: pasir ris park maze.task given: hug and roll a pipe.Leaving ikea, it was long way to pasir ris park. We had to pass through another canal as well as the sungei api api connector. I liked the part where we had to walked through the canal! First, we had to lower ourselves down into the canal through the use of a rope, like abseiling down. Then we walked/jogged through the canal. Some parts of it was quite slippery though. Then, at after travelling a distance, we climbed up again. We took a longer route to pasir ris park after that. We didn't see any race signs and so crossed a bridge when I dunno if we need to or not. But, we still managed to find our way to the checkpoint in the end, though some time was lost. At this station, we had to hug ourselves to this thick pipe and then roll ourselves from one point to another. Any individuals who failed after 3 tries would be given a time penalty of 3minutes. jc is the pro one! After we had helped him to stay on top of the pipe, he rolled all the way to the end point. For the rest of us, we had to push/jerk/kick to reach the end point.checkpoint 7: white sands field.task given: complete the race.Having completed all the stations, we just had to proceed back to where we started off. The starting point was the ending point. However, there was no map given on how we should go back to the starting point. Either we use a shorter route, or a longer route. Asking the passer-bys which was the shortest route to pasir ris mrt station allowed us to take the shorter route back. But I think ken was so fierce when he screamed at the passer-by! Sounds quite unlike him. And so, we were the 1st team of our wave to reach back. 4 of us, hand in hand, ran past the finishing line, and collapsed. We took ourselves we'd complete the race before 1400, and we did. =)We rested for a while, and then went to pasir ris park again, this time strolling, to wash up. The bathing facilities there were quite good I should say. I lost one shoelace to the park though...Back to the field at 1610, we waited for more than an hour while the results were collated. And during this period of time, I felt nervous. Ken too I think. The team wanted to win. We'd already put in our best effort. We all felt that we stood a chance of winning, since we came in first for our wave. Around this time, sel and meiying joined us as well.Finally, the results were released at 1745. The top 3 teams did not include us. Rather, it all came from the teams in the last wave. Perhaps that was why the organisers took such a long time in collating the results. We appealed, but were rejected. We were too slow as compared to the winners.Not being able to win left me feeling disappointed/sadden/angry/demoralised..we'd train for this race. We set out with the mindset to win. And I'd daresay that we were a bonded and united team, all with the same determination to want to win. Sadly though, our best wasn't enough. :( And, we had disappointed those who had high hopes for us as well. We didn't stay for the prize presentation, but went for dinner at Swensens' instead. There at least, there was food to comfort us. Coincidentally, we saw Ivy having dinner with her friends there as well.It really hurts to face failure. You tried so hard, and you worked towards that goal with such the determination and commitment. And still, you failed. But perhaps, it's through failures where you can learn and improve yourself. Then next time round, you'll win. jak jc. The 4 of us started training a month ago, after we'd sign up for the race. 4 weeks to train, and today, we showed others what aj odac can do. I'm really proud of the team. Despite the leg cramps, none of you gave up on yourselves, nor your team mates. We cheered one another on when we had to. We pushed each other if we need to. Today, we've ran/kayaked/biked/climb/crawl. We may not have won, but, we did our best. We're definitely better than average. We may not have reached the top, but I know that we'll continue to work hard to reach there. So, three cheers. And, thank you.
Past. Present. Future
6/10/2007 08:35:00 PM <3
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