team slow smurf

Note: Wrote this report this morning before work and some in the train, so please excuse the rambling...Click on picture above for more pix.

When I was little, one of my many ambitions was to join the army. Don't ask me why - I just thought it'd be cool.. I guess I wanted to be a 'tough girl' and kick all the tough men's asses. Obviously, my family - especially my sister - thought this was a crazy idea.

This weekend's adventure race has made me feel the same way: I would not have made it in the army. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, both physically and mentally. I'm not even sure I'd do it again... I guess I really have to think about that.

My first proper adventure race - that's what the warriors are calling it at the moment as urban races in Singapore are not counted as real ones - was held yesterday in Hulu Langat, just outside Kuala Lumpur this weekend. I had been told it was going to be a tough one, so I had myself completely psyched up for torture. But I don't think it was enough. This adventure race was definitely in a totally different league altogether - The teams that competed were all seasoned. We turned up on Saturday for the race briefing and the other participants were intimidating to a newbie like me. The girls would look you right in the eye to 'check out the competition'. I guess they wanted to suss out if you'd be a tough nut to crack on the race route.

Meanwhile, Janice happily chomped on an ice-cream cone and looked highly un-menacing. Lose.

We were flagged off at around 8am on a mountain bike segment, so since we were essentially mountain bikers, the smurfs and I figured we'd try to gain as much lead time as we could by blasting it as much as possible. Unfortunately, Pei Ling wasn't feeling too good once we hit the trail and we had to stop and rest for a bit. But this was to be our saviour strategy - Just when we thought we were the very last team, we saw the lead team head backwards. They were followed closely by Hubba, Ming and Ken. We've gone the wrong way, they said. Turn back. We were saved. So since Pling was feeling better, we hurried along as best we could.

According to Nik, we were the first mixed team to reach the first checkpoint. I think we were riding offroad for about one and a half hours before we chucked our bikes back at the checkpoint, filled up our water bladders and proceeded on to the first team challenge. Using a piece of bamboo each, we had to pick a tennis ball up without touching it and carry it to a bucket. Tougher than it sounds when you're tired and antsy and you've all got different strengths, but we managed it after a few tries and were on our way.

It was a slow run back to the jungle and the trail running was a bit of a scramble. Let's just say running at BT is a luxury 'coz even though it's offroad, there's some sort of path to follow. The first jungle trail was still pretty accessible. You could still run along with care if you thought you could handle it. It took ages and we kept meeting with faster teams who were on their way back from the waterfall checkpoint, and they’d say ‘it’s about 25 minutes away’. When we finally got to the checkpoint, Hubba’s team was just on their way back downwards.

Like he’s done before, he broke out into a big grin when he saw me and let out a ‘hey wifey’, which lifted my spirits somewhat. He asked if I was alright and to be careful, and then he went on his way. The waterfall obstacle might not have looked as hard as it did, but it took us a decent amount of time to get to the top. The rocks were wet and slippery, so every little miss meant a good bashing on rocks. My upper body was screaming by the time I got to the top and I was happy to start running again. Except by the time we got back to the tarmac trail where the trail had begun, my left knee was at busting point.

There was pretty much no way we’d reach the 1.30pm cut off point at the abseil checkpoint. All teams who couldn’t make it might be allowed to do the abseil but not continue the race to complete the last 2 checkpoints. The choice was simple: Bail out right there and then and feel like losers, let the smurfs continue on without me and get disqualified anyway, or just do what we could.

To prevent too much frustration, I made it clear that I might not be able to run a lot of the way. My teammates were incredibly supportive – We’d finish as much as we could with our final point being the abseil, they said.

Along the way, I had a few moments of utter weakness where I pretty much lost my nerve. My knee felt like it was in shambles and climbing or descending – especially offroad – was a nightmare. Under the cover of my sunglasses, I started to whimper and sob. Tried to stifle it but I knew my cover was blown when Nik and Pling started upping the words of support and encouragement.

Then there was the jungle bashing trail, which really told me I was no GI Jane.

The off-cambering was tough on the knees, and there were clear drops to the right at times so you really had to be careful. The thorns, leaf burns and stings I got didn’t matter anymore. The leeches that latched on became my friends. It all just didn’t matter anymore.

All that mattered was getting to the point where it’d all be over.

But when we got to the abseil point, we were told the cut off time for the final abseil had been ten minutes before we arrived. We took 6 hours and about 40 minutes and were the 6th mixed team to come in, but we still DQed. Pants.

Team Slack (the husband, Ming and Ken) came in 3rd in the Men’s category, behind Charmaine's superhuman brother, Sam. Team Angels (Ling, Rina and Becks) came in first – Power to the girls =) Meanwhile….

I’m seriously contemplating adventure racing. Do I do it again, or do I leave it at the doorstep? I definitely enjoyed the first 3 hours of it till my knee started acting up – But I’m just wondering if I ought to be putting it through that kind of torture. Maybe I should just stick to triathlon. But then… where’s the outdoor fun in that? Hmmmmm…

I guess I’ll still think about it.