Concrete running? Blah.....

This adventure race account just about sums up my sentiments about joining a race which is predominantly concrete-running.

Anecdote of Ace Adventure Challenge III, 15th October 2005 (Dusk to Dawn race)

Ming of Team JAFT (Just Another Fuck-ed Up Team) reports....(he be the fairyman....er...I mean, hairyman in the middle)...

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Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Jumar Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Abseil Run Run Almost Kena Death by Orea Cookie Stagger Stagger Finish!

Finito....

Signs that this was going to be a f***** up race for us...

1. Team "44"....not that we were overly superstitious...

2. The 11th hour, organisers couldn't get a permit for any form of major cycling, save for the team biathlon! No good for habitual mountain bikers, since that was our only talent. Gulp!

3. Our team : 2 ladies and 1 man; 2 with bad knees and 1 recovering from a slip-disc operation. Way to go, "Team Handicap"!

Despite the odds, we still had a f****** good time! Things I'd chose to selectively remember :-

....After jumping into the pool 1/2 hour into the race, Ming's glasses took a tumbling into the waters below! As if we needed an additional handicap....now we were partially blind! During the next task to fill a couple of empty bottles with water from the sea, our poor visually handicapped buddy tripped over a sand step! Back to the water, we go....

....After Becks and I failed miserably to untie knots in Karamazov Brother man-on-shoulder position using our hands, feet, teeth etc., I had no choice but to carry Ming on me shoulders while he tried his limbs and luck taking on the knotty affair. Some American chap standing next to us looked at me, looked at Ming, took a second look at me in disbelief, and then at Ming with a disappointing remark, "errr...is that a girl underneath you? shame on you"...hee hee....

....Becks and I took turns being pillon-ed by Ming on a bike during the Team Biathlon leg, even though we didn't plan on doing that...nor did we think we were capable of doing so. And just when we'd gotten the hang of it, Andrew overtakes us ferrying Ken on his handlebar and Rina on his bikeframe! Wonder how they "manage à trois"? We were quite surprised to see them behind us as they were the strong team which left us in their midnight dust as they blast forward from the start line. One wrong turn can set you back quite a bit!

.....Ah...how can we forget the finest moment : the team kayak! We were given a 2-seater kayak and 2 oars, and 3 of us were to kayak some distance over low-tide muddy Kallang conditions to an overhead bridge to dump our passport into a pale being lowered by someone at the top of the bridge. Becks sat in the middle of the boat, nervously repeating those same lines "ahhhhh..ahhhh......don't capsize ok?"! It felt like we were holding giant spatulas, propelling ourselves forward through a thick chocolate fudge. When we finally arrived back at shore, we were literally knee deep in quickmud, and had to use hand and feet to literally crawl out of the muddy mess! And to make things worse, we were a far cry from the sweet smelling aroma of cocoa. I can just smell it now! Lovely!

Wonder why the results for this race are 3 months late? Ah well, dun matter. We knew we were doomed from the start since concrete running thankfully wasn't bread and butter to us....but like many other races before this one, it was the comraderie that pulled us through with a big smile on our faces. I say, Comrades, let's do mud again sometime!

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