ACE ADVENTURE RACE - 5th APRIL 2003 by Joyce Leong
TEAM FIRST TIMER: Joyce, James & Marc Ronez
TEAM JOPEDO: Jo, Peter Kearns & Dominic
Sorry to disappoint you all, but biathlon, marathon, and Olympic distance triathlon is nothing compared to the ACE ADVENTURE RACE!
It was a lifetime experience for us to be able to perform so many ‘skills’ under the heat, carrying our backpack as well as to ‘endure the company’, bad breath, smelly bodies of your teammates for 6 hours 49mins for our team and 6 hours 32mins for Team Jopedo.
In this race, it is all about teamwork – one of the rules is that you have to cross the finish line together. So if one of your teammate is dying – you will still need to carry that body across the finish! By the way, we all have to carry at least 2 litres of water, energy food, whistle, full hand gloves for abseiling, climbing harness, cycling gloves, and helmet, and each team must have a first aid kit plus 2 spare tubes, bike pump, tool & patch kits for bicycle repair.
Well, my bag that morning weighed about 3kg! Jo’s bag must be heavier as she even brought make-up and clean clothes to change after the race! Got to look good for Peter’s camera, but unfortunately, we only have photos of us waiting at the start! Peter said he was so excited with the whole event that it completely slipped his mind! The start of the race was a mystery till the eve of the race, and at the briefing we were told to meet at the Diary Farm Quarry at 7am. And the Finish line was another big secret! The air of mystery was rather stimulating, so much so that I had only 3 hours of sleep that night! Sure feels like a mission impossible!
It was typical of Capt. James to be late, which gave MarcRonez and I a bit of stress. We had to check in as a team, park our bikes, our backpacks to be inspected and finally go for body marking. The race was finally flagged off at 8.12am with no major instructions – just follow red ribbons, signage or race officials. Hmmm, sounds simple enough.
Trail Running
Have you ever tried running with a heavy backpack for over an hour that
takes you to the very top of Bukit Timah Hill?
Yes, you puff and huff alright-man! So from Dairy Farm Quarry, we ran along the pipeline that comes up to Rifle Range Road. Then we had to run along the road and wind our way to Bukit Timah’s famous toilet stop, up to the top of the steep hill and come back down half way and go left at the ‘Catchment’ sign.
By now, Marc Ronez’s knee pain was creeping up on him. As explained by Marc before, this is due to late night dancing and partying too much! That explains why he did not show up for the Race briefing on Friday night!
When we got back to the pipeline, we discovered that James was missing! Wahh! It was time to panic! In desperation, Marc called his hand phone, but no use – Capt. James did not bring his phone!
We waited along the pipeline only to see other teams zapping by us including Team Jopedo! We were surprised to see the elite team (Team Singapore Power) behind us, which only meant one thing – James must have headed down the hill instead of turning left at the ‘Catchment’ sign.
Marc and I had no choice but to wait for Capt. James at the bicycle station. The Race Official would only sign us off when the three of us were together.
Mountain Biking
We rode a big loop along Dairy Farm Pass, Gangsa Trail/Mandai Lake Rd/
Zoo roundabout back on to Gangsa Trail where we managed to overtake Team
Jopedo and met up with Ramesh and his team.
When we stopped at Mystery Test #1, yours truly climbed on top of Marc’s shoulder hoping to reach half a playing card, which was hanging way up high. My heavy ‘bum’ lost balance and I was hanging like a sack of potatoes on Marc’s back! Poor MarcRonez, he must have been thankful when I got off his back!
Then Capt. James developed cramps on both his legs while trying to jump up to reach for the card. It was during this moment that Team Jopedo caught up with us again. Peter being so tall, all he did was stretched a little and just reached out for it! It was a natural unfair advantage! With that, Jo bid sweet farewell to us while we were trying to help James! (Sob...sob.)
Luckily, MarcRonez refused to give up and managed to do a miracle spring for the card.
When James finally recovered, we went up the slope to the three trees searching for the other half of the card. Once we did that we had to pick a letter – MarcRonez decided on ‘W’. This had to be retained for Mystery Test #2.
We rode along just in time to see Team Jopedo leaving Mystery Test #2. Again we had to leave our bikes and walk 500m following red ribbons, and with the help of the compass at the end of the trail, we looked for West (earlier letter picked by Marc). Walked towards that direction and got a flag out for the Race Official. No brains needed here!
Cycling along Belukar Trail, we finally reach one of the highlight of the race – Rope Ascending just about 20m under the Dairy Farm Road flyover. We could not queue up for the event as James had not arrive, so MarcRonez zipped back on the bike to check on him – in case he had bike problem.
Again we met up with Team Jopedo but by the time it was our turn, Team Jopedo waved goodbye to us again!
One other participant had developed cramps while ascending half way...it was real life drama! He could not move and had to be rescued. Dangling at mid air, we were not sure whether he fainted but one of the Race Officials was roped down to save him.
Must say, even though it was our second try on the rope ascending – it was so easy compared to the first time. It was a taste of achievement for someone with a ‘kiasee’ heart like mine!
After this part of the adventure, we headed back to the start where we parked our bikes. We then scaled up the hill on ropes, literally behind each other! I remember we were hanging on to the roots and branches for dear life.
Once on top of the cliff, we were rewarded with ‘breathless’ scenery (err, actually breathless from the climb up!), but the sun was just roasting over our head for us to really enjoy it. Moreover, we had to queue for our turn. Just as luck would have it, we were just in time to see Jo waving good-bye as she made her way down the cliff.
Abseiling was never in my dictionary and first of all I hate heights! To conquer this fear, I never once dared to look down as they were hooking me up to the rope. It was like a life sentence. Just imagine, standing with your feet half on the edge of the cliff and here they are telling you to just lean back with your legs apart like it was no big deal!
So I did what they told me to do but the law of gravity had my heavy ‘bum’ squatting off the cliff. It was not funny during that time! Those poor guys had to pull me up again and start me all over again.
Once I got going, it was like walking down the 22m cliff and I began to enjoy it. Wow, what a feeling! No weak knees too! It was another historical mark in my achievement list. As for MarcRonez and James, it was a piece of cake!
After this, we all headed back to our bicycles and headed for Bukit Timah Rd, carried our bikes across the pedestrian bridge to Chartered Bank and headed for Bukit Batok Ave 2. At Bukit Batok Nature Park, another long, hot ‘heart’ breaking uphill struggle on the bicycle.
At the top, it was rewarding to have ice-cold water before we were told to push down a steep path to the Quarry where we did the Mystery Test #3 - blow the balloon till it burst. Marc had the honour of doing my share of the ‘blow job’!
Then we were directed to the Ulu Pandan Park Connector where we had to carry our bikes down to cycle on the canal. At first, it was fine, the water level was within the drain but as we carried on – we were eventually cycling in 6 to 8 inches of dirty, murky water. It was very exciting at first and I felt like a little motorboat just putting along.
My imagination overtook my mind and began flooding it with all kinds of bacteria, germs, viruses but the race must continue! Understand Jo had a fall at this canal stage.
It was a relief to see the Race Official to signal us to get out of the canal. Once we reached the end of the park connector, we were told to leave our bike, put on our life jacket and go down to the canal.
We had to hook ourselves on to the rope that was tied across the canal.
Using our hands to push us backward on the rope with our backpack wrapped in plastic garbage bag tied to our body - we floated across the canal trying to cool off and found it rather relaxing to be soaking in the chemical polluted seawater! By the way, there were no sign of any living fish! I pretended that I was at some SPA retreat for my skin! So much for adventure!
By the time we got to the biathlon transition, the Race Official there told us that we all had to run to the finish line. We were disappointed as we were planning to have Marc ride the bike while James and I will run.
Marc with his bad ‘dancing’ knee walked bravely on. We tried asking the Officials how long the walk was, but their “1 or 2k” turned out to be more than that! With two other teams, we were trying to out-walk each other.
I found it harder to walk so I told my team that I will jog ahead and wait for them at the Finish Line. The sight of the white tents and the Finish Line was like a wish come true.When James and Marc finally arrived – we reunited and ran happily under the Finish Line together finishing as a team!
A total of 18 Open Teams and 11 Youth Teams took part in the race. Jopedo finished 5th while we were positioned 8th in the Open Category.
Would we do it again? As for me, YES, provided the mountain biking trail is not dangerous! James found it challenging and it was too easy for Marc except he has to give up dancing! When I got home, I had lost 4kg of water, I felt slimmer and I thought to myself.... WOW! What a great way to lose weight! And tomorrow I will indulge on my cookies, cakes and ice cream. After a good shower, I headed for my reward - an hour’s massage near home!
Life is worth living after all! Can’t wait to see the boys tomorrow for our usual Sunday 70k-bike ride on the road!
Joyce Leong
- A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband
- A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife
- A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend
- A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
