In the Mens Ultra Category, the race started in the dark. at 0630 the race was flagged off and they were off running towards Bukit Batok nature reserve. For the Sprint Categories, we too suffered the same fate, however nature was more forgiving as the sun was up by then. In that station, we were required to find the letters “ SAFRA” in the entire nature reserve (tf) and it wasn’t what we expected. Neo and myself met up with a couple of friends Xavier and we worked together to see if we could hasten the process. Eventually after all the searching and screaming, we found the last letter and we got off running towards the Dairy Farm road. ( we thought we were in first place ). Or so we thought.
We eventually caught up with a couple of teams which cleared the puzzle phenomenally fast that we didn’t see them on the 2.5 km run to dairy farm. We caught a glimpse of them at the rope ladder at ZH Park. In our minds, we’re gonna kill them on the bike. As our speciality was on mountain biking, we knew eventually we would catch them, and we did. We caught up to 4 teams along the mountain biking trails armed with our PURE-GluttonSLs and became the 1st runner ups at that point of time.
Next came the team biathlon along mandai road. We caught up to yet another team as as we were neck in neck to them in the team biathlon UNTIL they took a break. kudos to them for giving us such a hard fight. To our surprise, our friends Wei Ming and Wee Meng caught us JUST before the next check point. They have been chasing us down for the longest time and have finally caught us!
In the kayaking leg, Neo took the lead in the kayak at upper seletar reservoir as we dragged the kayak into the water. We went round the kayak, drank some reservoir water and was on our way back to SAFRA. The road back to SAFRA was a testing time for me, my right leg was cramped up like a stump and i had to depend on Neo to drag my sorry ass to the end of the line. My body and mind was lost and all i knew i needed to do was to limp my way back to SAFRA at the expense of Neo’s energy.
Wei Ming and Wee Meng eventually caught us again at the rope obstacles. They we kind and cheered us on momentarily before overtaking. At the rope obstacles, I lost my mind. I was brain locked and made a vital mistake which cost Neo’s efforts. I wished I had been stronger. We raced down the stairs to the car park, sprint finish with the 3rd placed team. Mixed emotions ran though me. Elation for completion, guilt for giving up.
At the end of the race, I learnt much about racing, I learnt even more about our team and I am thankful that I have Neo as a team mate. Tirelessly putting up with my weakness and encouraging me all the way. I learnt about my weakness, and now , I will conquer my weakness. I am a fighter, Hooyah! Nothing Stands in Our Way.
During the prize giving, we all knew our results EXCEPT Hong Taa and Lilli from PURE FWCC Racing. We each went up to receive our prizes. However ULTIMATE JOY came to the team of PURE/FWCC Racing when Hong Taa and Lilli received the news that they were the Champions for the Sprint Mix Category ( which was super unexpected) as we thought we saw other teams come in before them!
We had a good dinner as a team. With mixed emotions I hunger for more.
Results of the day :
Mens Ultra - Champions ( Fabian William - Glutton SL )
Womens Sprint - Champions ( Hwa Yi Min - Glutton SL , Jonie - With PURE equipment)
Mixed Sprint - Champions ( Hong Taa - Glutton- SL , Lilli - Glutton SL )
Mens Sprint - 1st Runner Up ( Neo Sze Kai - Glutton SL , Kenneth Tan - Glutton SL)
Special Thanks to :
Nicholas Yeo- PURE Bikes: for providing us with super-light bikes that gave us the edge over our competitors. The Glutton-SLs were a blast to use
Joshua Uriel - Conti Components : for Providing vital race gears on the Glutton-SLs such as ONZA tires and Squirt Lube ( like a drug )
David Ling - RACESkins : for providing RACING attire for the entire PURE/FWCC Racing and PURE Bikes Racing. The Adventure RACE Jersey was cool comfortable and caused no problems. Fitted snugly!
Fabian Williams: for providing training to our entire team tirelessly every tuesday and thursday to whip our asses into shape for the race.
Stanley - RaceShield : for providing RACEShields which protected all our bikes.
Kevin - BV Sports : for providing Compression tights and Boosters during the race / Recovery .
PURE/FWCC Racing team - Neo/Jonie/Yimin/Hongtaa/Lilli/Fabian : You guys were the bomb!
