Started out with my partner Ah Gao on a good note...
was leading in the start run...
took the bike and headed out on the bike leg...
things took a turn when i fell.. not once but twice..
The first time I flew off my bike, I had only cuts and bruises on my left knee.. picked myself up and cycled further..
Bukit Timah trail track.
Went down several slopes.
As I am not that proficient on the bike, I must say I lacked a lot of training and experience in such trail... and racing on this course was not a fun thing but a challenging and technical thing.
I remember heading down a steep slope and ended up landing straight into one of the holes at the end of the slope, flew off my bike and landed face front on the ground.. My partner shouted and threw his bike, ran st to me and held me.
I was bleeding profusely from the face. Ah Gao had a bandaged creating a compression on my cut on the face.
The immediate reaction from him was: ok, let's stop the race, though we were leading, but there is always another better race.
We stopped, pushed our bike to the FIRST checkpoint, only to find out that I did not need a stitch on my face.After discussing for some time, we decided to carry on. At that pt, we were already 16th position... it was a low morale day for us...
We finished the race, hand in hand... managed to clinch a 4th position. Not too bad afterall:)
The things I learnt from this race:
Always be prepared for the worst that can happen
Train up and gear urself physically for the race:)
Have a great partner
Ah Gao is definitely my best partner in adventure racing so far... we had several training sessions and every training sessions, he was very patient with me, guided me and trained me:)
During the race, he always put safety first and will always look out for me.
Even though he is so much fitter in every way and could have left me to fend for myself, I admire him for his caring personality to help me in whatever way he could.
A good example would be the pushing up of the bikes on a steep slope... He would push his bike bike all the way, drop his bike, come down all the way to the bottom of the slope, push my bike up for me and then give me a helping hand to get myself up:)
Thanks BIKE LABZ for the sponsorship of the race...
thanks NIKE for the shoes that i wore...
thanks to Ah Gao for the everlasting endurance, patience and care and concern throughout the race:) u have been a great partner...looking forward to our next race:)
Thanks to Sunny for coming down all the way from Bedok to Yishun right after a call saying that I am injured and needed a ride to NUH:) thanks bro, i love u:)
It was a really memorable race...
ended up with big cuts on my legs which needed stitches, and a big swollen face like a pingpong ball..
but nevertheless, the lessons we learnt in every race is a great process:)
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