viper 24

viper 24, synonymous with enjoyable mental and physical exhaustion. basically, it is a 10km loop, with 15-ish obstacles, whereby u run the loop as many times as possible in 24 hours. i mean i love obstacle courses. but i'm not sure i love it that much to be running it for 24 hours. well i was about to find out wasn't i?

but seriously, what an experience! it was really, dirt, mud, swear, blood and tears. and the souvenirs i got - bruises, cuts, bites.

viper challenge

1. most disliked obstacle: 

- now this one is tough. but the winner has got to be the electric shock obstacle. the first round, it took me so long to get through it. i came out of it crying. and that was not the last time i cried. i cried on every lap, so much so, the marshall had to say, please don't cry this time. the worst time i cried, was after the torrential rain. the water level was so high, that every single wire would have been impossible to dodge. i started crying for a good 15 minutes before attempting it, to find out, it was switched off. definitely least favourite obbstale. 

-of course that was not the only obstacle that made me cry. the leaping frog obstacle is basically one whereby you scale a wall, which is pretty high, and jump off it. yes you heard me right, jump! you should have seen my reaction! i sat up there for so long with tears streaming down my cheeks. it took me so long to muster the courage. i hung off the ledge. the marshalls counted 1, 2, 3, and i was supposed to let go. except i didn't. for so many times. that the marshall had to say, i think you're too strong to be hanging there for so long. but after 3 laps, i got the hang of it. i was still scared, but i no longer cried. 

-i didn't like the first obstacle that much either. it's actually an easy obstacle. you just scale a tube. except that it was so muddy and slippery after the first lap. on the first lap, this obstacle was a breeze through. but after, it was so difficult for me. 

-i like walls because i can scale them quite well. but on my 5th or was it 6th lap, someone gave me a boost. unfortunately, before i caught the upper ledge, he let go, so i fell on my lower back. so i kind of have a phobia now. when i fell, it was also the time i wanted to give up. i completed my loop, and went to the medic tent in tears. my thoughts were if i have a placing i would continue. if not, i would give up. 

but just because i don't like them doesn't mean they aren't good obstacles. i would probably have enjoyed all of them, if i had to go through the course only once. 

2. favourite part of the race:

the company/ my favourite part of the race has definitely got to be the support and encouragement, without which i probably would have given up half way. thanks to all the people who helped me out in the zone, and even on the course.from a small cheer asking me to go on, to a boost over the walls, to checking on how i am everytime i enter the zone, to making sure i go back out on the course as soon as possible, i appreciate every gesture.

faisal was the star of the 24 hours, really the man that made it all happen. thanks for taking such great care of us. thanks for dropping by sinyee. thanks for the support. it really means alot. thanks for driving me back too. probably would have just slept at the rest stop if not. thanks dar for driving me there in the morning. thanks amir, guzzy and coach's brother for dropping by. thanks sunil  and raj  for the support as well. you guys were always the first person i saw upon entering the zone. major thanks to coach who despite my constant urges to just leave me behind,  decided to pace me after my fall from the wall. and of course, thanks to every single person who helped me along the course, boosting me over the wall, reassuring me i could do the obstacles, mucho gracias.

the company definitely made the race and i am sure it is for everyone.

3. would i do this again?

come 11pm, i was so sleepy. i actually closed my eyes walking up the road sections. i did think to myself, i am not made out for 24 hour events. i wanted to give up. but for the people back in the tent who pushed me to go on, i would have gone to sleep. i told myself, i'm going to retire from endurance events, nothing more than 12 hours. i felt so exhausted both physically and mentally, that i told myself, never again.

but after the entire event, i cannot deny, i did enjoy the event. i enjoyed making new friends, meeting up with old friends, i really enjoyed the whole camaraderie atmosphere. so, just maybe, just maybe.

but i think everyone should do an obstacle course race. its very different from say running a 10km or a 42km. you really get the leave no-one behind feel. 

well i managed to come in 2nd, managing a distance of 90km. could have hit 100, but i really could not be bothered, i was exhausted, physically and mentally. i really didnt want to go in for another loop. maybe next time, when i actually train fro a 100km hehe.

big congratulations to all the winners and finishers of viper 24. to complete this is a great accomplishment. good job everyone for giving it all they have during this event.

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till next time, viper 24. and this is how i end my 2015. with a big bang! 

viper challenge: genting king of the mountain

so guess who's queen of the mountain now.

i've always been told i need to concentrate on one thing. do i want to be jack of all trades or master of one?

but i like these kind of stuff. i don't have a preference as to a 10km or a 42km. i like almost all things outdoors, just that i love running more. and i prefer road running over trail running. but i do enjoy them all, obstacle courses included. i had so much fun at my first viper challenge. i was really looking forward to this one. and the added exciting element was of course, roadtrip to genting. i love roadtrips.

so friday afternoon, i left for genting, and look at the stash i brought. mandatory supper items - they are the cupnoodles you have for supper when you are too lazy to get out of your hotel. they are your favourite crisp/chips you have when you have friends over in your hotel room, catching up and laughing about every small thing. they are the crisp you have while playing a poker game or blackjack. they are the chocolates you have in your hotel room, just because. this time, it included eggs to go with my cup noodles because eggs and cup noodles are a match made in heaven. and of course my family is weird like that because they made me bring nasi lemak up to genting.

i had my alarm set for 6 in the morning. i knew i was going to regret the late casino night out the next morning but it's human nature. we stay up late every night. regret it in the morning. then do it all over again. i did not wake up at 6. i was literally dragged out of bed at 640 i kid you not. i jumped up, took the quickest hot shower possible, pulled on my running gear, downed a hot milo, had my moolabar, and rushed out.

we parked at 745am and had to rush to get our registration done. then again, rushed to the baggage storage. mucho gracias to the people who let us through. i know it's our fault for not being early enough. i appreciate the gesture. much apologies and many thanks. i will return the favour, should the circumstance arise, and i were in reversed roles.

i have to say viper challenge was really well organized. i was in the 3rd wave that flagged off. there were a couple of walls to scale over before reaching the starting line. the que for the walls were pretty long. hence we ended up in the 3rd wave. the starting was a 3km run uphill. it was catch up time. well, running was our world, myself and my coach. so, of course we managed to catch up to the first wave. there was no que at the obstacles when i got there, which was great. coach and myself, we both ran at our own pace, his being much faster than mine of course. but he would wait at the obstacles to make sure i got over them safe. thing is i like these kinda things, yet i fear these kinda things at the same time. so i need much reassurance from people to give me the boost of confidence i need to overcome them.

the obstacles ranged from scaling walls, to jumping over fire, to scaling more walls, to crawling in mud, to the infamous monkey bars. my personal favourite was the bouldering wall, that reminded me so much of rock climbing. i liked the weight shifting skill involved. of course my other favourite part was the running.

i remember there being alot of walls to climb. i'm very proud i made them across all, on my own, without assistance. teehee.

after that, it was a 3km downhill run. we flew. seriously. the downhill run was amazing. i felt like supergirl haha. there were a couple of obstacles ending with the monkey bar before you cross the finishing line.

personally, i felt viper genting was much much easier than the normal standard viper challenge 21km in sepang. not only because of the distance, but also, the in terms of obstacles. nonetheless. i enjoyed it alot. i felt it was a fast course. a runners course. but i did hit my knee, earning myself a huge blueblack and my coach kinda sprained his ankle. and i did hear about a couple of incidents. so do becareful when doing the obstacles.

i'll be back viper challenge.

Viper Challenge 2014

we made it. we conquered viperchallenge 2014. 

i was super looking forward to viper challenge. eugene countless time mentioned that viper stepped up their game and its going to be an experience, and an experience it was. the viper team definitely did amazing. it was a story to tell. i'm pretty sure everyone who conquered viper had their own stories to tell, all equally amazing as my experience. 

i ran with tyler pretty much the entire course. running was the easiest obstacle for me. well technically i wouldn't consider it an obstacle but my team was adamant that it was the most difficult obstacle.

so our flagoff was at 6am, i ran with tyler at a steady pace. we really wanted to avoid que-ing for obstacles. less than a few hundred metres, we were already greeted with a spraying hose. wind, water, and temperatures at 6am in the morning was a recipe for COLD. 

obstacle #1: the first obstacle was the knee-ups obstacle. it looks deceivingly easy. running through this was actually quite tiring. 

obstacle #2: we continued running, in the dark. me and tyler were talking about the ice challenge-how we were hoping that it would be at the end. and speak of the devil, we turned the corner and saw viper slushy. we went damn! it was really cold. i came out the other side feeling like i couldn't breath. and the howling wind right after, didn't help. but we ran on. well i mean running would warm us up so we ran on. 

obstacle #3:next up was the case of danger. basically you tread in this lane of mud water, with a cage above you - not good for the claustrophobic. i'm not that tall. so towards the end, as it got deeper, i was like i'm going to drown in this. haha. 

obstacle #4: next up was the spider wall. i could not see a thing. it was still dark when we got to this obstacle. me and tyler were so confused as to what it was. 

obstacle #5: it was then quite a chillax run to the next obstacle. me and tyler were really slow as we crawled through this. the next guy just went pass us in seconds. we just looked at each other and was like wad so fast. so this is probably where i got my cuts and bruises. 

obstacle # 6: next up was the haystack. first thing tyler said was the hay is going to be painful to touch. haha thankfully he was wrong. 

obstacle #7: this part was really funny. the side parts had no mud. and we didn't see the stuck in the mud sign. it was still quite dark and the sign wasn't very conspicuous. so we weren't sure whether it was an obstacle. so we went to the side and walked through the side. someone from the other obstacle right ahead had to come to us to tell us it was an obstacle. so we went back and went through it. 

obstacle #8: next up were these hills that you had to run down and up the mini hills but the soil was loose. i thought i did pretty okay. i managed to get the hang of it and managed to do this on my own. 

obstacle #9: fire is not my thing. i have this fear of fire. so imagine my worry when i see fire. it took me some time to gather up the courage to jump across the fire, with some encouragement from tyler. actually i didn't want him to wait for me, so i just took a deep breath, ran and leaped. and i never looked back. 

obstacle #10: the rappelling wall-i have never done something like this before, not like i have done any of the obstacles before but this one was high and im scared of heights too. so i did question whether i would be able to make this one. i was so happy when i got off the other side on my own. 

obstacle #11: next up was the electric field with no electric. 

obstacle #12: after that it was quite a run to the incline wall. i had some trouble with this. i jumped and jumped but could not reach the top. i tried using the ledges at the side but my shoes were too muddy and i kept slipping down. so tyler who already went pass the wall came back to give me a boost. 

obstacle #13: this was where we saw eugene. we were like yay eugene. until. we saw the wall behind eugene. we were like what the heck is that thing and how do we get over. it was this massive massive wall. we had to wait for people to catch up to help us over. much thanks to the people who gave me a boost over this. they weren't kidding when they said define gravity. really more like defying gravity. 

obstacle #14: next up was the mini walls. there were so many walls we had to go over. and there was noone there. just me, tyler and the photographer. he took so many pics of us. although i have no idea where the pics are now. we had a few pics at each wall. i think the photographer had nothing better to do, and got really bored. so he decided to follow us from wall to wall. 

obstacle #15: wall street. i was really proud and happy because i made it up this wall on my own. but when coming down i kinda fell. well i let go of the top and landed on my back i don't know how. but i was just overwhelmed with joy. the volunteer went 'do you want a medic' and i just got up and continued running with tyler. at this point tyler had cramping issues. 

obstacle #16: ring swings. again we were really lucky we did not need to que up for this. 

obstacle #17: lake crossing was okay. wadding through the lake like a duck. 

obstacle #18: the next obstacle was this red floating weird wipeout thing. i landed on my face. it wasn't pleasant. i thought it was so funny i just couldn't stop laughing at myself. 

obstacle #19: i liked this obstacle alot. it felt like i was on american ninja warrior. i took quite some time to pull myself up. but i managed to do it. 

obstacle #20: the final obstacle -- everest. i kept trying. i ran. i tumbled i fell so many times. i think about 8 times. then on the 9th or 10th time, i ran and caught hold of tylers hands. thankfully. that joy u cannot imagine. in my head i went don't let go don't let go don't let go. i think alot of people struggled with this obstacle. the later on people used shirts and they even brought out a rope after. 

not too sure what other obstacles i may have missing. but it was a fantastic experience. i enjoyed every single minute of it. i even went 'i should have bought tickets for both saturday and sunday just because i wanted to relive the entire experience.

im sure my team had a great time as well. although we weren't exactly running as a team. i am proud and happy for everyone who completed it. they really gave it their all. and it was amazing seeing them accomplish this. my friends who came to watch, i am sure were inspired by the spirit everyone had, and they were the first to sign up for viper 2015. it was great to see them being inspired to do things like this. i love this kinda thing - im weird. 

something to be on your bucketlist.