Ironbound Challenge Taiping 2009

So it was like this. Rose tells me about an adventure race in Taiping with no mountain biking involved. And that there are only 8 teams in the women's category. And that prize money was up till 5th place. I did some simple math and realised i'd be silly to miss this opportunity.

So on Saturday morning, after borrowing heaps of climbing equipment from Beatrice, Lydia and myself, alongside Am went to Kamunting town to race in this Ironbound Challenge. The name itself, sounds pretty daunting and if I had known any better, I would never have underestimated it at all.

The race consisted of trail running, uphill road running, rafting, river scrambling, abseiling, kayaking, orienteering and some mystery tests. To put it simply, the race was really really really challenging. The trail running was like non of the other trails I have trekked. None of my previous trail running adventure races even came close to this running route and for that I give the officials two thumbs up! I had heaps of fun running through the trails, and getting myself slashed, graced, poked, gashed and whipped in so many places. Loved every moment of it. Dennis thinks i'm a masochist now. heh.

River scrambling. Now this I really enjoyed. It was a first time for me and honestly, it was one of those things that had crossed my wildly wandering mind to do knowing well that people would think of it as the craziest thing to do. If I saw a shooting rapid river, with its crystal clear water gushing through ever so quickly, crashing and sloshing across rocks of all shapes and sizes, kinda like the picture below, I'd think to myself, Wouldn't it be fun to run across that, tiptoeing on rock after rock? and i'd chuckle to myself because the idea of it is absurd. Just like i do, when I see a mountain skyline and imagine a silhouette of myself prancing along the tops of it in the middle of the night.But SNR Adventures made my little daydream come true that day and made us go through probably 5 kms of river scrambling. And, by golly, did i CRASH. I slipped and flipped and crashed my knees and shins and ankles into the rocks like a Wild E Coyote cartoon. And yes it was mighty painful. But oh so fun! I loved every moment of it! no i'm not a masochist!

so anyway, the race went on pretty long. We got lost somewhere, made some new friends and managed to pull through everything till it came to the orienteering part. The race had a cutoff time of 4 pm and eventhough we wanted to finish all our checkpoints, marshalls were after us on motorbikes asking us to go back to the finish. So, we were forced to give up and go back.

What happened after that was a bit of a mood dampener. We were actually in 2nd place almost all the way, with Fong's team being in the first place. But some miscommunicated information made it possible for 2 other teams that were behind us to clinch the first and second prizes while we got nothing. Haha...it was my first time actually debating and arguing for a prize. I've never been so sure of myself. But I guess there is no one to be blamed in this. At the end of the day everyone wanted a fair and just race and it was a pity this had to happen. I just hope we are given due recognition for our efforts, that's all. Our results are yet to be determined.

Anyway, Lydia Tan was a greaaaaat partner. You should so see her on the river scrambling section. That's a pro river scrambler if i ever saw one. People say we're very similar. So it's only natural that we either compliment each other or start battling at loggerheads with each other. Lucky for me, it was the former. We made a pretty good team. Thanks Lydia!! Oh btw, I want pictures!

nuff said...=)