Perak Iron Bound Taiping Race 2009

This has been a long overdue post ! By two weeks to be exact.. Haha This post is typed by the port side of me.. have been forced to be a lefty for two weeks.. So this post explains why you see me around with a cast for the past 2 weeks..

I was approached by Samuel to partner him for this race and after some deliberation, I decided to go and this was to be my first OVERSEAS race. Coolness. This race is organised by the snr adventure and its part of the action series. By far, its my toughest race in terms of terrain but also the organisation was massive as they have helicopters for evacuations, doctors doing medical for each racer and television coverage. S'porean Racers were sponsored for the trip and race fees were waived. This was really the main draw.

This race also intoduced me to the hardcore AR fraternity. It was great to have travelled with wilson, chris, sam and fanny(Chief Financial Officer). The SART guys were great and they truly live and breathe AR.. Fanny was a great help taking pics for us and doubling up as support crew..

Breakdown of the trip:

My Race Bib..

At the Taiping Golf Resort : Official hotel for the race

Race Banner

Hotel Swimming Pool

My room!

The helicopter ready for evacuation missions!
Our breakfast placeEquipment checkingSkills check on abseilChris and wilson..Undergoing my medicalWe went for a warm-up slow jog...The tour guide brought us to TESCO for shopping and dinner.Race Day!

All the S'porean racers..hardcore in their own right..SART and SART juniors..The men's open team from S'poreBeginning of the race!A 2.4km run to Taiping LakeNext segment: Bamboo RaftingThe Rafts couldnt float all.. we ended up dragging it and it should be renamed as bamboo dragging.. not rafting..Out of the Rafting.. Running to the river scrambling..Now this is called river scrambling..

Its like white water rafting without the raft.. We had to run through the river and I fell like nobody's business.. my Salomon failed me thoroughly and it was here i hurt my hand. So after an hour plus, my hand was gone..

Then we "holland-ed" coz we couldnt find the black and yellow tape.. it was so inconspicuous.. should use bright red or orange.. then i lost sam for half an hour.. got stung by a wasp.. haiz.. Thank God found him later with karen and lydia..This was how dense the forest was.. gradient was 50%.. every 2m travelled horizontal is 1m vertically up. Crazy.There were vertical climbs where I had to climb using the tree roots..reminiscent of Korbuthe organisers in their 4WDThe 20m abseil off a cliff.. for the 1st time in my life, I abseiled with my left hand!Canoe section in the lake AGAINCrossing on stiltsShagged/Bruised/Battered but loved it!End of Race! Beginning of wound healing..Bandaged my hand..Dinner time! Had extra large orange juice!The whole group! A great bunch of people who love AR.

And so I became Zhao Cai Mao..aka Prosperity Cat..With Jam to celebrate his bday.

This trip has been a great experience! But I paid the price of having a hairline fracture. I guess I just got to suck it up since I chose to do it.. but ask me if i would do it again and the answer would be a resounding YES!

Thank God for the race..

Next up is my INSTEP application.. cleared the 1st round of interview..so see where the Lord leads.. Im sure if its in his will, then he will open the door..

Removing my cast on wed ! Yay!