Urbanathlon Obstacle Race [14km / 9 Obstacles]

Whilst the 2015 Urbanathlon didn't end well for me, what with a fractured talus bone and torn ligament 200m from the finish line, it didn't deter me from returning in 2016.

Right up till the last obstacle, I was having a ball with John keeping me company throughout it all. The injury was just sheer bad luck for me, that took several months of healing, followed by endless physio sessions. However, it took me no time to register again for the 2016 edition, and with the usual level of excitement we joined the Urbanathletes for another round of climbing, running, crawling and everything else in between.

Somewhere in my cleverness I suggested we take a seat instead of wait near the pen not thinking how many athletes have joined the event and how many waves will take-off before we get our turn. We ended up in wave 13 and started 33min after gun time. We won't be doing that again.

Starting-off pretty well we reached the Tanjong Rhu condos to be met with our first obstacle. A 6' foot wall, followed by a sloped wall, followed by what had to be an 8' foot tall wall.

The distances between each wall were quite narrow. We had to ask others to move out of the way so we could get off the top of the first and second walls. It also diminished the momentum needed to sprint up the wall. Given that John had to hoist me over the first one and pulled up the second, when I saw the third one, I just said "no way, see you around the corner".

  

 

Sporting a bicep tendon injury from a gym workout limited my ability to rely on my upper body for this obstacle and the forthcoming ones.

As we rounded Tanjong Rhu, I expected to run towards the Marina Barrage but the route was altered from 2015 and found ourselves beneath Benjamin Sheares Bridge for Obstacle 2: Side Walk. Reasonably easy at the start once I hosted myself up. With each section the setup changed and became more reliant on core strength and balance. The last section had my hands and feet only a mere 20cm apart making my body top heavy. I was quite worried that I would topple over and land on my head. So, I tightened my body, hung on for dear life and crawled to the end.

   

John being naturally athletic found it easier and figured walking as if on a balance beam would be quicker and easier than my approach not realising how wobbly the frame was.

  

From here we had to climb 5 storeys of stairs onto the bridge. I absolutely hate stairs as I inevitably end up completely out of breath. It was worth it though just to absorb the views of Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Marina Barrage, Singapore Flyer and the bay area.

Descending the bridge we came across Obstacle 3: Swinging Fortunes. They were swinging alright. Climbing up on the truss and swinging like a monkey was definitely not for most girls. Fully reliant on upper body strength, I took one look at it and said to John, "I'll be on the other side taking photos". He made this obstacle look easy although he said it was tough holding onto the thin rods. Even with gym gloves the rods were slippery.

  

And then there were some more stairs and incline running on Bayfront Bridge towards Marina Bay Sands promenade. From here it was km after km of running with no further obstacles for about 4km. Not particularly interesting and by the time I reached the 8km mark I've had enough. With my energy bank emptied we ended up walking actually I think more like trudging.

We ended up so slow that when I wanted to give way to a cyclist to pass us he said "It's Ok, I'm the tail cyclist". With shock-horror on my face intermingled with amusement I asked "What?! Are you saying we are the last ones?", "Yes" he replied. Well I've never brought up the rear in a race before.

 

An I had enough moment

The upside to being at the end is that you get the obstacles all to yourself. It was like our own private playground. By this time we just chose to have fun and maybe even pass the two participants strolling before us and then we won't be last anymore.

   

   

   

When we reached Obstacle 7: The Network we caught up to a few other racers. This one was my favourite last year and again this year. Having fun on these wobbly ropes was quickly altered when I had to climb even more stairs around 13km mark. By this stage I promptly sat down and cursed and somewhere along the way I heard John babbling something about a Vertical Challenge race. I think I sneered at him as I hauled myself up and realised that clearly my legs need strengthening. Maybe I should start with the stairs in my condo. I've got 30 floors to work with. I'll think about it.

   

Perhaps my least favorite was Obstacle 8: Metcon Madness with its 4 stations of cross-fit exercises. I didn't find it interesting. I can go to the gym for these exercises rather than pay for it in an obstacle race. I hope it won't be there in the 2017 edition.

   

  

As we reached the last obstacle, the Flying Fox, we were given the option to skip it which we did for several reasons. One, we didn't want to wait 20min in the blazing sun for our turn; two, holding onto a rope with an injured arm was not a good idea; and three, mostly we just didn't want to get soaked landing in a pool of water especially since the Singha beer tent was beckoning. We had our priorities straight.

Since we couldn't enjoy the after race offerings last year, we made sure we did so this year sweaty rather than wet.

After a measly 2:50hrs (yeah super slow right?) we reached the end and I'm happy to say injury free. We met some nice blokes from the UK and Canada as we huddled under the umbrella in the Singha beer enclosure. We downed a couple of cans before breakfast and had a great yarn.

   

Overall, another nice event and we'll be back for 2017. Hopefully, stronger and fitter this time. You could say we are hooked.

Cheers.

Junior Spartan Race 2015

With limited obstacle races available for both adults and children, we welcomed the inaugural Spartan Race to the racing calendar. Started in 2010 in the United States it was quickly franchised internationally finally reaching the shores of Singapore this November.

Our Little Leaguers Trinity, Justin and Leo had their first taste of an obstacle race in May when they completed the 1.5km and 3km Energizer Obstacle Race. Six months on and they were super excited about another opportunity to climb, crawl and run their way through another course. This time they were joined by siblings Emmanuel and Stephanie and our littlest princess, 4 years old Michaela.

Split into age categories Justin at 8 years had to complete the full 1km course. Trini, Emmanuel and Stephanie were in the 5-7 category who completed the 1km as well but not the full course. They raced the 0.5km course by completing it twice. Michaela and Leo at under 5 were joined by their mummies, Angela and Michelle (the only category that made parent participation compulsory) to complete the 0.5km course.

All the kids were in the morning sessions, taking off at 20min intervals in their age specific category. Michaela and Leo were first off the ranks. A bit of mayhem ensued with large numbers of children and parents tackling the obstacles when somewhere along the way a parent was injured falling off an obstacle. We couldn’t understand why the parents had to participate in the obstacles given that they were designed for children’s sizes and not adults.

   

 

Whatever injury was sustained by the adult, it took a while to get him off the field thereby delaying the following waves by 15 min. The 5-7 age category had parent participation as optional but given what happened with the previous category, that option was scrapped. All along my daughter thought one of us will join and in the last minute we had to explain that she was doing this race by herself making her a little scared at first.

Couldn’t miss her in this field of orange.

As John and I made our way to the side of the course to get a better view of our girl we were grateful she chose not to wear the race tee as she was easy to spot in the distance and easy to follow on the course. She was doing remarkably well in conquering the obstacles, grinning ear to ear.

The course started off with quite a lengthy prone crawl exercise, followed by a couple of A-frames and then onto climbing cargo-nets. The next three obstacles consisted of “Over-Under-Through” series of obstacles in which the kids had to first climb over a wall, then under a wall, then through a square hole placed in a wall finishing off with a final sprint.

Justin’s course was slightly different in that he had a couple of extra obstacles after his prone crawl exercise and longer distance to run. He had to carry a sandbag for a distance, followed by another prone crawl through what might have looked like a black tunnel. Whilst the sandbag obstacle tired him out somewhat, just like any kid who loves crawling about once he resurfaced from his tunnel he was off and running at full speed again.

   

   

  

Within a couple of hours they were all done. With finisher medals in hand, it was time for some much needed lunch and then off to collect the Santa Run for Wishes race pack.

 

As adults we can be more judgmental about the disorganisation of an event such as the mess up with the scheduled waves, race tees for the kids missing and inappropriate location for the race pack collection. The tees had to be collected on race day waiting in appallingly long lines in the rain. However, as Michelle put it the kids had a lot of fun with it and whilst a bit messy and disorganised she would let them do it again. I happen to concur. Hopefully by next year the event organiser will have ironed out the kinks for a smoother operation.

Trinity also wanted to capture the essence of her race in writing and have it published like her mummy. So below is her take on her experience, in her own words (except mummy fixing spelling/grammar errors).

My Spartan Story

It was today, November the 15th.

I was the only purple tee kid there. I loved the Spartan race because of the obstacles. You had to crawl under ropes and you had to climb over a fence and over spider ropes. You also had to climb over a straight fence, then through a window then crawl under another fence. You had to do two laps of this race in my group to get your medal.

After the race we had lunch, got some ice cream and then came home.

Trini and Justin