BB Adventure Quest 2006 - Team 914! ACJC Primers (:

It's here, finally, AQ is here!

All those weeks of training, running, biking, orienteering, pioneering, kayaking, rapelling, rockclimbing, bike repairing... it all sums up to this.

Ok admittedly training was quite haphazard haha. Many didn't come for training, and yeah i didn't have full attendance either, been slacking for the last 2 weeks to add to that.

But come to think of it, the trainings seem to bear more fond memories than the actual AQ itself. I got to know the 12th BR Boys, and yeah i now have a changed perception of them (for better or worse i will not say haha). And especially my teammates, I got to see sides of them that i've never seen before, this one, for the better, i will say. (: Not to mention our trainers and instructors n officers Sir Ron, Mr Chew, Clement, Mr Victor, Mr Siow, Mr Lai, Ms Sharon etc who we couldn't have done without. And how could i forget the other team, team 915! I'm proud of u gals! The only all-girl team! Ur determination n encouragement for me, just wows me.

I've come to love all these people more I must say (:

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It was the eve of AQ. 9:00pm at the BRMC conference room.

12th BR AQ Boys team, Relay team, n us 2 open teams were seated on the floor with our backpacks, hydropacks, bike helmets, energy food etc... the place was quite a mess. Hectic last minute arrangements (surely someone would forget something), n last minute pep talk by sir ron. The route has been revealed! It all boils down to tomorrow's performance. The boys listen intently, and yes us primers too, excitement really starts to come. Haha.

After the pep talk, time seemed to fly. In a frenzy to pack bags and repair leaky hydropacks, we kinda lost track of time. Bedtime was initially set at 9 but we went down to the carpark at 1030 to pick our bikes and try them. After replacing helen's bike tyre n pumping everyone else's it was already past 11! Mr Chew n Sir Ron took over and sent the bikes to the drop off point. (The lorry's engine died though haha and they had a long night after that) We quickly went to sleep on the cold, hard floor. Could hardly sleep. But i prayed n managed to slip in and out of sleep.
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3am.

Sir Ron flung open our door and turned on the lights. Time to wake up. 5 minutes to wash up and it's warm up time. As usually, it stretched beyond 5 minutes and ron was evidently getting frustrated. We ran and stretched ourselves and had a power-packed breakfast haha. Bananas n cereals and bread n buns and this very peculiar drink that Mr Lai mixed up for us. (Waddaya know he's a PE teacher haha) - a mixture of red bull + 100plus + eno etc...

4am.

We board the bus. Excitement builds up as we sit in our teams.
Team 914 : Bess, Xin Hui, Ming Hwee and me
Team 915 : Helen, Kirsty, June n Geri (All girls n All foreigners team haha)
The boys sat in theirs too.

Ming Hwee, who's allergic to nuts, is not good with caffeine too i found out haha. He couldnt' close his eyes after he downed much of Mr Lai's strange energy drink. Oh n Bess took his Snickers Bars coz he couldn't take them nuts haha.

Ron goes on to give the boys one last pep talk. (We're not the stars of the day haha)

It was quite funny actually. Ron asked them all to close their eyes n visualise AQ.

"You run out of Temasek Poly, check the map and run, along the main road, following the crowd.... you see the bike station, you undo the chains, remember 012, and rush off... you approach the finishing line, you celebrate, you have tears of joy, you may not have won, but you've done your best..."

I must say, i've never heard the boys so quiet before.

"Ok let me ask you honestly", Sir Ron continues, "Who here thinks that they can make it, they can finish the race". Nearly everyone responded with a YES SIR!

He continued to ask "Who here thinks we'll be the champion".

Silence.

Haha. Yeah well it doesn't matter haha. Everyone knows that. 12th coy doesn't have a good track record of past AQ experiences. Just finish the darn race!

5am

We reach temasek Poly. Teams of AQ occupied the grandstand alr. The hype builds up again as everyone competes for the toilet and space to stretch.

6am

The map n checkpoint MGRs are given, everyone starts plotting and we compare ours with the boys'. You can't be too sure. Topo is everything in AQ haha.

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And the Boys' Team starts first. They're the real stars of the whole AQ and yes 12th BR has a proud representative team. Brian n Dalbert n Darren n Ivan. Haha, they're supposedly the strongest. We send them our best wishes and off they go.

15 minutes later....

Open Team (that's us) and the Relay Team start off together. One of them boys put an empty 100 plus bottle on the track with the hope that someone will trip over and they can have a headstart. Haha. It is april fool's day afterall.

We spot our competitors: Xin hui had said that our definition of winning this time would be to bean John's team (ex-acjc primer) -- it's a long story haha. Anyway yep, we see them. And don't like them at all.

The announcer is utterly surprised to note that "thre are ladies joining us this year!"

and BANG. off we go. it starts here (to be continued)
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