I survived WLC ' 08!!

Every now and then, we'll see advert or hear people talk about adventure racing. Not only that, with Astro we were more exposed to such sport. However, watching and seeing so much coverage about these events don't really excites me. Neither did the thought of participating in one crosses my mine.

Well, life is full of surprises. On 30 March 2008, I signed up for Wilderness Langkawi Challenge 2008. I've never heard of this event until my colleague told me about it. She was the one who initiated the participation. So, we had a couple of kayaking and hiking sessions to prepare ourselves for the race. Since we are all newbies, we'd signed up for the "Slow and Steady" category. The course of our race would cover 12km of trail running and kayaking. We were also asked to prepare ourselves for some surprise elements during the race. Not knowing what it is going to be....we didn't give much thought about it.

So, came 2nd May 2008, we took a ferry to Langkawi Island. I was in a team with a friend while my colleague was in a team with a friend of hers. So there's 2 teams here. When we reach the hotel which is part of the organizing committee, we were intimidated with the sight of fit looking participants. Almost everyone there looked more prepared than us. Since it's the pre-race day, all participants are required to go for skill tests. It is more of familiarizing with the equipments and prepare us of what we're going to go through during the race. At night, we had a pre-race briefing whereby each team is given a map according to their categories. After that it was bed time as breakfast would be serve at 4-6 am...

3 May 2008 - Race Day

All participants were ferry to Pulau Tuba, on of the islands near Pulau Langkawi. The atmosphere at the base camp was pretty intense. About 8.20am we started off. With the media both on land and on air (we had sponsoring choppers) covering the whole event, it felt like this race is such a huge event. So we started off trail running and some minor hikes into the hills of Pulau Tuba. Then we descend down to our 2nd check point which is the beach. Took my team about 1hr 45mins to get to the beach. From there we had to kayak to a ship waiting for us in the middle of the sea near some surrounding islands. On the ship we were required to walk on ropes and steel pipes to get to the other side of the ship. Then we had to walk the plank....Yes we had to jump into the sea from the ship. Not the best jump but a way to overcome your fear of heights. It's a free fall. We swam to get our kayak and then paddle back to the base camp and ran towards the finishing line. At the finishing line, 100+ never taste so good before. It was the best drink at that time.

The feeling of completing the race itself is amazing. I didn't think that I'll survive but I did. It's and achievement. Oh I tried abseiling as well. This event is truly and eye opener for me. It is also a discovery for me as I never have thought I will go to such extend to participate in this event. Starwalk and Penang Bridge Run was never appealing to me. But somehow WLC was. Ah well, I must be crazy then. I have a lot of fun and meeting new people is always a pleasure. Will definitely do it again next year.....