8 June 2014. That’s the last day of operations for Tampines Bike Park.
That’s also the date of my first Lion Dash. After Lion Dash, the place is closed for it’s going to be redeveloped into houses.
Kinda sad though because there are so many freaking buildings in Tampines that it’s getting very claustrophobic there and wow, this bike park is actually very nice?
There was also an area where the extreme sports competition for mountain biking was held before and I could see people biking up and down the slopes, enjoying them before it would be closed forever.
I don’t know where else in Singapore you’d have an outdoor arena like that.
Trampling through the wooooods. The route was uphill and then downhill because, duh. It’s actually a bike park and lots of slopes and stuff!
I was in the ‘middle’. I wasn’t in any competition, so I took my time.
Well, not too long because like heck I wanted to stick around, I just kept moving. So while I wasn’t too fast in the front, I wasn’t too much at the back, just a nice middle which meant that I managed to be quite alone for some metres.
As alone as I can until I see the volunteers from the event! They were there for some every few turns or so, if they weren’t there, there were VERY helpful signs. In any case, the volunteers were there to check if people needed help anyway.
The first obstacle was a tyres that you had to climb over. After that was going under some net things and whatnot.
Besides the manmade obstacles, it was pretty much like a video game because of all the trees, branches, puddles, mini river things… Yeah.
So one had to climb over or under branches, slide down or climb hills.
What’s this band I was handed?
Put it around your feet and hop, hop around a route and get back on track.
There was one point where they shot at you with archery tag stuff and then down along the route you got to shoot at the inflatable bunkers.
The archery tag stuff is by Do Extreme Sports and you can probably have your own archery tag session organized too, just check their site.
Climbing a wall… Ok wow, this was actually scary since the ledges for it are very narrow but I made it!
Climbing down was ok though and the volunteers were very helpful to give tips on how to get down or how to hold on to them.
There were so much more obstacles before this but yeaah. This was finally near the end! YAY!
Really yay, just going through that mud pit there underneath the barbed wires, by then my gopro was muddied up.
Just the housing, that you couldn’t really see anything after that.
See the far off thing behind the pit? You climbed up that steep wall with a rope. It’s so good that I had gloves on because I’d have rope burn coming down.
AND THEN, LASTLY, into the ice pit. WAAAAH. SO COLD. SO FREEZING.
It was like ‘ice milo’ only that it was mud so no, no drinking it. Eww.
You had to go INTO THE WATER too, to cross to the other side of the pool to get out.
That done and hurraaaay, to the end!
Yay! I got my finisher medal too.
Ok, these are my tips for those who are going for these obstacle course runs. Or, you know ignore them if you’re an experienced person, these are for newbies:
- Make sure you’re not sick/feeling unwell. Health is important!
- Be stubborn. You’ll get to the end if you just keep moving.
- Bring you own water. You’ll have to know yourself, it might be safer for you to bring your own water just in CASE, it’s always better to be over prepared than less prepared. There might be water points but it might take a longer time to get there or that the weather is hotter than you guessed it would be.
- Wear long sleeves, pants and proper shoes. The proper shoes bit is duh but the upside of long sleeves and pants would be when you’re going through rough patches or sliding down rough terrain. Ignore all this if you like going in your usual running gear! Just know there’s brambles and all that, upside on running gear is that less to wash when going through mud.
- Wear gloves. SO SO useful when going up ropes or sliding down or whatever. It’s always useful.
- Enjoy yourseeeelf.
- Oh yeah, bag check! CHECK IN your extra clothes and slippers. You’ll need them when you go home because you will probably be more or less muddy or soaked through!
