Warriors took on the Round Island Relay challenge

Having to wake up at 3am on a Sunday morning wasn't fun, NOT FUN at all. The pressure of having to sleep by 10pm in order to get enough hours of sleep before having to get up... well, let's just say not everything worked according to plan. Pre race jitters as some may call it. Just as I was really getting into the deep sleep mode, the alarm went off. I forced myself out of bed to get ready. Head was a little heavy and I felt..... 'floaty'..

I picked up two other passengers on my way to the starting point in Esplanade. We met up with other runners who were already there before us. Registration and attendance marking by the team manager Kelvin, running vest, food and drinks distribution were done before all of us were asked to get into our respective teams.

There were 2 teams representing Warrior Bootcamp this year; Warrior Bootcamp Team A and Warrior Bootcamp Team B (not quite creative with the names I know :P) Yes the more the merrier and we were glad to have 2 warriors accompanying each other in every check point. We chatted animatedly between ourselves, eager to start the race as well as looking forward to complete it, took some group photos and did the WBC huddle screaming 'WARRIOR' loudly (probably shocking everyone around us in the process) and wished each other best of luck in the race. Yes, all of us were feeling pretty pumped up and motivated!

We lined up according to our waiting points or CPs as they called it, from 1-12. One by one starting from CP2 runners, we were ushered into awaiting buses which will drop us off at our respective CPs. I was stationed at CP5 so together with another warrior, we boarded the bus labelled no 5.

I don't remember how long it took, perhaps bout 20 mins later, we found ourselves sitting on the pavement at the roadside somewhere in the middle of a hill in Balik Pulau.

There wasn't much around, a few lamp posts for light source, other runners and a few officials. One thing I have to say though, the view in the sky was absolutely beautiful. Clear skies and stars were shining brightly, I don't think I've seen that many stars in a while. The only thing we didn't like about sitting and waiting in the dark was the wind... that and oh.. having to attend to nature's call. No nice looking clean toilet with running water... just bushes.. and more bushes...

The pictures below were shared by some of the warriors

If you're lucky, you get a check point with a decent toilet...

And if you're even luckier, you get to eat McD while you wait :P

I wasn't sure of the exact time the race was flagged off (think it was about 5.15?) but by 7am, the first runner from my CP took off. Started to get more anxious as more and more runners from CP4 arrived. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to go to the bushes to attend to one last emergency before my turn. Either that or run with a full bladder. The wind chill factor didn't help either especially when we were in singlet. I got up to run around a little bit to get the  body warmed up.

At approximately 7.16am, as all runners were waiting eagerly for their team members to turn up, someone came running, huffing and panting all the way up the hill. I couldn't figure out from far the dresscode of the runner but as he came nearer, another warrior who was waiting with me shouted "It's him! Your team member!" I ran to the line where we were supposed to receive batons and waiting anxiously for CP4 warrior to arrive. Poor man was trying his best sprinting up the hill. His face was almost ghost white when he passed me the baton.

I took off the moment the baton was received, speeding uphill. My route was 1km uphill, 4km downhill. As we were used to train running uphill in bootcamp, it wasn't much of a problem. In fact it was kind of a nice run although my lungs were almost freezing from breathing in the cold air. Marshalls cycled past and wished me luck, and soon, a few more cars some with people I know screaming out the window to give motivation. It definitely helped big time and great for lifting the spirits when you're half dead trying your best to run as fast as you could and yet an uncle in his 50s just sort of throttled along past you. Running 4km downhill certainly had impact on my knees and quads but as much as it was starting to hurt, I knew I had to go on because because this war was not fought by me alone (the power of camaraderie)

Misery came to an end when I saw a group of people at the bottom of the hill. I picked up speed and sprinted as fast as I could to the team member who was already jogging in spot. She took off as soon as the baton was in her hand. I felt like the air was knocked out of me when I stopped. When I've rested enough, I changed into dry top and got into the support car driven by another warrior who had finished his lap from CP3. We drove to the next station. Saw CP6 runner along the way and we rolled down the window to scream motivation as we passed.

It was a long route till the next CP. Another warrior was already waiting impatiently. When we finally saw CP6 runner from afar, we started screaming, encouraging her to finish what's left of the route. She sprinted and raised the baton from afar....we could tell that she's really looking forward to finally give the baton away.

Finally~!

Meanwhile in CP7, another warrior was anxiously waiting for his turn.

CP7 to CP8 was a crazy and narrow uphill run. Even driving up the route itself felt tiring! But to our team's CP7 runner, it was easy peasy.

The baton was soon passed to CP8 runner. Not a problem for her either!

We drove to CP9 after seeing CP8 runner off and while waiting for her to arrive, we took the opportunity to camwhore take photos.

And then she arrived! Again, also looking very impatient to give the baton away~

And she swerved straight to the road side right after just in case she needed to ermm...puke.. rest.

And we continued on our journey to the next station, cheering the runners along the way. The pressure's definitely on every runner to keep a good time.

CP9 runner reaching CP10. The female warriors can in fact be good sprinters when we wanted to :D

And CP10  runner's off! At this time it was a little past 10 and it was beginning to get really hot. We could only hoped that our runners can maintain a good speed  and last till the last kilometer. It was no doubt very hard to run under such humidity and weather.

Drove to CP11 to wait for CP10 runner, took another photo for momento and...

calm the growling tummies

CP10 runner arrived soon after with a very red face looking like she's been basking under the sun for hours. Kudos for making it through under the hot sun!

And then it was time to head to the last CP, CP12. He sure looked all geared up and ready to fight!

A team photo of runners who'd completed their missions earlier in the day. The group sure got bigger and bigger from one station to another.

The route from CP11 to CP12 was even hotter than before. There weren't a lot of shades along the route and at this time it was close to 11, which only meant higher humidity and crueler glare from the sun

But warriors don't give up! She soon turned up and passed the baton to the last runner.

It was the most intense, teeth gripping moment of the entire relay. The pressure was the worst on the last runner as he'd had to sprint the remaining 5.1km to the finishing line under the hot scorching sun. At this point, we can't afford to slow down and lose time, as much as we understood the difficulty of running under such conditions.

He didn't let us down. We finished 12th out of 26 teams with the total time of 6:26:16. It's definitely something to celebrate if you were to ask me considering not all of us are full time runners

Meanwhile, in team B, Jee sprinted gloriously across the finishing line with all of us cheering him on

We did it! Mission accomplished! 

Team A warriors

Team B warriors 

Thank you everyone for being such a great team player! The warrior ethos were greatly demonstrated by all and we had indeed COMMITted, FOCUSed, BELIEVEd and ACHIEVEd!