Energizer night trail 2013

The jellyfish is back! ^^

Energizer night trail race 2013, an event which I participated in. Nope, not as a runner for obvious reasons, and definitely not going through the obstacle course. Thanks to Amin providing the opportunity to experience this event, I went there as a standby medic. :D So yup, posting about my experience over there, and definitely a memorable one. :)

**Energizer night trail and obstacle course, 11/5/2013, starting from 3pm~!**



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1300 hrs

The whole auspicious thing started off with meeting Amin and the medical organisation at the 'Medical Park' which one way or another turned out to be in IMH. That should be my 1st visit to IMH, and well, I can say that the garden looked kinda nice. :) Upon reaching, waited a few minutes for Zul and Amin brought us to the office of Econs Ambulance Service, a private ambulance company which I have heard before during my days in NS. I think everybody there are all Malays except me, but nvm, sort of used to it anyway. The Malay regulars are rather friendly, asking me to get close and interact around~

After getting the headlights, medical pouches, mini matra, standby shirt and vest, we proceeded to the meeting room for briefing. I seem to be somewhat lost, considering I have never done a private standby before, thus not really familiar with the procedures and staff. Yeah Sharifah, still blur as ever. XD The briefing went on for like about 10 minutes, telling everyone about the different routes, obstacles to be in charge of and dinner. Apparently there's such thing as 'Medics on Bikes. Well, many people would know of such thing as paramedics / firefighters on motorcycles, but hey, I didn't know that MOB would exist in small standbys like this. That's pretty interesting. :D

1340 hrs

I never liked warm colour shirts, esp. yellow colour shirts for strange random reasons. So with that yellow shirt and orange medic safety vest (surprisingly quite comfy to wear), we set off with our personal and medical belongings, cramming into 2 private ambulances to Mandai~

Not before we get some snacks and drinks! =D

We stopped by a petrol kiosk for some refreshments and standby food for dinner. Zul wanted to get some small change out of his $50 notes, thus he ended up treating $20+ of food and drinks. I got myself some green tea and a packet of Delifrance Madeleines. Thanks Zul! ^^ Now i owe my senior $6.50... Haix. On the way to Mandai, we recalled some memories and experiences during station life and in KTPH.

1. Zul and his 100% mask for a collapse case
2. Jeff refused to eat during day shifts
3. Zul's weird hairstyle...
4. Chest pain case with PM Norazni.
5. Kane and Razif!?

Haha, I can recall all those (except for the 1st and last one) very clearly! Actually there are more interesting ones, but we reached our destination rather quickly, so yep. Somehow I didn't change a lot, according to Zul and Sharifah, except that I got myself a new phone. =P

===============

1420hrs

"EAS crew arrived at location for standby, over." with greetings from the sights of Old Chang Kee, Ramly burger and One Republic's 'If I lose myself' clubbing remix. A slight stop of about 5 minutes in front of the main medical tent, before the ambulance started to drop off at our obstacle points.



My obstacle: Tyres! Well, this is the 1st obstacle the runners will meet in the 1.5km/3km obstacle run. I am stationed there in case anybody got injured, tripped over tyres, bla bla bla, with about 5 guys volunteers, a couple volunteer/marshall and a IC, which everybody looked younger than me. True enough, they are from RP (mainly getting the pathetic allowance and points), except for the couple who are waiting to enter NTU. Nothing much interesting happened for the next 45 mins, just looking at the guys playing with the tyres, throwing stones, popping water bottles, and talking about random nonsense and girls... There are some NEA officers and official photographers at the scene too, probably taking the awesome moments of the racers and er... catch them littering? Seriously, why are the NEA officers there?

1515hrs

The race started! The 1st category includes the singles category of adults (M/F), and you can see them hopping through the tyres, some in a really fast speed, some walking over the tyres, some running over the tyre tops. Luckily nobody fell down. I would say that sheer speed isn't good enough to pass this quickly, as safety and leg movements are important to clear this. Some stumbled a few times without falling, some just walked over step by step, some just flew a few steps and passed the obstacle. One of the volunteer clapped in a very mundane way, to sort of motivate the racers. Very nice. =)

From 4pm, the racers changed to a parent-child combination, and both are supposed to clear the obstacle before the pair is considered to have passed the stage. Everybody passed that stage, and it's definitely much more interesting to see compared to the singles. You have interesting parents, kids with funny characters, and other random happenings. I realised that parents who have the patience to guide / do in pace with their kids tend to do better compared to those who clear the obstacles individually. A few types of parent-kid I observed:

1. Guided

1 particular mother: "Honey you see the tyres? Let's go through them together ok? 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. Good job!!!"

Everybody clapped for the mother. They are not the fastest, but the team spirit is commendable. :)  The 2nd most common scene to see in the whole parent-kid obstacle section.

2. Military

1 particular father: "5 seconds to go through this! C'mon! Faster than that!" O_O Well, rare case. The parent-kid pair is rather fast though.

3. Child faster than parent

The most common thing to see! It's like you see the child happily crossing / flying over the tyres, while the parents are lagging behind, walking 1 tyre at at time, shouting "hey wait for me!"

4. Photo >>>> Race

Amazingly, some parents focused much more on the moments of the race rather than the time taken to complete it! That's when the priority lies. For the experience or a personal challenge for yourself? Those taking the former somehow seemed happier, like a family bonding time. That's rather sweet to watch. :)

--

Some parents looked VERY young, especially the guys! They must be like younger than 25 years old, and the child looks around 6/7 years old! Did they shotgun into their gf or something? That's about it for the rest of the time until 6pm. Unusually large number of clubbing music which would definitely receive boos from WL and War. The DJ cannot be playing noisy songs to spoil the mood right? =P

Other stations sounded quite busy in the medical perspective. Ankle sprains, giddiness, bla bla bla. When the racers reached the last stretch, their attire looked very dirty. It turned out that one of the obstacles include a swamp, and oh, that doesn't sound fun. =/

Other random info and photos! ^^

No. of adults who cheated: 1 (The mother took a photo for the child, and 'forgot' to cross the obstacle)
No. of adults who carried child across: 1 (I had that thought too!)
No. of people who dropped their shoes: 7

Did I mention about the large Energizer battery conducting the warm up? From my station, the battery looks something like the one circled in red. Yeah, very small from my point of view. =/



The 1st and last stretch of the obstacle race. =D


Before the obstacle course finishing point


The countdown timer to the night run! ^^

==========

1800hrs

Dinner! Not exactly a delicious dinner. The rice and cabbage is rather soggy, the side dishes include my all-time-hated beancurd, and some cold fish. I think the organisers must be out of budget to actually order such dinner, but ah oh well, nobody really had the mood to indulge in some delicious delicacies anyway~

The battery that conducted the warm-up walked around the tents, and somehow the girls were really enthusiastic to get some photostatic charge with the battery. Zul wasn't that enthusiastic though, so we didn't take any photos with the battery. However, we took 1 with Shairfah. Medics on standby~!

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Me, Shairfah, Zul. :D

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This is the place with all the water you want! The orange boxes contain cartons and cartons of water bottles inside a huge amount of ice! Perfect for a hot weather right? :)

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We sat outside all the way as there's a woman who suspected that she had high blood pressure after running the obstacle race. It's quite cooling (Zul isn't hot enough to let us feel the heat), so enjoyed the scenery, struggled somewhat with the headlight as I had never put on one before. Should have cut my hair, the headlight looked rather weird on my hair! =/ Of course, what's poly and JC students without making random jokes about the battery? =P

Jeff: Hey Zul! You noticed that there's a battery there right?
Zul: Uh-huh? Yeah why?
Jeff: Can you feel the electricity in the air? :D
Zul: -_-

Zul: Jeff!
Jeff: ?
Zul: You go to the battery, stand some distance away from it and ask the battery: "can you feel the potential difference between us?"
Jeff: LOL!

==========

1830hrs

It's time to set off to the various water points! We all boarded a pickup truck which drove past the jungles and dropped everybody at different points. Well, I can say that if we were to actually walk to our water points, I would sort of give up as it seems like a never ending road, and all you can see is just trees. =/

When we are about to reach a random water point, there were some RP volunteers chasing our pickup, seeing if they could get a lift to the next nearest WP. The driver was kind enough to let them on board, and they thanked us profusely as the distance is really too far. Well according to them, they have walked about 4km and still had not reached. I'm not sure if their estimation of distance is that accurate, but they do deserve a prize for that! Another 2km, plus a little choke operation in their body engines, and they can take part in the 6km run! Seriously, shouldn't the organisers arrange some sort of transport for them? 




Halfway into the jungle, the grass looks greener on the other side. 

==========

1850 hrs

At last, I have reached Water Point 2! ^^ 



Yep, the tent above is the Water Point. A small cosy tent with students inside, boxes and boxes of water in the middle of the tent, and tables, for the drinks. Well, 6.50pm is still rather early, so everybody is sort of resting in the tent. For the fun of it, I admired the scenery and took a couple of pics. 

~~~~~



The split road at Water Point 2. Apparently different distances have different routes, so it's rather important for the runners to know where they are heading to. Thus, there's an electrical signboard on both sides of the road. Well, it's useful right? =P

Yeah, not if it's out of order in the beginning. O_O

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Nearing to 7.10pm, this is the beautiful sunset at WP2. Sunset glow indeed. :)

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1930 hrs


This is the night trail run map. WP2 is located at the top right with the water and first-aid icons. Which means, I am the icon! They should put a picture of me instead. =P

18km: To run the yellow route, followed by the red route. Aka, they will pass by the 1st water point they encounter and WP2 twice. 
12km: Red route only
6km: Yellow route only

So you can see, if someone actually screwed up the directions at WP2, that's GG for them! Estimated distance from start to WP2: 4km. 

Before the runners arrived, we warned about a mysterious lady dressed in white and had a very weird white/black makeup. Apparently some people got freaked out at the entrance and thus a warning is being sent across the medical standbys and marshallers. Not sure if the RP people know about it though.

As the darkness takes over, the runners start to pass by WP2. The initial few runners are VERY fast! Some just simply zoomed past without taking a short break / sip of water and straightaway turned left. There were some who took a cup or two to drink / splash themselves / ??? and threw the cups on the ground. At this point, you may be wondering, eh where are the NEA officers? Answer: No idea, maybe they will have to summon too many people if littering is an offence in the race. XD

Nothing really interesting looking at the runners running. What's more interesting is the things which the event didn't forsee, which sort of lead to a mini disaster. 

-> The toilets are too crowded!

There's only 1 toilet at WP2, and for some auspicious reason, a lot of people decided to queue for the toilet, and that leads to about 8 people waiting for their turn. I'm assuming they are not chionging for the timing, otherwise that would add to about another 10 - 15 mins to their total run time. Perhaps Energizer should have more portable toilets per water point. XD

-> The killer split road

At first, everybody ran in one direction. All of a sudden, the direction started to change, and some people started to run towards the right side. Well, everybody was kinda confused, and the RP marshallers didn't say anything, until a runner started to shout to everybody on which is the correct direction. That's kinda too late, as some people had already ran to the 2nd loop route. That few runners will get the 1st prize! =D Unbelievable timing for 18km run! (Cos only run 12km =P)

At about 8.10pm, the sign is fixed! This is the info on one of the electrical signboard, which in my opinion, quite clear and easily understood.




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Poor quality photo, the lights are all runners.


This is how WP2 looks like in the dark. With many cups in front of the RP people.

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The woman dressed in white finally passed by WP2! Well, seems like the runners did not really care about her, but she somehow disturbed the marshallers, disturbed the WP people and came up to me and gave a nod. Well, I just nod back, and she went to somewhere else disturbing other people. It seems like she didn't really care about the run, and just wanted to disturb people in this auspicious occasion. That's awesome sia!

After she left WP2, I reported: "Jeff to all Water Point people, Lady Gaga has just left Water Point 2, over!" Seriously, if you have seen her, you wouldn't disagree with this sentence! Some screamed when they saw her, lol! XD

As for medical attention, well I can say that I'm considered the luckiest WP medic, as people who came up to me were all minor injuries or attention such as minor cuts (plasters) and minor cramps (muscle relaxer), with the latter being more common. There's only one special case which is rather far away from WP2.

~~~

Marshall: Eh sir!
Jeff: Huh lolwut? You call me ah? o.o Alamak just call me Jeff, I not officer.
Marshall: Oh really ah? Er got someone injured somewhere.
Jeff: !
Marshall: Bleeding case!
Jeff: Aiyo sia la! Let's go!

[After walking like around 600m or so]

Oh, it's just abrasions on the palm and knee, thankfully it's not serious! =D So yep, back to medic instincts, a bit of plasters, cleaning of wounds, verbal first-aid (lessons from Zul), and the injured woman somehow felt better. :) Woah, I can't believe that I still can perform basic first-aid with some level of confidence! Someone should give me a prize for that! ^^ A motorbike marshall brought the woman out, and it's case closed for me.

That is when I realised I forgot to bring my headlight with me. -_- No, I didn't put the headlight on my head as it felt uncomfortable. I followed a chinese trio to WP2, and they were kinda surprised on who is this mysterious person carrying a bag and following them all the way without making any noise. Until about 200m from WP2, a marshall is like shouting: "ok keep going keep going, you can do it, EH!? How come you here also?" After shouting back that I helped out in some injuries, the marshalls and the chinese trio suddenly all kena enlightened in the dark (nope it didnt make the forest brighter), and the trio were like oh, aiya no wonder la! Cute sia lol. =P

Nothing much happened after that. The last few runners (Indian couple) were extremely slow! They reached WP2 at 2150hrs and reached the next water point 25 minutes later. Seriously ah, if you want to walk, go for the big walk event and not a run. They seriously wasted everybody's time sia! Thanks to them, the marshall bikes kena confused ad mixed up of the number of runners left, and the whole situation was in a mess all the way until about 10.45pm. Ah oh well, to kill time, I just sat down, played a bit of candy crush and listen to the RP people singing One Direction songs, Girl On Fire, Never Say Never, etc... Well, some sang the songs rather well, the majority suck. XD

2320hrs

The marshallers went up a truck and left. The RP students squeezed (in a jialat manner) up a pickup truck, and I was left Standing In The Dark (Lawson), waiting for transport to arrive. That is not a fun experience. I am seriously scared of the dark... T.T Luckily I was still alive (esp. mentally), and thank goodness the private ambulance arrived about 25 mins later. I can say that the rock songs (ATL, Boys like Girls, Green Day) do help in the dark. ^^

We picked Zul up at midnight. Just like me, he got stranded in the dark too. He's an awesome senior! At least didn't get scared like me. =/ On the way back to IMH, we chatted along the way, listened to some radio, listening to Zul narrating his experiences on seeing the runners displeasure of running along the wrong routes.

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0030hrs

Last debrief at IMH HQ! The chief thanked everybody for helping out, sort of apologized for the late transport and of course, blaming others for the messy organisation which I agreed with the blame! The medical line did their job, so it should not be our problem that the runners got a problem with the routes right? =P

We returned everything, signed the payment voucher (mystery amount of money!), and bid goodbye to everybody. :) There were 3 different routes to go home, and I was onboard the route of Hougang, AMK, Woodlands and Yishun. This means goodbye to Zul! Haix. He's still an awesome senior, even though we have ORD for at least 5 months~!

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That's all about for this post! A unique experience! :)

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