Pen and Levi invited me and Princess to form a team for last Saturday's race, SyncRUNize, at the Arca South in Taguig (the old FTI complex, now the new real estate development of Ayala Land). With the promise of big prizes and free entry (very important), I said yes.
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| group shot after the race (instagram) |
This promised to be different as it combined the elements of the physical--running with obstacles--and the mental--problem solving using the SyncRUNize app. We had virtually no idea how the actual race would be like until a few days into the event. The course map showed 15 challenges spread out over the Arca South property. Racers are released in waves to avoid bottlenecks along the course, while the mobile app monitors the time elapsed.
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| Course map courtesy of www.syncrunize.com. Since we the map didn't have a scale, we had no idea how long this course was. |
Race day and we were in a panic. The app was problematic for iphone users like Levi, so we weren't able to start in the earlier waves. Then Pen and my phones had their own trouble (we had to reinstall the app). It was fine since our time won't start until the activation codes are entered. Tech problems done, we were off!
Like any other footrace, the rush of the first few hundred meters shocks the system, and my lungs are gasping for air in no time. Add to that the obstacle courses, which, while relatively "easy", can still be physically taxing. But the biggest challenge for us was the first mental obstacle, where we had to figure out the correct math equation three times. It was so frustrating to be stuck at the starting line, especially when most of the racers in our wave were done in no time. If we only paid more attention to the app, we would have realized much earlier that for every wrong answer, the solution was provided after. So we wasted time re-inventing the wheel, when the answer was there all along.
For the remainder of the course it was just a matter of catching up with the people ahead of us and getting in front of the queue to the obstacles. Our experience from joining adventure races before paid dividends, as strategy was the key to success. Knowing how to play the game landed us in first place of the group category; much to the delight of my very competitive teammates.
All in all, the morning was a success; dampened only by the horrendous traffic on the way home. I took home a sweet collection of post race swag, including a slick-looking ORA watch made our of bamboo, plus GCs and other prizes. Not bad for an hour's worth of fun physical exertion.
I'm glad we did not disappoint our sponsor, The North Face Philippines (special thanks to brand manager, Jundel Llagas). Thanks again for asking us to join the race. And congratulations as well to the event. The concept was very interesting. It just needs a bit more tweaking to solve some obvious issues, especially if they plan to hold this again and more competitive teams get word of it.
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