AQ - A good end to my first.

We went around in circles, got lost, was overwhelmed by fatigue, destroyed by latic acid, injured, almost got disqualified and ran for nothing...Life's good! (lol Nevin)

Yep it really is.

It was my first time taking part in AQ, or Adventure Quest, the Boys' Brigade one of two major competitions. It was for the physically superior. I was very nervous and excited when the day came.

Spent the night at Miss Chai's place as it was near it the reporting place at Dover ITE and we had to report there at 5 too. After settling down, we got the coordinates for out checkpoints and plotted them on the map. The amount of people there was huge. The start line was so narrow and our teams had to be at the back, meaning we had a later start. Luckily we managed to catch up with the other teams soon after. We cleared some checkpoints fast and got to the first activity - rock climbing. Each team needed 2 climbers so Mark and I went. The wall was easy and we completed it fast. That activity extended the gap between all the teams. Teams ahead got further ahead and teams behind lagged further. We got the first activity done with and ran to our next checkpoint. Managed to catch up with the team ahead of us and overtook them. We met Captain and he told us that we were the 8th and 9th team to pass him. 8th and 9th because both our teams went together.

We met this marshall and he told us to walk in a certain direction and we followed but ended up getting lost and walking a huge round instead. When we realised where we were going, we saw other teams catching up and we ran. After going to a few more checkpoints, we went back to Dover ITE for the second leg. After an activity that shook the patience out of us, we went to collect our bikes and cycled. The bikes were a burden and they held us back alot, especially on the dirt road and we had to carry them to our second activity. The second activity was split into 2 parts, Kayaking and Archery. 2 members would kayaking while the other 2 would run to another checkpoint and back for archery. Archery was held at my school so we had a big advantage as we knew where to go even though I was the one doing kayaking.

After the event, we had to go back to the start point meaning that everything we had gone through we had to do it again. While cycling halfway, one of our other team's member's was missing and we had to find him. He came soon after and seeing that other teams were overtaking us, we had to split as a group and they moved on before us. We had some delay before making more progress. We returned our bikes and ran to the finish line. 1 of the marshalls told us that we were in 11th position and the team before us is only 3 minutes away. We managed to catch up with them and saw them using a different route. We continued and they were not in our visual range. Nearing the finish line, we saw another team ahead of us but were too tired to catch up with them, thinking that our other team that left earlier had already finished the race.

After the race, we waited for the other team to arrive and ate our energy food. I had forgotten all about them. When the other team arrived, we went back to Miss Chai's place for awhile before the presentation ceremony. The prizes were being given out and when we heard that 10th place was being given to another team, we were disappointed and thought that we didn't make it. When I looked closer, I realised that that was the team we had overtook and never saw them as they took a different route. We were relieved when they announced that we had won an award. The MC was bad. He did not read our team number and hesitated when reading our sponsoring church. He even pronounced Miss Chai's name wrongly!

It was getting late and Miss Chai treated us to dinner and went home after that.

Enough said.