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By Ellen Joy Anastacio
SINGAPORE - It was a gloomy Saturday morning on April 21, but the rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of the 28 teams that took part in the AsiaOne Adventure Race: The Singles Edition.
With loud honks, whooping, and hollering, the teams drove off from the flag-off point at the Singapore Press Holdings' Media Centre carpark, excited for the day ahead.
In this special fourth edition of the race, sponsored by SDN, 313@somerset, Chijmes, Macau Government Tourist Office, Nikon Singapore, three to four people formed a team, with one catch: none of the team members knew each other beforehand.
However, this was not evident from the way teams performed the tasks, where everyone gamely joined in with no qualms.
In a test of their creativity and gameness, teams are given points based on how well they perform the challenges at each pitstop. The winners will be based on the total number of points accumulated, and not on how fast teams can accomplish the tasks.
Teams were given clues that took them across Singapore, to places like East Coast Park, Kartright Speedway, HortPark, West Coast Park, the Desert Roses Studio for some bellydancing, and 313@Somerset.
They had to do things like paint their male teammates' nails at Plush Nails, dress up a female team member with a complete outfit from New Look, shake their hips and shimmy as long as possible at the bellydancing studio, and guide a blindfolded team member down a spiral staircase to do a high five with another team's blindfolded member at HortPark.
Aside from this, each person also got to do one lap around the go-kart track, in what proved to be the most enjoyable task for majority of the participants.
Larry, a 35-year-old bank collection officer, said: "I like the go-karting. I've never tried it before."
"Go-kart was my most favourite, but I think the bellydancing was the most interesting to us because most of the guys could not bellydance so I had to shake my hips up and down it was very tiring but I guess it was quite fun in the end," said 31-year-old graphic designer Aaron Cherian.
By the end of the day, while waiting to hear who won the race, everyone looked exhausted, but all with smiles on their faces.
When asked what he enjoyed the most, Larry said simply: "The adrenaline rush. We get to run from one place to another, not knowing what to expect with our next challenge. That's the fun part of it. The suspense of what's waiting for us at our next destination."
The bonds formed by the teams were evident at the final pitstop. Teammates were chattering excitedly, with some already planning future road trips together.
When the grand prize winner was announced, Team Roadie was in a state of shock - they were among the last teams to arrive and were not expecting to win the grand prize of $4,000 cash and $1,000 worth of 313@Somerset shopping vouchers.
Hugging each other after receiving the prize, Ezen Ho, Li Shu Zhen, Ong Wei Teck, and Eric Chen Wen Wei, all 29, were speechless.
Completing each other's sentences, the two girls described how they ran the race.
"We took our own sweet time," said Shu Zhen.
"For everything! We spent time on the road, chatting, went for lunch, we didn't 'da bao'!" said Ezen, laughing.
And in a race where the finish time didn't matter, Ezen shared the team's motto: "There was one thing we kept saying on the tour: Everything we do, we do OTT! OTOT - own time own target - yet OTT - over the top!"
Wei Teck concluded: "For those people who are thinking of taking part, go for it. Step out of your comfort zone and go for it. Enjoy, have fun, get to know more new people!"
ellenja@sph.com.sg
*Missed out on the Race?? Well stand a chance to win $3,000 worth of 313@Somerset shopping vouchers by simply answering a few easy questions. More details here.
Karting a hit at AsiaOne Adventure Race 2012
Click on thumbnail to view. Story continues after photos.
(Photos: AsiaOne) |
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