Revving it up at the R3vRun 2015 – Road, Environment, Viper

This post is way overdue… this run happened way back in November the year before last (that’s more than a year ago!), but I have been so busy that I have not been able to upload the post or the photos until now!

The R3vRun, organised by Revive, was quite an interesting event that was different from others. Piped as the first team-based run in Asia, runners were required to register in teams of three because there were three routes to take – Road, Environment, and Viper, hence called RevRun.

The teams would run the first 3km together, and then split into their respective routes for 4km before meeting again and finishing the last 3km together.

OUR TEAM

Andrew, Oppy and I formed a team to run in the RevRun, as we were eager to try this unique team run.

Initially, because I had an event that very night and a half-marathon the next day, I wanted to do the Road run, so Andrew was supposed to do Viper and Oppy was to do the Environment.

However, because I was planning to try Viper soon, I decided to volunteer for the Viper route so that I could get a taste of what it would be like. Andrew generously let me take on the Viper route, and even lent me his elbow and knee guards to help me get through the Viper obstacles.

RevRun was organised on two days – Saturday 14th November and Sunday 15th November. We opted for Saturday because Andrew and I had already signed up for another run on Sunday.

RUN DAY 14TH NOVEMBER 2015

We met up at the Sepang International Circuit at about 6am where we collected our wristbands, which were the entry tickets into the run.

At 7am, we were flagged off into the circuit.

There were not as many people as we had expected that morning, but then it was a Saturday morning and we were the first wave in. From photos and videos uploaded by the organiser later, the next day (Sunday) had a lot more participants. Saturday was a working day for many people as well, which would explain why Sunday was the preferred day.

We walked the first 3km which was partly road and partly trail. We were so not prepared for that, as we were expecting road!

We reached the point where the routes would be split up, and the organisers had done up the divisions very nicely and clearly.

Oppy hadn’t wanted to run on the road with her trail shoes, so she brought them with her in a bag. She quickly changed her road shoes for the trail shoes, and then we split up into our respective routes.

We kind of fell behind the other teams because of the time taken, but it didn’t really matter because it isn’t a competitive race. And we still weren’t last!

Anyway, we split into our respective routes.

THE VIPER ROUTE

Because I was nearly at the end, there was almost no one else with me as I approached the first hurdle – tyres. It wasn’t difficult, really. And since I was alone, I had no one blocking me and wasn’t blocking anyone as I just walked my way through.

The next hurdle was literally a hurdle. We were to jump over elevated logs. I wasn’t strong enough to jump, so I just climbed over them.

There was actually quite a long walk to the next obstacle. The route was not monitored, and I could have easily cut across and skipped some of the obstacles to join some of the other participants (the route was windy and had some U-turns), but where would the challenge be if I did that?

The next obstacle required us to crawl on a muddy ground (which was not that muddy) beneath barbed wire. I managed to scuttle along quite quickly thanks to the elbow and knee guards, and the barbed wire was not placed that low.

It was here that I met Juliana, and we were happy to accompany each other on the long walks between the upcoming obstacles.

Here are some of the obstacles we – err – attempted to overcome.

Andrew was waiting for me at the point where we were supposed to reconvene, and we met up with Oppy.We walked back the same way we came, to go back to the Finish line (which was the same as the Start line).

This was quite an interesting run, although to be honest, it would have been more fun if we got to do all three routes as a team. Splitting up to go the separate routes did not really feel like teamwork.

Still, thank you to the organisers for organising such a unique event!

BY THE WAY…

Here is the video promoting the following year’s RevRun 2016. And if you look almost at the beginning at 0:02, and again at 0:48… you can see Andrew, Oppy, and myself running through the woods! I am the one in the white top.

How did we get ourselves into the video, even though it was for a grand total of maybe 2 seconds? Well… read about our experience here!

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