City Chase Singapore 2008

This is my second time participating in the City Chase Singapore.

My team (Jon & myself) - Boong - last year's ranking was number 15.

As for this year, I kept telling friends and jon that I had already packed my bag for Morocco Trip (where the winning team will represent Singapore for the International City Chase in November).

I was really kidding, as we were quite slack and did not really meet up to strategize or plan, however, we had a rough idea how to do it from last year's experience.

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Prior to the race, we surveyed the competition landscape and this year's competitors (221 teams) looked much fitter and prepared than last year's participants. This year's hints for the pit-stops were much more difficult than last year. There were17 hints/clues given for 17 pit-stops. To complete the race, all the team must finish 10 pit-stops (correctly solving the hint for the pit-stop and finishing the task at the pit-stop).

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Example of one of the hints:

Brainfreeze.

It is where a Dutch Icon stands, but look for the Rock and not for the sand.

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Pit-Stop: It is an ice-cream shop in Holland Village.

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My team took ONE HOUR to roughly solve around 8 hints (not even 10) and plan our route, before we set off.

By the time, we left the starting point, we were already the last few teams.

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Guess What?

After 4hrs 17mins, We came in No. 2

It was a pleasant surprise as I thought we would be No. 10.

I knew that we were doing well, as at pit-stop No. 5, they were already reporting our progress to the organiser.

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Even though we were happy that we came in second, we felt abit disappointed that we only lost out to the winning team by only 9 mins.

So no prize for runner-up.

No Morocco Trip.

But at least, our names are mentioned in the website below.

haha... Cheap Thrill!

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http://www.citychaseasia.com/Welcome/Top_nav/News.htm

"August 23rd 2008, Singapore… 221 teams flagged off at Central today for Nat Geo City Chase Singapore with Cameron Richards and Greg Shand coming in first with a time of four hours, eight minutes and 57 seconds. Boo Wei Jie Jonathan and *** **** *** finished second and Audrey and Scott Mitchell came in third with a time of four hours 17minutes and five seconds and four hours 29 minutes and 16 seconds respectively."

Winning Team

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As part of the rules, only Singapore Citizens or PRs could represent Singapore for the event. So when I was crossing the finishing line, I was quite happy to see 2 Ang Mos. The first 2 questions that I asked were "What's our position?" and "Are they Singapore PRs?"

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Unfortunately, both of them are PRs and have been living in Singapore for around 10 years.

Anyway, in the event that they couldn't make it for the Morocco event, the runner-up team will replace them.

Boong Team
(Winning team were getting interviewed at the background)
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Boon: "We are the No. 2 team"
Jon: "We are the first Asian team"
Nobody cares about runner-up team, so we gotta do this to make ourselves happy.
haha...
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It was raining quite heavily during the race, and I had a fall after clearing the 3rd Pit-stop.

I was thinking... "Damn! We still have 7 pit-stops to clear, and I do not have plaster etc..."

At least, I learnt that there are alot of nice Singaporeans. =)

One guy gave me a plaster, and advised us how to get to the next pit-stop via bus.

He wished us good luck and alighted the bus.

nice!

It's a simple act of kindness that made me happy and grateful!

THANK YOU!!!

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Highlights:

- Jumping off from a 5m platform into the pool

(I have a new found respect for all the olympian divers who could do so much turns and twisting within that short time.)

- Eating 3 worms

(The kind that you feed to birds. At least, it's tasteless.)

- Jogging in the rain

- Don't care about others' expression when I looked drenched and dirty.

- Not blaming each other for mistakes (We are a team!!!)

- "Don't care about results, let's do our best!" attitude

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At the end, it's the journey that matters!