UP UP &
...CRAMPS!!!!
When
we finally reached CP6, I was totally exhausted from the run under the
hot blazing and welcomed the respite in the shade. At that point in
time, I had to admit that my mind was no longer functioning and all I
remembered was Rina trying to tie Ling’s bike to some pully-like rope
in order to pull the bike up. And Ling on the other hand was trying to
put on her safety rope to start ascending up some rope ladder. It looks
easy enough.
My mind just switched off and as I wait for my turn at the rope
ascending, I found a nice boulder and just slumped myself there. But my
plans were short-lived. The marshall told me that I had to be Ling’s
belayer in case she slips and falls off the ladder. So I had to peel
myself off the boulder and held on to the other side of her safety rope
as she starts to ascend. What I thought to be a piece of cake turned
into a nightmare for Ling. With just a few more rungs to climb, she
suddenly developed really bad cramps on her legs and complained that the
gap between the rungs were too wide for her (not so long) legs and every
step she took was a huge struggle. I then shouted to her to rest a while
before she attempts the next few steps and with much struggle and ouchs
and ahhhs....she finally managed to pull herself up to the top and
crossed the railing.
I
was afraid...very afraid. What if I ended up cramping as well? As it is,
my legs are feeling really wobbly from all the exertion and I had a
really bad feeling that I was going to end up in a worse state than
Ling. When Rina was done with pulling up Ling’s bike over the top, she
came over to take her turn to be my belayer while I climb up the much
dreaded ladder. And for tactics purposes, I told Rina to help me out by
giving me a heave whenever I ascend each step so that I don’t need
that much effort to pull myself up. And I think it helped because it
wasn’t as bad I thought it was going to be. I took one step at a time
and before I know it, I’m at the top. After I slumped over the
railing, I looked down and wished Rina luck! It was then that I told
Ling that I don’t think I can run anymore and asked if she can do the
running instead while I biked.
She
agreed and started on her run because we know that the Amazonian aka
Rina will catch up in no time. However, the marshalls insisted that we
needed to regroup before we can go off. So we had to wait for Rina to
climb up. And apparently, Team JAFT also completed the ladder obstacle
on the other side and when they were done, they decided to take a
’Kit-Kat’ break and out come all their munchies and their yummies
which they tried to tempt us with. Team Angels can only look forlornly
as we forced ourselves to push on and not take a ’Kit Kat’ break
with them. And while Rina & Ling started running ahead, I slowly
picked up all their helmets and their camelbaks, retrieved Ling’s bike
and started biking after them.
The sun started beating down on us
again and very soon, I saw Ling was having difficulty continuing on her
run. Though I was really tired myself, I decided to share the burden
with her a little by taking turns with her on the bike. And being the
’scheming’ one that I am, I soon came up with an idea to fully utilize
whatever running energy that we’ve got left. So what I did was to tell
Ling that I would bike ahead and then leave the bike there for her to
pick up whereas I would start running first. She would then run to the
bike, ride the bike for a while and rest at the same time, bike ahead of
me and do the same thing. We did this for a while so that both of us
would get some ’rest’ in between. And during all this interchanging
of bike & run, Rina gallantly just ran on and on and on and not once
did she ask to be on the bike....thank you Rina! 