CP7 – Pick up Bikes – Chestnut BT Entrance – Deposit Bike – CP8

FINDING OASIS

It was like seeing real water in the desert when CP7 appeared in front of me as my weary body kept the running pace in the hot sun to the end. We scrambled to pick up the bikes as the Marshalls cheered us on.

Getting our passport stamped, we tried to fill up water but realised they ran out (shows how tough Team Biathlon was). A little anxious, we biked along Zhenghua park to CP 8, which is at Chestnut Drive. It was not a tough route but we felt the impact from the Team Biathlon, especially on the legs and the scorching hot weather was not helping either.

HYDRATE... AND SAY BYE BYE!

Parting with Firefly was an emotional moment. No longer will we have our bikes to carry us forth on the end of the journey. We have to rely on the wobbly legs. CP8 was our last water station, so we took turns pumping out water from the cans and replenishing our bladders. My shaky hands spilled my rehydration salts all over the cap on my bladder…and I could hear the marshall behind me remarking “don’t waste”…so a good lick cleaned it all up! *gross, yeah? I oso say!*

Running down the hill was fine, it was the uphill which was a real killer. Familiar with the biking route, we continued on a slow jog until we were relieved to see the men clad in orange for the last time at the entrance to a trail, which could either lead us to the One With Nature trail…or the Woodcutters.

NAVIGATIN’ ON ROOT 66

WHO SAYS WOMEN CAN’T NAVIGATE? WE DID…..

We were so “traumatized” by our earlier bearing 25 lost adventure that we reaffirm with the marshals if the markers are clearly marked and they told us to “Follow the main trail” till you see new bearing signs.

I happily reminded everyone that it is our last  CP and we were “warmed” by the cool shades of the woodcutters trail.

As the Marshalls said… it was a single track and we constantly had to tackle the dense intertwined roots that somewhat gave a lot of character to this enchanting forest. Actually I got quite dizzy looking out to avoid twisting ankles. As we 40% run, 60% walk, we passed only another Men’s team, who were happy to let us lead the navigation (what we call lazy.. ) but we lost them after we crossed a river/swamp.

We carefully cleared the navigation till this bearing 300 where we noticed that the trail is deviating more and more, by then, we just passed another Men’s team who paused with us to ponder but they seemed not to care so much and keep following the trail.

Not wanting to revisit the lost adventure, we turned back to the bearing, some 10mins back and found no other way out whilst hearing loud shouts in the background. Naturally, we knew they found the next bearing, so we quickly turned back again, with fatigue dawning on us as hunger pangs came into the picture too…