RUNNING WITH PASSION: August 2006

Monday, August 28, 2006

Amazing Race Asia Promotional Tour (Singapore)

What? Amazing Race Asia Promotional Tour (Singapore Leg)

Where? Suntec City's Entertainment Centre Atrium (In front of Carrefour)

When? 26 August 2006 (Saturday), 11am onwards

According to this sweetie: The Big Race is Coming Soon.

Fresh from the Amazing Mall Challenge in Malaysia, we headed down south to Singapore for the Amazing Race Promo Tour to participate in the challenges similar to what participants in The Amazing Race Asia would encounter. Actually, we were in town for the Safra Sheares Bridge Run on Sunday. Since we were in town, we decided to take a look at the action + adventure AXN was bringing to Singapore.

We took the late Friday night train to arrive early Saturday morning. After dropping off our luggage at our rented apartment in Chinatown, Ting and I took the MRT to City Hall and proceeded by foot to Suntec City.

We reached the Atrium Entertainment Center about 11:00am. The AXN people, wearing AXN (I Like it BIG) T-shirts were still setting up the course for the challenge. We saw many mousetraps being placed on the floor. (Insert gulp here)! We also saw a huge cargo net, hanging from the ceiling. (Insert double gulp here!)

What's Printed on Her T-Shirt. Wonder how big she like it? Heheh!

This is not a Mickey Mouse job

After signing the indemnities form, we were ready to rumble. First challenge was the qualifying round. The qualifying round would send us through a minefield of mousetraps, blindfolded, piggybacking. The one on the partner’s back had to give instruction and navigate through the route.

Ting and I decided to wait and watch how it was done before plunging ourselves into the traps. Heheh! So we hang around the stage area, watching others doing it.

Snap! Snap! Snap!. It was quite hilarious watching couples jumping at snapping mousetraps. Heheh! Then we saw the queue was getting longer. We quickly moved to join the queue.

He Ain't Heavy, He's my Bumble Bee

It was quite nerve wrecking walking though the mine. Every step was a risk! I was trembling as I carry Ting across the “minefield”. She was quite calm, I think. Step by step I moved forward and with clear guidance from Ting, I survived, with all toes intact. Heheh! We were hoping to get into the finals but luck was not on our side. (Insert Sob! Here)

Even though we didn’t get into the finals, we did try all the challenges that the finalists supposed to go through.

SONY Cybershot Balancing Act

Our challenge was to snap a picture of the partner holding a SONY card with a SONY Cybershot camera while the seesaw was in balance. It sounded simple but it took us a while to get to the right balance. We were rewarded with a printed picture we took earlier. The picture turned out to be crisp and clear. Ahem! It must be because of the skillful hand of your truly. Heheh!

We were rewarded with an AXN goodies bag each here – an Amazing Race Asia flag and a handsome SONY gift set – a pen and a leather holder).

Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out....Heheh!

Next challenge – riding a kiddie bike around traffic cones, along a designated star-shaped route (just like the star in the sponsor’s logo - Caltex). Again, the task might look easy but it posed a real challenge to a tall adult like me. My knees kept banging onto the handles when cycling. Having long legs was an obstacle in this challenge.

The man in the above picture actually lost control and fell off the bike. He was not injured but he ruined the bike. Thank God they have a spare one. Heheh!

We were given an AXN Goodies bag after the challenge. What’s inside? Just one Amazing Race Asia Flag. No premiums from Caltex. (So “kiam siap” Heheh!)

Spidermen??

The Ultimate Challenge – We were given 2 minutes to climb up the cargo net that stretched 3 floors up to the ceiling and collect as many carabineers as possible.

That's me on The Net. The angle kinda made my a$$ looked big. Heheh!

I love this challenge. I could feel the adrenaline rushing in my blood as I climbed higher and higher. Depending on how many carabineers you collect, you will be given an AXN gift. I got myself a CSI:Miami lanyard which I proudly worn to the office to many envious stares of my colleagues. Heheh!

We didn't go home empty-handed. AXN Goodies.

Ting and I had great fun joining the challenges even though we didn’t get into the final. I heard the tour would be coming to KL soon. I must go and grab more AXN goodies. I would love to win one of the T-shirts. The one that says – “I Like It Big”. Because I do. I really love it BIG (Insert wink here! Heheh!)

Thai Food Galore.

We went for Siam Kitchen for lunch after the challenges. Wow...all those activities really whipped up out appetite. Two of us wiped these 20 dishes clean. What a Amazing day!!!

Safra Sheares Bridge Run/ Army Half Marathon 2006

What? Safra Sheares Bridge Run/ Army Half Marathon 2006

Start Where? The Esplanade, Singapore

End Where? The Padang, Singapore

When? 27 August 2006 (Sunday), 5:30am

How Long? 21km

The Goodies Bag

Many thanks to Amy’s relative for collecting the goodies bag and race kit. The race kit (event t-shirt, Championchip and number bib) was collected one week before the actual event itself at the expo. We, overseas runners have to ask for favours from our Singaporean friends and relatives to collect these items. Why can’t they have the race kit collection one or two days from the actual run? We missed the expo as well.

The nicely printed goodies bag was filled with a copy of SNAG magazine (lots of seminude pictures of girls inside and some rather useless articles), 2 AAA batteries, 1 pack of Activade Drink, 1 Imation CD-R and heaps of vouchers