Rhythm

Genesis
Another morning in the office, the sun is shining brightly happy, car honks in the distance the AC was set to a calming breeze, printer, stapler, phone calls, small chit chat of the latest celeb gossip can be heard all around. Work will start to pile my desk in a few minutes, stretch my arms then went down the hall to fill my glass. Ritual for most of my office days.

"Yo ed! check this out"
"whats that?"
"I'm sure you'd be interested"

"WIN A TOTAL PRICE OF 500MILLION RUPIAH"
"Djarum Super AdventureRace2 the extreme journey"
"explore yourself explore the world"
"Registration now open at . . ."

I was about to give the brochure back to my friend when i noticed that it has the desert dune in the background. Small look around the web, it turn out to be a 3 part race with its final stage being held in the massive desert of middle east.


A race ei? Competition, a word despised by many Parkour practitioner, money, fame many of the wrong motivation to get into a sport is often contained in it. Not to mention the principal sponsor is one of the biggest cigarette company in the country, Religion forbids it, and it has been a pride to the Parkour Indonesian  community to turn down huge offers for cigarette comercials.


But, its the middle east, an adventure in the heart of world history.

. . .

"Team number 118, Iron Men please proceed to the briefing area!"

Jakarta 0847hrs Sunday May 23rd, 2010

I wanted to pee, am i nervous? it cant be, we'd gotten team number 113 earlier but had to replace it for 118 due to some technical mistake, but hey 13 is not a bad number and this will just be another stroll around the city, beside im with two of the best practitioner the country have, Henry an ex competitive Motocross biker, rockclimbing, buidling jumping superdad, and Randy an ex Junior national competitive swimmer. It will just be like anyother sunday, running around the city, jumping stuffs.


Then the can blew, the race begun. This was the last First elimination of the race, 900 slots was open for teams in Jakarta and those team who has failed the trials in their own city.


Rules was simple, gather 7 green check points, 5 yellow, and 1 red. Return to the finish line within 2hrs30mins. In our aid we were given blank maps and a compas of our own.


Randy took hold of the map we started ploting the route we would make, a total of at least 20Km in distance. Picked the most efficient way and made our way through the race.

I really can't remember much of whats happening during the time we were running around, we get lost, tired, dirty, exhausted, a little pain here and there, typical running stuffs. And there we finish. At 2.22 sparing us 8minutes for extra point. With the challenge completed we took the bus to the usuall Parkour training spot and meet the rest of the group there and have some fun. I kinda peeked at the scoreboard before we left, it says:

6. Iron Men 26000pts

we did good I thought.

"i wanted to pee"

***

Exodus
Work was already piling up, the aircon is'nt doing so good today in fighting the heat from the torturing sun. Is it me or is it just Monday? nah it surely is Monday's fault. I felt lazy, wish it would be 18.15 sooner so that i can go home and sleep, the running and the parkour training afterwards sure did leave me sore.
Lazily i fish around the web for somthing to refresh my sore Monday.

"9. no.110 IRON MEN 26000pts"
"Please complete the required documents for the next challenge on May 26th 2010"

***

 Jakarta 0900hrs Thursday May 27th, 2010

"yo! where you at? the bus Is late, but you'd better be here sooner"
"I'm sorry dude, i took the wrong bus, i think i wont make it there for another hour"

Sukabumi 1430hrs, sameday.


We were all complete, the last team mate made it just in time before the bus leave, now were are nicely tucked in our cottage with 5 or 7 other teams getting ready for the briefing on tomorow's race.


The Resort, "Caldera" was a decent scene, placed next to one of the most challenging river to be rafting in the "citarik river", organized and clean with a touch of native Indonesian architecture, its obvious by the color of the bricks that the place is new, the only thing which is out-of-place are the heavy decoration the many banners and flags from the sponsor of the race.

"Welcome adventurers to the 2nd part of the Adventurerace2, the ECO CHALLENGE. I will now explain the content of this challege that has been kept a secret from all of you"

The hardlooking guy started talking till late in the night of rules and regulations followed by even a longer seminar on orienteering, map reading, and rafting safety procedures.

"yo ed lets sleep early, we have to be done with breakfast tomorow by 6.00, they are still going to transport us to the start line, 1.5hrs trip"

***

A horde of war machine straight from the 1970's came down the steep slopes to pick us up, if the US army would travel in the latest fasion, the Indonesia army travels in their old school antique fashion. The participants mounts the old beast and was headed down to the south shores of Java.

"Man my butt hurts, how do they expect us to run when my back is already sore from the bumpy ride"

Pelabuhan Ratu 0745hrs, Friday 28th May 2010

Facing us is the Indian Ocean and a long strethch of the Java's souhtern beach, dirty sand being rolled out by 2meters wave, calling out for a great adventure.

"TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTT!!!" The can blew, This time I didnt feel like peeing.

Scrambling as if a bomb is dropping, the racers ran trying to gain ground ahead of themselves.

"What its only been 300 or so meters and we have to cross a river already?!"
"Yo guys! Let's take off our shoes"

 the river

We wore our shoes again after the river crossing and began running the rocky part of the beach Parkour training sure did kick in, soon we reach soft sand and slowly our dry shoes started to give edge, as the wet shoes of the other runner began to gather sand, making it heavier and harder to run in.

"Team Number 548 Iron Men you placed 2nd please join the team ahead of you for the next challenge"

The rubber boats were lining up neatly and ahead team Macan Gunung is ready to start the next challenge. We were paired with them to cross the ocean and row to next checkpoint.

"HOLD IT HOLD IT!!"

"AVOID THE WAVE, AVOID THE WAVE"

"WE'RE GOING DOWN!!ROW FASTER!! FASTER!!!"

pass the waves and we are safe

The first part of the ocean rafting is a beast, finding the timing between the wave is crucial, the rowing was though, you'll move forward 2mtrs only to get thrown back 5meters. But right after the wavy part, it was just all about endurance, a few kind words was said, acquaintance between the two team is made the rest is all about the row, row, row, row and row.

"Damn those other 2 boats are fast, but its alright we still placed 3rd, which means we are the 6th team to reach here"

got GPS? This is old school topography

"Forget about position, just get our bags, and Randy just start reading the map, find the coordinate and we'll go!"

The first few coordinates are points placed within the little city of Pelabuhan Ratu, i believed the organizer placed it there for us to warm up our navigating skills, but soon it started to head out towards the outskirt, and before we know it, we were given emergency food ratios. This was the last checkpoint with the comfort of a civilized pavement.