Published on : 1st Sept 2006 Article by: Esther Tan Cheng Yin
They had to navigate across Tasmania		Extreme adventure race across Tasmania World-class expedition-type adventure racing requires at least four super-fit endurance athletes to form a competitive team. One such race is the XPD Tasmania - a self-supported expedition race covering an epic remote terrain course of about 700km. To enter the race, eight Singaporeans formed two teams to compete in the Australia XPD race. The teams went through intensive training... They had to navigate across Tasmania under their own steam from the state's far North West all the way to the finish line in the South East. Along the way, they had to combat fatigue, cold temperatures, sleep deprivation and injuries to complete all the checkpoints in the course. Most of their water supply was from rivers or streams. And to top it all off, participants had to endure temperatures as low as zero degrees Celsius in the nights and temperatures as high as 28°C in the day. Training preparations The teams went through intensive training several weeks before the actual race to improve their endurance levels and also to give themselves a taste of what was to come. As training for the various disciplines in the race, they went biking and trekking in Bintan; cold weather trekking in Hong Kong; weekly runs with their race haversacks and taking part in several races around the world.

Team trainings were a gradual build up of mileage, load weight, overnight sleep deprivation and fatigue endurance workouts. And they peaked in Hong Kong about one month before the race. The teams also did a cumulative distance of 60km of running per week.

The hunt for the adventure family

As much as it was desired for a Singapore dream team, the Singapore Adventure Racing Team (SART) was formed. They entered this extreme adventure challenge to push the human limits of endurance, teamwork and personal capabilities. Their biggest challenge was to sustain the high-risk and high-energy demands of this expedition.

Difficulties faced during the race

As is expected with such a demanding expedition race, the team had to overcome many difficulties along the race route. The problems encountered include:

The mountain bike terrain was very rocky and undulating, with lots of big hills to climb. Both teams have a total of seven flats and one broken chain. The flats were mainly attributed to a wheel rim manufacturing defect.
In some of the kayaking legs, teams were faced with extreme cold, strong headwinds, long portages, and shallow waters requiring portage.
Navigation using the given maps was difficult due to the unmarked junctions and tracks. It was particularly tough at night. Hence, route choice decision needed to be adjusted many times.
Personal risk management became an issue with a bike crash accident on a steep downhill. One cracked helmet and one bandaged head was the result and the team speed was much slower.
Fighting the sleep monsters became a daily task as it took turns to hit each of the members. One of them thought he saw three people on the kayak.

Caring and Sharing

To build up cohesion and encourage unity in a team where self-sustenance is critical, every resource - food, water and equipment - within the team was shared. Those are very essential to survival so everyone shared all that they had. This included eating from the same chocolate bar, drinking from the same hydration tube, using the same spoon and brushing from the same toothbrush! This notion of sharing extended beyond physical objects to team goals, strengths, weaknesses, and even personal thoughts as well. The idea was, "If we were going to suffer together in this expedition, we had better know each other well enough to care and share some aspects of our lives together!"

Interaction and Communication

Taking time to cultivate the human relationship is key to the true spirit of having pleasant experiences when the team is finishing the expedition together. A huge measure of our time was spent in biking and kayaking training as we prepared for the expedition. We spent at least eight weekends and two holidays in SAFYC's Sembawang Clubhouse, using their facilities and sea kayaks to beef up the team's weakest discipline. On average, we kayaked a grueling distance of about 40km around Pulau Ubin each session. Once the gun goes off at the start of the race, time passed fairly quickly. For some of the guys, the most difficult part of the expedition was the kayaking legs, considered their most long-drawn and tedious segment. The longest distance we kayaked on one leg was 62km, including 3km of portaging. Finishing that long stretch was a tremendous relief because the team almost could not make the safety cut-off time. The search party rescue was almost activated to hunt for the participants!

A big step for Singapore

The SART finished the race in 32nd place out of 47 teams. The Singaporean teams were the only two Asian teams that competed in this race. Injuries were the main reason for those teams that did not finish. Being the youngest team to participate in such an expedition and finishing it with a ranked position truly encouraged the teams to many more possibilities in life. The average age of the XPD competitors was 40 years old. Being young also meant that they have yet to adapt to the endurance level that many super-athletes took years to acquire. It also indicates that there are many more years of racing to go before they can reach their full potential as they go in search of another adventure race that can tip the scale in toughness and endurance.

Sponsors and Equipment

We would like to thank the SAF Yacht Club for supporting our kayak training and our friends, colleagues and relatives who so fervently supported us throughout the race.