My team (Team 14: Julie, Kelly, Matt and I) successfully completed the British Military Fitness Kinabalu Challenge on the 21st Nov. 

 

I would like to say thanks to everyone who sponsored me, all donations were really appreciated and really helped my motivation befire and during the challenge.

 

I've written quite a long account of how the challenge went for us below but the brief version is that we were really happy with how we did and far outperformed our original expectations.  Although some of us in the team felt we were strong runners (well i did until Matt said he'd done 8 marathons) there were as many events requiring upper body strength and there were some very fit and seriously competitive teams.  We decided we would obviously try our best and hopefully enjoy ourselves as much as possible.  We managed to perform consistently across all the events and of the 14 teams I think we finished between 7th and 10th in every event.  In the final rankings we finished 7th overall (the same as our highest single event place).  We attributed this to our consistency  and also managing to start and finish every event as a full team, avoiding any deducted points, which many of the other teams didn't manage.  We were really happy with our ranking in the top half especially given our expectations at the start.

 

 

On Saturday morning everyone met up at the airport around midday.  I got together with my team and we quickly started started to renew the important team bonding with a lengthy discussion of the optimal boxer short design for running, cycling and mountain climbing.  Saturday afternoon was taken up with briefings, medicals, swimming test, kayak training, and how to put up a hammock.

 

On Sunday we had an early start (which i soon realised I'd have to get used to) after enjoying my last night in a proper bed for a while.  We then drove to TAC which was our base for the challenge.  We then trekked into the jungle for our jungle training.  We learnt how to build an effective camp, light a fire and use a Parang (big maschette type knife) to clear the camp area, chop wood for the fire, to build stuff for camp and try not to amputate any limbs in the process.  We then had a practice run creating a fire and cooking dinner.  When we returned to TAC we had to test and select our bikes for the bike-run events, build a bamboo raft and prepare all out kit that we had to carry into the jungle.  We had dinner, a few drinks and had our first nights sleep in a hammock.

 

It was another early start on Monday and the race was about to begin.  The first event was a 4km run.  This sounded easy but with half of the run through quite rugged terrain and thick jungle and the temperature already rising by the start of the race at 7am it was far from easy.  Team starts were staggered by 2 min intervals and being team 14 of 14 we were the last team to go (we took this as hint as to the position we were expected to come).  Each team was timed with the team's time being taken from when the last member of the team crossed the line.  We all stuck together and encouraged each other probably doing the hardest and hottest 4km run of my life and as a result probably the slowest.

We had a short period to recover and change into jungle kit at the local school playing field, drinking lots of water and 100 plus (a redbull like energy drink that was to become the staple of our challenge diet).  The helicopters then started coming in and flying people off to the jungle, which was very cool.  We took about a 15min helicopter journey into the jungle where some of the staff had trekked to the previous week and cleared an LZ.  We were then sent off in our teams to find a suitable location for camp with about 4 hours to put up the 4 hammocks with bashers and mossie nets to sleep in, make a covered kitchen area to prepare dinner and try and make the camp as impressive as possible.  We made life a little difficult for our selves setting up camp on a 45 degree slope but we felt it offered god protection against our enemy...  Who ever they were??

There were 5 bonus points to be had for preparing dinner, to be taste tested by one of the staff.  It's quite hard to time cooking rice over a wood fire in jungle (not quite the same as microwaving Uncle Ben's) so our rice was a little under cooked when it came to our allotted tasting time but we tried to make up for this with excellent hospitality and some witty banter around the camp (although i did hear the word smarmy mentioned by one of the judges) and earned 3 bonus points.

Once camp was complete and our efforts had been judged, all teams congregated around staff camp (which was like a 4 star hotel compared to ours).  The sound of thunder and the sense of an impending downpour signalled time to head back to our team camp.  We stoked the fire back up for a hot drink before bed.  After waiting what seemed like an eternity for the water to boil Julie started to pour it into our cups, dropped the pan, spilled all the water which preceded to run into the fire and start to extinguish it!  We were a little disheartened at this point and with the introduction of bugs the size of birds flying around camp we decided to just have a drink of dirty looking purified jungle water and get an early night (8pm).  Sleeping deep in the jungle was an interesting experience.  Having a hammock which is at right angles to a 45 degree slope isn't good.  When you get in one side it's a nice 3 foot off the ground but the other side is about 10 foot off the ground so i spent most of the night clung onto the side of the hammock to make sure i didn't fall out and roll to the bottom of the slope.  I managed to get some sleep though and my hammock stayed up, my basher kept me dry and my mossie net kept out the wildlife so all was good.

 

We were up early again to trek out of the jungle on Tuesday.  It's safe to say we weren't upset to leave our camp.  We weren't really feeling at one with the jungle.  We had a amazing 3 hour trek out of the jungle though, with lots of river crossings.  Julie fell face first into the river though and hurt her wrist which was a bit worrying for the next event which was the first bike run.  After the trek we had a short period to get changed into running kit, drink 100 plus and eat bananas before the bike-run event started.  This was a 9.6km race.  With 2 bikes between the 4 team members each team member had to complete the full distance with the team time taken when the last member crossed the line.  All bikes had to be left at 6.5km with everyone running the final 3.1km.  You could swap runners \ cyclists at any point with the only real rule being that everyone had to do some time cycling.  With Mat and I being stronger runners than Julie and Kelly we decided we'd do the majority of the running.  We were slightly worried when the girls asked us how the gears and breaks worked 2 mins before the start of the race though!  The terrain was very hilly and very rough which meant at points the runners could be faster than the cyclists.  Kelly and Julie started off cycling although were behind Matt and myself due to the adverse cycling conditions.  Kelly got a her confidence though and soon over took us.  The plan was for the girls to drop the bikes at 6km and Matt and i the cycle 500m before dropping the bikes and all running the last section.  Matt and I had to laugh though because when we got to our 500m cycling the hill was so steep that it actually ended up being a 100m cycle followed by 400m of pushing a bike up a hill.  Our tactics worked quite well though with Kelly finishing a couple of minutes ahead of Me, Matt and Julie who all ran the final section together, slowly catching Kelly and over taking some other teams.

After the bike run, we had more 100 plus, some lunch and then set off white water rafting.  We had a couple of hours to get the hang of it then the race started.  It was a staggered start to the race with 1 minute intervals but we did well and caught the raft in front of us which made us think we were going to win (it turned out the raft in front were just really slow rather than us being really fast).  Our main tactic for this event was to deploy the Bohemian Rhapsody, which we sang constantly.

That was the end of the competition for the day and we were glad to be sleeping back at the relative luxury of TAC, if still outside, in the rain forest, in a hammock at least we were on flat ground.

 

Unfortunately the bamboo rafting had to be called off on Wednesday morning due to the river being too dangerous and the high possibility of us being swept out into the South China Sea.  This gave us and extra hour in bed although it was still and early start.  The day started with the second bike-run event.  We went with a similar strategy with the girls starting off on the bikes, dropping them with a few km to go and then Matt and I trying to catch them on the bikes.  The terrain was very steep with loose rocks early on but then there was a nice flat road section where the girls could get some speed up.  When Matt and I got the bikes at 7km we had some pretty boggy ground to contend with, at times carry the bikes through thick muddy water up to our waists, but the strategy worked well again with the girls coming in about 30 seconds ahead of Matt and I.   After the obligatory 100 plus and a short break we took mini buses to the local coastline for a quick lunch before the Kayaking event.  The event was in 2 man Kayaks so we paired up with Julie and Matt going first followed by Kelly and I.  Julie and Mat got off to a good start getting out to the boy and back to the shore for the first change over in about 5th place.  I think I found this physically the hardest event although I'm not sure if that's because I ate too many spring rolls and beef puffs at lunch time which made me feel a bit sick.  Over the next 3 stints we lost of few places but were happy with our performance.

After more 100 plus we then took the mini buses up to Mount Kinabalu base camp.  We had 2 bonus challenges on the way though each worth 5 points.  We had a shopping list of items we had to buy which involved translating from Malay to English first and we had 16 words in Malay for which we had to remember the correct spelling and English translation (I can now confidently say that "I want an office romance" in Malay).  We felt we did well in both the language and shopping tasks although luckily we weren't marked on bartering skills since Matt seemed to end up paying more than the original asking price for everything.

 

We had an early start for breakfast on Thursday with a briefing on climbing the maintain, including purifying mountain water which we would need for the ascent.  We made steady progress up the mountain.  Luckily none of us suffered too badly with altitude sickness and we reached Laban Rata after about 6 hours.  This was where we were to spend the night before the final climb and was also the end of the competitive part of the challenge.  It was raining and quite cold by this time so we got into dry clothes, had some hot food and dinner, then got an early night, ready for the final climb to the ascent.

 

It was the earliest of all early mornings, getting up at 2am to start the climb to the ascent at 2:30am on Friday.  Some teams had lost team members to altitude sickness, injuries or exhaustion but we all started the challenging climb up to 4100m together.  The terrain was far more exposed and rocky with some sections requiring a rope to pull yourself up.  The sun started to rise as we reached the summit which provided some amazing views but unfortunately the clouds rolled in before we hit the top.  It was cold and exposed on top of the mountain so we stopped for some team photos then started the descent back to Laban Rata.  It was interesting to see the extreme terrain that we had climbed in the dark a few hours earlier with only head torches and ropes to guide the way.  After breakfast at Laban Rata we then made the final descent on to base camp.  The climb down was quicker and easier but we were slightly miffed by the sign board showing that the climb and descent of the mountain which had taken us the best part of a day had been done in a record time of around 2 hours 40 mins.  We soon forgot this though when we saw the mini bus waiting to take us to the well deserved luxury of the Nexus 5 star hotel.