Get ready to rev up your engines and push your limits because the REDLINE Fitness Games Powered by NISSAN are here to give you the ultimate adrenaline rush! This one-of-a-kind workout experience is set to revolutionize the fitness scene in Malaysia and it's an event you don't want to miss.
Taking place on September 23rd and 24th at the Mines International Exhibition and Convention Centre (MIECC), REDLINE Fitness Games Powered by NISSAN is going to be an electrifying indoor event like no other. Whether you're a gym-goer or a fitness enthusiast, this competition is designed to inspire, motivate, and ignite your passion for a fitter and healthier lifestyle in Southeast Asia.
I kicked off my 2020 OCR season with Viper's first event of the year in Genting Highlands. So glad that they've brought back this event because it's easily one of my favourite. I mean, cold chilly air, shopping at Genting Premium Outlet and hotpot in the skies? How not to be excited?
I am back at last with yet another Viper Arena video. Viper Arena has quickly become one of my staple OCR events since it started because it's a quick course of 5-7km, dry and often less than 30 minutes drive away. The recent race in Bukit Jalil stadium was no different with a mix of old, improved and new obstacles.
You can see for yourself.
Were you at the event? If you were, leave a comment and follow me for more OCR "fun". Next up...SPARTAN KUCHING!
In case you haven't heard - for the first time ever, Spartan Race Malaysia will be headed to Kuching, Sarawak! This will be the first time a major OCR brand has ventured to East Malaysia and why not? There is ample space, jungles and a lot of untapped potential. My money's on the orang asli guys kicking ass and taking the podium position.
If your first response is: Kuching is a part of Malaysia meh?, I am gonna google your social medias and have them deleted! Yeh, that's right. Nowadays, that's even more tragic than throwing paint on your house.
I can't believe this is my first OCR of 2019. Have I really been that out of touch with my fitness side? I think the answer is clearly yes. Sad die me :(
I even had a reader who joined in one of my bootcampy sessions and told me she realised I didn't write so much about OCR about anymore. That was a wakeup call to me and could possibly be why I signed up for Viper Beach and Viper Arena.
Five odd years ago, I started on my OCR trip with the help of a group of crazy like-minded friends from bootcamp. This year, I became that aforementioned help for two of my ex-colleagues with the additional perk of a video. Behold the evidence of how well they did in the 5km category of Viper Challenge Cyberjaya.
I am still contemplating if I should join next year's Sepang and/or Penang Viper Challenge...hmm.....
As a former Spartan Racer, it's always nice to see my friends and other people take on the Spartan Race and then listen to their tales of harrowing obstacles and endless burpees (provided they even did do their burpees at all) Not to be left out from the action, Blue Ant Extreme has launched The Xtreme Quest - a challenge for people from different background to take on the Spartan Race in Iskandar Puteri this coming 2 Dec.
New race venue, new obstacles - all that was to be expected at the Great Eastern Viper Arena 2018 held on 18 - 19 August 2018. Having found a new home at the iconic Bukit Jalil National Stadium, the massive event boasting 12,000 participants, cemented the title of KL Sports City for the venue. Kicking off at 5pm for the elites and continuing on in waves, the participants were flagged off all the way until 3am on Sunday morning.
Head up north this June for the BDB Extreme Jitra 2018 set to take place on 30th June 2018. Look forward to an exciting 8km course with 10 obstacles across Darulaman Park, Jitra.
I was on the fence about writing this review/recap about the last Viper Challenge in Cyberjaya on 2 Dec. I did a video on it, following my experience all 21km of it throughout Cyberjaya and realised that the only thing that inspired me to churn out the video so quickly were my friends and teammates. Which you can watch here...
Because to be frank, the course had nothing to inspire. Majority of the obstacles were built over water which added to the safety aspect and gave it an element of fun. And also helped keep participants cool throughout the blazing hot day.
The Spartan Race Beast was supposed to be in October but due to unforeseen circumstances, was moved to December and to Johor Bahru. This of course raised a lot of protest amongst the participants and with this hanging over their heads, Spartan Race Malaysia had better not screwed up the last OCR event of the year.
On a whim, I flew to Japan to participate in the Super leg of the Spartan Race, intending to complete part of my 2017 Trifecta in a country I absolute adore. Also because I missed the local Spartan Super because I was in the country I absolute adore. Go figure.
Anyway, this trip was...different from my other OCR travels because 1) it was in Japan, 2) I was running solo and finally 3) I can't converse fully with other racers. I was excited and nervous and admittedly, a little scared because it would my first Spartan Race abroad without my teammates whom I found myself missing midway through.
Race morning was rainy rainy rainy. It was so rainy that the race village became a mud pit with people tiptoeing across the field to get to the bag drop tent. If it wasn't for my trusty Inov8 Ultra shoes, I was sure I would have face planted multiple times. It seemed that Spartan Race Japan needed to work on the bag drop system because it took racers over an hour to bag drop! I think the fact that we had to pay 500yen for the big plastic bag to store our bag made it worst because we were slowing down to dig into our bags and had to step aside to repack and etc. MOVING ON.
I missed my 10am flag off time but managed to wiggle my way to the startline for the 1030am flag off. After the usual Aroo Aroo Aroo and Who are You, I am Spartan ceremony (I really missed Australia's Spartan Races at this point because the spirit wasn't the same), were unleashed into the course.
To sum it up, the route was hard. Sagamiko Forest was an amusement themed park on a hill and boasted a beautiful forest with leaves turning red and yellow to greet autumn. The first half of the course led us up up up and away into the hill right up to its ferris wheel at its peak. The route alternated between road and trail keeping it fast and slow all at once. Scenery-wise, had it been sunny, it would have been stunning. As it were, it poured the whole way, a teaser to the torrent rains of Typhoon Lan that hit the following day. The rain made the trails twice as slippery and muddy, the obstacles twice as hard and the river crossings twice as fast.
The difficulty in obstacles varies. Obstacles I used to struggle with like the atlas carry, I found easy here and obstacles I would usually ace were surprisingly challenging such as the rope climb and the herculean hoist. Due to my stunned growth, wall obstacles can be a challenge. It was here I had to open my mouth and say, "Onegai tasukete..." aka, "help me please."
In all fairness, I only had to use it once out of the three times I needed help. The other two times I lucked out and had two english speaking westerners help me out. Somewhere along the 10km, I was chitchatting with an American dude who had come to Japan on a holiday and was conned into doing the race by his friends.
I know how you feel, dude. I am still wondering how I conned myself into spending RM666 (17,500yen) to participate in this race. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I am just glad that my race wasn't cancelled due to the typhoon because the Sprint race on Sunday was called off due to Typhoon Lan hitting mainland Japan hard.
All in all, I think this video of the race that I compiled on my iPhone while waiting for the train in the shivering cold, gave a good walkthrough of the race. I really need to get myself a GoPro if I am going to be doing more of these races solo. (ehem coughsponsorGoProcough)
I am giving this Super a 4 out of 5 Buck Furpees because the weather brought on a whole new set of challenges to the course.
Some tips for racing in a foreign country abroad (where English is NOT the first language)
1) Learn the local language of 'help me' and 'thank you'
2) Contact the organiser on transport plans. I found out too late that the organisers had buses through back and forth to the race site from Shinjuku. Having said that....
3) Try to stay as close as possible to the race site or somewhere accessible to the race site.
4) Bring extra money because sometimes the organiser might neglect to mention additional costs such as the connecting buses from the station to the race site costing 250yen one way. It wasn't mentioned in the race guide.
5) Plan ahead. Seriously, don't leave everything to chance and luck in a foreign country.
6) If you don't want to bring your passport to the race site or in my case, forgot to bring it, snap a pic of it beforehand and keep it on your phone/camera.
Another round of Viper Arena and what a fun round it was. 6km, 15 obstacles all within the vicinity of Shah Alam Stadium which just not too long ago, was a Sea Games venue. And once again Team Huh now upgraded to Team Fuh made an appearance, all decked out in red now.
Here's a video compilation of our fun night out.
Video captured and edited with iPhone SE using VivaVideo and Splice app. To read my other write ups on Viper Arena:
So just to quickly make sure everyone is on the same page on what I will be talking about - Spartan Race Malaysia was supposed to have its Spartan Beast on 8 October at a tbc location in Kuala Lumpur. The key details here being: 8 October and Kuala Lumpur.
This has been promoted and pushed in their offers, partnerships and promotional materials including the APAC poster.
And then...two months before the race, we learnt that Spartan Race had decided to move the date to 9 December and the venue to Johor Bahru still at an undetermined address. It will be a three race-event consisting of an Ultra-Beast, Beast and Sprint now and is also part of the Singapore Beast leg (well, seeing as they have literally no room for a Beast on that island...)
Viper Genting once again has proven itself to the OCR event for the highlands with a cooling weather, an instant uphill stretch to get the heart pumping and a repertoire of old and new obstacles to keep things interesting for any OCR junkie out there.
The first obstacle was dragging myself out of my warm comfortable bed at 430am on Saturday, the day of the event. It had started to drizzle outside and I immediately dreaded running Viper Genting in the rain. Cold plus rain equals a miserable me.
Okay, so things have been a bit quiet on the blog. Work has been 'bitch be cray cray' crazy. I have picked up my creative writing once to deal with the stress hence the lack of updates here. Sorry about that.
Update: The SCORE Warzone has been postponed to 20 Jan 2018.
Another obstacle race is entering the Malaysia OCR scene with an exciting line-up of four different terrain races for OCR junkies to participate it. Established for their Zumba and running events, SCORE now ventures into the obstacle racing field with SCORE Warzone, a four series OCR events that kicks off on 18 November.
Say Penang and the first response you will probably get from any local would be "FOOD!".
Now ask any OCR junkie from Penang and they would tell you it was the venue of Viper Challenge's second event of the year on 25 March after Viper Singapore in February. In short, it was the perfect state for any true food loving, OCR addicted Malaysian to head off to for a weekend getaway up North.
Our planning included two things: eating and Viper Challenge Arena. And after a day of binge eating all over Penang, my team was gearing to go as we gathered at Batu Kawan Stadium on the mainland part of Penang. Compared to the crackled, lackluster walls of Shah Alam Stadium (the other venue for the Viper Arena series), Batu Kawan Stadium looked amazing especially when the sun went down and the lights and fireworks came on. It wasn't as big as Shah Alam Stadium although this resulted in a course that amounted to 5km of stairs, ramp-running, obstacles, tarmac and obstacles.
Hear ye hear ye! Behold - my long overdue race recap of Spartan Race Sprint 2017, held at the glorious green, ever hilly Semenyih on 12 March.
To cut down on travelling time in the morning (thus having more time to sleep in), I stayed overnight at the race site at the Semenyih Eco Resort and was rewarded with a glimpse of the start and finish of the course. Only a glimpse because that was only 10% of the total course of 9km and 25 obstacles that greeted racers on the morning itself.
For the first time in my four years of running the Spartan Races, I participated in the elite category simply out of curiosity to see what it was like to be held at a higher standard in the lead pack and to be chased by the competitive racers in the heat after In short, not fun. The race was close to stressful with barely enough time to catch a breather right from the start.
The little township of Medini, in Iskandar Puteri, Johor came alive recently when it hosted the Sunway Iskandar Viper Challenge for a second straight year, with 9000 participants, almost 2,400 of which are from Singapore. In an effort to challenge the physical and mental fitness of the competitors, this Viper Challenge series covered a distance of 15km with 18 obstacles.
Competitors were up with the sun as registration began at 5.30am. They then made their way through the first flag-off precisely at 7am. The participants that came from all over Malaysia and the regions were flagged-off in waves 30 minutes apart with the last batch at 11am.
The Medini leg was the second of five Viper Challenge series in Malaysia. The first edition was held in Penang just last month.
