Victoria Sapientes Elegit the minimalist blog by syarif

As per my last entry, I was yapping about the platoon vs platoon of the original bootcamp. Yes, it was tiring, but man, I have never felt so glad that I attended the event!

Well the day started very early when I woke up around 4.30-ish to prep myself. After a major err... "dump", I had coffee and a few smokes. Armed with minimal gear and mixed state of mind, I braved through the morning chill to the meeting point at Taman Metropolitan Kepong.

Along the journey, I tried as much as I can to relax and just stay clear off anything negative. I rolled down the windshield and just breathe in the cool Sunday morning air.

When I arrived, it was roughly 5.30am. The first thing that I noticed was the KL Team. My god, they were scary weh! With their red bandanas and black war-pain ala Samoan, they were singing their war cry; their lungs out! I was petrified by that moment. Huhu!

Then I walked over the PJ side. Not much significant noise. I can see in almost everyone's face that there's this scary feeling. The situation is a lot like the silence before a storm. Serene and calm. Most of us looked half dead. Well, it might just be that most of us were awake like 30 minutes before that. And I can seriously bet my leg that the majority of us didn't take any shower; and literal breakfast for that matter. What I can conclude was, we were the absolute THE under dogs.

By that time I wanted to quit. I don't want to be the guy who made my team lose even lower. But somehow the team mates, upon roll call that morning- began to have high spirit. Out of sudden, laughter burst, people were screaming - the PJ - the ASTAKA Warriors suddenly becomes alive! My heart said leave, but my guts said stay.

So I stayed.

And thank god I did!

It's hard for me to describe why. But perhaps one of the task that I needed to do for my team was to carry a big rope with another 4 team mates. We were asked to set the pace. Proudly I can say that we set the pace so high, we had to do a slow jog to wait for the others! My confident boosted really high, that I started to run up and down the file to motivate the others :D

Then comes the bazooka, rifles and tyres to add things to the challenge.

Sadly, after roughly 2.5km of the circuit, we noticed that we were lost. Honestly, at that time we really thought that we were leading, as we can't see any other teams in front or anywhere near us! Hahaha! It was a funny situation, I can tell you!

We arrived at the last point roughly at 7.40am - with the knowledge that we missed a few checkpoints.

Obviously, with that notion, it can be seen that the PJ would lose this pl v pl.

But I can gladly say that I believe we have won even at the first station (ini kata-kata orang dah kalah la... :p).

Seriously, like in my Bravo team, most of us don't really know each other and I met most of them the first time minutes before the event started. But, we all manage to do things as a team, communicate as one voice, and move with one mind. As an experienced trainer, it is quite a feat to see that number of people could just click and help each other without any disputes.

And as the last team to arrive, RJ, one of my team member, suggested that we do grunts, in good spirit of OBC.

And for the first time ever, I agreed to the motion with a smile.

I actually said yes to the grunts, as you can see in the butt-sticking-up picture of mine :p

Guys, to get more pictures and full details regarding this OBC Platoon vs Platoon, kindly visit http://arminbaniaz.com, under the subject "PLATOON VERSUS PLATOON... Amazing Race".
(Armin, I hope you don't mind)

To get more info about OBC kindly visit www.bootcamp.com.my

Or perhaps just visit the FB Group: ORIGINAL BOOTCAMP - Malaysia (open to public).

Guys, it was not easy. But it sure was a good workout. Hooyah!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.