SINGAPORE: “This is it. I will throw in the towel at 8am,” I thought to myself. That would have been the 18-hour mark for me at the Mediacorp Subaru Car Challenge 2016.
I had an excruciatingly sore back and was famished. It did not help that I looked on, parched as competition marshalls took sips of water from their bottles all night.
But at 7am, as we freed our palms for an invaluable five-minute break, I sought help from the medics and I stretched as much as I could to relieve the soreness. I also shoved food and water down my throat, a far cry from how I ate daintily during my first break at 7pm the day before.
“You’re learning fast,” a fellow contestant said to me, noticing that I had grabbed a piece of bread while waiting in line for the toilet.
It was my maiden experience participating in the annual endurance challenge. I had always wanted to take a stab at it to see how long I could last, but became more apprehensive as D-day drew nearer. To win the car, participants have to put one hand on the prize and be the last one standing – a feat that could take up to four days.
Prior to joining the competition – which I sadly, did not qualify for, being a Mediacorp employee, I checked in with two past winners for survival tips.
“Set little goals first,” winner of Mediacorp Subaru Car Challenge 2007 Sandra Yeow told me. Knowing my own impatience could be an Achilles’ heel, I asked Ms Yeow what the trick was to make the time pass faster.
“Focus on counting down to each break,” she said. “I realised that it’s easier for me when I try to focus on the next break time rather than on the number of hours that has passed. It’s about thinking positive and moving forward.”
Mediacorp Subaru Car Challenge 2007 Sandra Yeow. (Photo: Xabryna Kek)
Ms Yeow participated in the challenge twice before succeeding on her third attempt in 2007, becoming the first female winner of the competition.
Heeding her advice, I carved out a plan for myself, with three milestones to hit. First goal: To last at least two hours to save myself some embarrassment. Second goal: To survive nine hours, equivalent to a typical shift at work. My third goal was to go past the 24-hour mark, and every minute or hour beyond would be a bonus.
The winner of the 2014 Mediacorp Subaru Car Challenge G Jaishanker advised me to eat wisely in the lead-up to the competition and to load up on potassium and carbohydrates. The three-time participant explained that by carbo-loading, I would have enough energy to burn off during the event. With that in mind, I ate at least two bananas a day in the week prior.
2014 Mediacorp Subaru Car Challenge winner Mr G Jaishanker. (Photo: Xabryna Kek)
Both winners I spoke to agreed that contestants need to have a rather active lifestyle to begin with. “It helps because if you’re a sports person, your leg muscles are stronger so you will be able to stand for hours,” Ms Yeow said.
As for Mr Jaishanker, he advised participants to run at least 5km four to five times a week, approximately three to six months ahead of the challenge. He explained that the exercise will help in leg strengthening.
On what to do when your mind wanders, or fighting off hallucinations, Ms Yeow said: “Sleep as much as you can a week before the challenge and pay off any sleep debt that you have.”
“Have lots of sleep, don’t practise by standing overnight,” Mr Jaishanker concurred. “It doesn’t work. Have a proper diet – more fruits and less meat as your body will feel heavier.”
TESTING THE STRATEGIES FIRSTHAND
Having had 12 hours of sleep the day before, I walked down to car number 6 in my pair of flip-flops and laid my palm on car decal 239 at 2pm on Sunday (Nov 6). Participants around me started to quiz me, curious as to why I would subject myself to this “ordeal” with no chance of winning the car.
(Photo: Shawn Lim)
The cloudy weather on Sunday afternoon meant the surface of the car was cool to the touch, and as the minutes ticked by, Mr Jai’s technique rang in my head. “Don’t strain your wrist. Never apply pressure as it stops blood from flowing,” he explained. “Just relax your wrist at a 45-degree angle and never position it at 90 degrees.”
Mr Jaishanker had also told me participants have to go in fully focused. “Mentally, you have to be determined to win,” he said. “When you go for the record, you will either win the car or clinch a top-three position. Don’t think about the car first.”
As a result of his doggedness, Mr Jaishanker rewrote the record in 2014 with a time of 82 hours, 16 minutes and 58 seconds.
He also said the scheduled breaks are important markers. For every six hours, participants earn a five-minute break to eat, hydrate or relieve themselves. “Once you’ve enjoyed 13 five-minute break sessions, you would have hit the 70-hour mark and you’ll be looking at victory,” he said. “If you aim for 14 five-minute break sessions, then you’ll be looking at breaking my record.”
The first six hours went by effortlessly, perhaps due to friends and colleagues who came by to cheer me on. I shuffled around constantly as advised by the two past winners.
The break times were fixed at 7am, 1pm, 7pm and 1am. During my first break, I had no concrete plan and found myself too spent to chew, but Ms Yeow had told me to “eat to survive”, so I soldiered on.
I also gulped down two cups of cold water, which felt instantly gratifying after being out in the sun for six hours. All that was done in three minutes, as Mr Jaishanker had told me to rush back to the car before the break was up, to prop my legs up on the car to improve blood circulation. In two minutes, you could prepare for the next six hours, he said.
(Photo: Shawn Lim)
“During the night you don’t really want to drink a lot of water as it is cold and it makes you want to go to the toilet more often,” Ms Yeow said. She suggested downing two cups of water at night, and about three to four cups in the day.
She and Mr Jaishanker advised me to stay away from isotonic drinks because of the salt content. According to both, swollen limbs caused by water retention has always been one of the biggest problems participants face every year.
“Water retention comes when you’re not moving as much. So, you really need to keep moving your feet. Dance, listen to music, keep moving and it keeps you awake too,” Ms Yeow said.
(Photo: Shawn Lim)
By 9pm, I started to get a bit sleepy but the thought of my second goal kept me awake. Just two more hours and I would have hit the nine-hour mark.
Around 2am, I realised I pulled through a gruelling 12 hours and managed to apply some analgesic cream for my arm and back during my second break. To shake off the grogginess, I splashed water on my face before rushing back for more stretching.
As my eyelids became heavier, I knew I had to keep my mind sharp or I could get eliminated. With my one free hand, I played rock, paper, scissors with my neighbours at 3am to fight off the drowsiness.
The thought of having a big cup of Coke – with lots of ice – also haunted me. One of the contestants assigned to the same car as me exited the challenge hours earlier at 7pm, telling us he needed a large cup of Coke badly.
That was when I leaned on Mr Jaishanker’s advice to “count one to five in thousands” to stay alert. “Always remind yourself where you’re standing at, why you’re here – to avoid hallucinations. If you’re just going to stand there aimlessly, there’s a higher chance of you going into hallucinations.”
Before I knew it, the national anthem came blaring over the speakers at 6am – a reminder that the next five-minute break was an hour away.
Having lasted the night, I realised that I somehow found the strength in me to go on, even though I had planned to tap out at 8am.
But at 10.30am, the weather took a turn for the worse and the bright sky became ominous-looking. It was not long before heavy droplets of rain pelted us. Refreshing as it was, I was worried that my palm would slip off the decal.
Braving the rain.
The rain stopped by 11.15am but I was soaked and my left palm looked like a prune.
When the 1pm break arrived, I knew that it could be my last, so I savoured every minute of it. I had an extra banana and a cup of water and thought to myself: Just one more hour to the 24-hour mark!
However, my legs started to act up at about 2pm. A throbbing pain set in and I could feel a slight cramp on my right leg.
“Just be patient,” Mr Jaishanker said as a parting shot to me. “Try to reach your maximum potential and push yourself to the limits,” he said.
With that in mind, I pressed on as I hit the 24-hour mark.
Weather-beaten palm. (Photo: Winnie Goh)
My final timing? A decent 26 hours.
The first thing I did after the challenge? Gulp down a chilled bottle of Coke.
