Ming’s take on Adventure Racing
August 3, 2007
Before i publish my post-race report, i think it’s important to know how Adventure Racing works… in Ming’s words. I can’t agree with it more, it’s a fantastic hypothesis. The extraction below is from his blog, if you can’t read it, please go HERE to re-direct you to his url.
The Element of Luck in Adventure Racing
Abstract
Does Luck play a part in Adventure Race performance?
Background
Teams that are not physically strongest sometimes place well in races. How is this possible?
Adventure Racing is all about physical fitness, right? Well, not really. Shit happens out there.
When Shit happens to you, its a Cock-Up.
When Shit happens to someone else, it could be your Lucky Break.
Hypothesis
Performance of a team in an Adventure Race depends on the cumulative result of minimisation of Cock-Ups and maximisation of Lucky Breaks.
Evidence
2007 Penang Eco-Challenge
Team Slackers - 6th Position Overall
Cock-up #1 - Moseyed along, far behind lead vehicle, thinking that race will start when everyone gathers.
Lucky Break #2 - CP2, Oops, no Tyre levers! Desperate bare hands can remove tyre even faster!
Cock-up #3 - Gave in to Winnie’s request to backtrack to look for her specs. This turned into a Lucky Break for team W.N. Smurf! Grrr….
Cock-up #5 - Spotted Team PenUkBel who was lost and pointed them in the right direction.
pimp myspace - Gickr
Cock-up #6 - Gave bonked member of Team PenUkBel a Crank Gel, which promptly revived him.
Cock-up #7 - Frolicked in waterfall pool, waiting for Nik and Wayne, thinking that we were quitting once we hit camp. 
Lucky Break #5 - Angela winning the debate with Winnie on whether to continue.. by ignoring Winnie’s pleas. 
Cock-up #8 - Believing the organisers that the last biking leg was just an 8km sprint… which turned out to be a 1 hour full-out leg busting ride! 
Lucky Break #6 - Ming watched a Discovery Channel program on how to husk coconuts, and Angela finished them off with her bare hands.
Conclusion
Yes! Lucky Breaks are what you need to do well!
For those that are contemplating their first A.R., go for it, enjoy yourselves and make sure you have good Karma during the race.
Life’s full of Cock-ups and Lucky Breaks too. The strange thing is, that the more Breaks you give, the more Lucky Breaks will come your way. Something about Karma……..
Ming
posted in Exercise |
this looked like a tv show!
suddenly im reminded of survivor+amazing race.
Comment by Malique — August 3, 2007 @ 10:26 am
I loved it when Nik passed you guys and told Ming: “Lucky break number 1!” Hahahaha Damn funny man, a picture of that scene is still in my mind.
Comment by waynep — August 3, 2007 @ 11:06 am
Hahahaha I bet Ming likes to watch My Name is Earl too!!! Hahahaha Karma, I totally dig it!
Comment by michie — August 3, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
Shameless plug for race video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1QS950ytQ4
Comment by Ming — August 3, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
I swear.. that’s one of my fave TV shows…. I even keep my moustache so I look like Earl.
Comment by Ming — August 3, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
so much fun man!! the lucky break thing is such a great theory though… i totally felt that way when we were No. 2 during Adventure Singapore… then obviously the cock-ups just outnumbered the lucky breaks.. HAHA!!
Comment by Janice — August 3, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
Congrats on your first AR, maybe next time
your team will take the numero uno spot
Comment by kashmirdd — August 5, 2007 @ 11:56 pm
I can never reach you guys stage man. Good job!
Comment by Henry — August 6, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
Nice pics! Crank Gel rocks. It has 50% more calories than GU, and even more than HammerGel. I would use them here if not for the fact that everything from US is so overpriced in WA. E.g. a bottle of Gatorade costs AUD$5.
Comment by -ben — August 6, 2007 @ 11:43 pm
Oh gosh! This looks so exciting! I’ve gotta go find a team to do this stuff together! WOW.
Comment by iamspidermonkey — August 7, 2007 @ 10:34 pm