Viper Arena 2015

 

I'm looking forward to my first Viper Challenge, the Viper Arena 2015 at Stadium Shah Alam on May 23. From what I gathered so far, the Viper Arena is a lighter version of the original Viper Challenge, which consists of a 21km course and 20 obstacles. The Viper Arena with the hashtag challengethedark is a 7km course with 15 obstacles held in the massive Shah Alam stadium in the darkness of the night. According the the event guide, the Viper Arena features a totally different terrain from the previous iterations of Viper Challenge... As it's my first attempt, I don't know what to expect and I think therein lies my anxiety.

I'm hoping to find other challengers with the same start time of 2:00am...

Not for the faint hearted

Forget fear, worry about mud...

Outside the stadium where participants were seen stretching and warming up

Updated (27.05.15)

I decided not carry anything valuable on me so I left behind the iPhone, which I normally carry in an armband for the road races. As I anticipated the course to involve running, jumping, climbing, crawling, scrambling (and falling) I reasoned I should check my phone at the bag drop counter. Losing or breaking my phone is just unthinkable and the memory of my phone crashing one me is still fresh.  I was well aware that I would not be able to take any shots of the course but better to be safe than sorry, heh..

There were 15 obstacles in total and there was one in particular which I enjoyed very much - the mountaineering challenge. In this challenge, participants had to climb a wooden wall (around 10 ft high) by placing wooden pegs into the holes in the wall to propel themselves all the way to the top. This challenge involved teamwork in which two members let the challenger step on their thighs so that he can reach for the first hole in which to place a peg. Once he reaches the top, the challenger would remove the pegs and roll them down for the next challenger to use.

The challenge which I failed miserably was the one that involved rope climbing. Participants had to climb a hanging rope from the ceiling at a height of around 3m. When you reach the top you ring the bell next to the rope. As it was the third from the last challenge, my endurance was at dangerously low levels.. Try as I might, I kept falling.. .(I later learned from the tutorial video on the Viper website that the trick is with the skilful use of your legs to grip the rope.. If only I had watched the video before the challenge!!) Note to self: get as much training tips from the organizer for future endurance challenges..

I survived Viper Arena 2015

In conclusion, I would say that the Viper Arena was tough and challenging, but wickedly fun.