Accelebration 2010 :D

Bike Hike started the June holidays with a bangggg!

After months and months and months or planning, the hundreds of hours put into making this event possible, Bike Hike is over, just like that. And I knew it would pass by quickly! Anyway, I think it was definitely a success, and Bike Hike Comm's efforts paid off. Not everything was smooth-sailing, and not all teams got to complete the whole route, and sure there were disappointments here and there and some frustrations, but what's an event without its hiccups and learning points for us to improve on?

It felt nice being in Alpha with Yongkai who took care of almost everything, thanks much. We were the first group to be flagged off, but after about 50m, we had to stop because of a punctured tyre, haha yeah that was our first problem. But thankfully there weren't many major problems after that. Being sweeper in Alpha was tough enough already cos the group kept splitting up at the traffic lights, or because it was tough for some participants to keep up. (I can't blame them, but rather kudos to them for surviving the whole route on a mountain bike!) But after hearing what the other groups experienced, I should be counting my blessings. Initially I felt bad that we were slowing down the whole group, but Alpha didn't mind at all and kept cheering and encouraging the last man on (: Was really impressed by the team spirit and enthusiasm showed! Fixed many loose gears over the course of the route, and had to scrub my hands like crazy at every rest point, but am really proud that I know how to fix gears, haha it seems so professional and makes us seem like experienced cyclists :]

We reached ECP at 6.20am (whoohooooo) and am proud of ourselves for completing the route. Hm we're lucky to be the first group to be flagged off and to be given a chance to complete the whole route. It really depends on luck sometimes, I guess. The teams who didn't complete the whole route must be feeling dejected or a little disappointed ): Anyway hope they still had fun cycling through Singapore at night; at least they all managed to cycle to Ang Mo Kio (:

Everyone just conked out at ECP, we dismissed the dead-tired participants (some didn't even catch a wink of sleep the day before, before coming) and somehow the sun rose and the sky got brighter (and prettier!) and we waited for a long time before teams started streaming in & cycling back to the bike shop. Couldn't really think properly after that, but grabbed Apple Pie from Macs, then munched on Prata(s) that Alex kindly helped tah-powed, laughed, and listened to the stories of Bike Hike 2010. Super interesting stories, and it's nice to see how these litle experiences from different groups actually form the memories of Accelebration 2010 (:

Oh yes thank god for the good weather (: It threatened to rain, there was thunder and all, but thankfully it stopped there and the weather was awesome after that (Y).

Overall I think participants enjoyed it, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many -- night cycling over >80km isn't a small feat! I hope they got to enjoy it as much as we did :) It's really a pity that we didn't manage to set the Singapore record of largest overnight cycling event, but like what Alex said, hat's not the most important thing. We organised this for the participants, and pulled it off and I think 35th is really proud of themselves (: Yes we are proud of you!!! and OAC! :D we proved that we could organise this awesome event.

INSTRUCTORS BEFORE THE EVENT:

US AFTER THE EVENT:

Above is our batch picture taken with Alex whom, without him, this event wouldn't even exist. He really deserves a lot of credit for this. He had to bear responsibility for anything that happened during the event, and he worked really hard with the organising comm to make Bike Hike happen. For that, A BIG THANK YOU!!! Really sad that there won't be another one next year, but we all hope that Bike Hike 2010 was a sweet ending to his journey with HC OAC over the past few years (: