_getting_lost_in_maragondon

here right now in ipil, zamboanga sibugay for work. actually my first time in this part of mindanao. wanted to update my blog before retiring for the evening. took us 3 and a half hours to get here from ozamiz city--the nearest airport from this town.

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there are times when it's better to shut up than speak your mind.

this is just one of the small things i've picked up during my first orienteering adventure that happened in maragondon, cavite. thoughts of complaining, ranting, and giving up crossed my mind but i decided to keep them to myself to prevent any negative atmosphere from affecting our team, 3 men & a hottie.

imagine going through sharp bamboo branches in an apparently non-existent trail and then going back because it led to nowhere.

think about going down to a steep & muddy slope just to find out that you're going the wrong way.

man, that just...makes you wanna cry out, "what the hell am i doing to myself?!?" :P

there were about 35 teams who participated in the 2nd MIT-MC orienteering competition and i think 14 control points that we had to find in order to finish it. a 1-minute interval between starts of each team was the rule. we started at 10:26am at the gym in front of maragondon city hall went past the hanging bridge for CP1 and then...there. that's when hell broke loose. CP2 was the turning point of the race because NO team could easily find it. that's 36 teams! eventually, of course, it was discovered. took our team 3 hours to find it. even ultrapat almost gave up, would you believe? :P my concern then was our hydration supply which was depleted a little after noon...with CP2 yet to be found.

we finished at around 5:30pm, which makes it a total of 7 hours in the wilderness for our team. i felt sorry for the takbo.ph peeps who decided to go DNF because of the arrangements made with the bus.

despite the ordeal that our team had to face--several scratches from treading through thick bushes, going down slippery mud slopes, crossing rivers waist-high (or even more), sheer FRUSTRATION from not being able to find a particular control point after 3 hours of searching, and not having drinking water in the afternoon heat, i would definitely want to go through the same experience again.

not so many pictures this time because we were too focused on the race... :P hehe

the takbo.ph delegation


team 3 men & a hottie. we unofficially finished 13th place. :) not bad for two 1st timers, i must say.


crossing one of the rivers (this one doesn't compare to the 2 other rivers that we had to face)


trophies at the finish. the only picture showing how messed up i was after the race. i missed the awarding because i had to get my car. congrats to cindy & gab for bagging 2nd runner up! :D