Bio Challenge Adventure Race

CEBU, Philippines - I've not been actively representing our print media organization in any Cebu Press Free- dom Week activity since 2005. So, I knew nothing about a bio challenge until our com-munity editor, Ms. Divine Sanchez Ngujo, in-structed me to come up with a team.

I would have declined (well, Cebu Press Freedom Week activities just so bore me and there is no such thing as absolute press freedom anyway, so I put up a why-bother attitude). But trail runs and obstacle races fascinate me. I had to reconsider.

The Bio Challenge Adventure Race was an initiative of Cebu Holdings, Inc. and the race had something to do with the environment and sustainability. I was told I should pick teammates aligned to the theme. But that was the major obstacle. The people I had in mind were keen on joining the fun run.

But in my heart, the excitement heightened. This would measure not only how much we know about the environment and sustainability, but our skills on resourcefulness and creativity. Another important point here is that we should value the experience to be there competing with the youth of the new age. Even the biggest mistakes can teach us the most valuable lessons in life.

And so September 22 marked the culmination of Cebu Press Freedom Week. The bio challenge was scheduled at the Linear Park of the Cebu Business Park. Our locator points to the Cebu Holdings Center Lobby as starting line. The task involved an Internet search (browsing) as the instruction was posted on www.cebuparkdistrict.com. However, our competitors huddled before the laptop screens long before we could type on the search engine. My teammate grumbled: "Unsa man ni gibabagan man dayon mi? Amo man ning laptop!" We were sure we had a unit issued to all five teams that day.)

"Relax lang ta. Di lang ta padala sa pressure. Ang ato nga miduwa ta to the best of our skills. I-enjoy lang nato ang experience," I told my team an hour before the game started. But when I heard the complaint, I pushed the man in front of me, so I could get to the keyboard. That was part of their game plan. They were victorious because we lost two minutes just by standing behind them waiting for our turn. When I found my way to the website, I was led astray to a registration format. I would have used the e-mail, but opted to text through a cell phone number given, however there was no immediate reply. The organizers looked at the screen and figured out we missed to click a tab. We were supposed to count the number of indigenous trees planted inside the Cebu Park District (both Cebu Business Park and Cebu IT Park). As soon as we got the number of trees, teammate Faith Maroto (Circulation Dept.) performed quick addition and handed over the answer to the marshal. But we already lost six minutes trying to search for that instruction. So, we decided on a strategy to make up for lost time. We rushed ahead to nearby Innove Plaza for the carbon footprint computation. But the marshal told us CheckPoint 1: Tree identification and tree planting at the Park Tower 1 is mandatory. We hurried past China Bank and reached CP1 where we were tasked to identify five tree saplings. Then, we were instructed to look for our trees marked with red flags in a nearby vacant lot. Our two male teammates were allowed a bolo each for digging. The holes should be six inches deep.

As we were issued a map of the Cebu Park District, we located our next task near the planting site. We agreed that because we had to return the bolos to CP1, we should take the eighth checkpoint for our next task on that vacant lot near HSBC to save time. For the "Gathering of the Beasts" task, Ervin Llanos of the Production Dept. was chosen as herder. The rest of us were blindfolded. We were instructed to follow the animal sound we've chosen: "oink! oink!" so we could reach our pen or sty marked by a nylon rope. Our first try was a disaster. But the second chance allowed us to rely on Ervin to lead.

I consider Fire Building as hot item on the scoreboard, so I suggested we should go for the fifth task. The location was also proximate to our previous location, 1016 Residences. Off we ran to CheckPoint 5. Again, our initial try failed to set the abaca fiber on fire. Ervin brushed the blade against the flint a couple of times in a bid to create a spark. After a minute, flames consumed the fiber. Our group roared! The marshal also had praises for Ervin's work as he had so far tallied "lowest time" on the race passport.

This also had set our enthusiasm a-flame. We rushed to CP7 at the Innove Plaza. I egged on the computation with the gut feel this would weigh much on the scoreboard. But we didn't proceed with the mathematical problem immediately. We were asked to do the Makabayan Walk first. A leg was tied to a teammate's leg, and we were to encircle around the Innove Plaza to the Linear Park and back, three times. It gave us this throbbing pain in the groin. After three rounds, we took up the mathematical problem given. Example: Carbon footprint is carbon dioxide per kilogram contributed to the atmosphere as byproduct of our consumption patterns involving fuel and electricity. As soon as we got settled with our formulations and specific figures, Faith did the calculation. A marshal told us that if she had her way, she would consider a pass. Why waste precious time? But I reckoned we may not be very sure of our answer, but it could be somewhere near. And complying with the task could transpire to our advantage in a tie-breaker situation? And so we handed in our final answer after a brief deliberation.

We went back to Linear Park (near the Cebu Holdings Center Lobby) for the "Drink Green" task. To drink smoothie is already a habit. The marshal praised us for not raising a "yuck" comment as we obliged to the eating of bilimbis before pushing it all down with the smoothie.

On our way to Bohol Park we spotted the "Pipe Block" task. A PVC pipe was peppered with holes. We had to do was to cover these holes, either with body parts or with objects. The main task was to let a pingpong ball float inside the pipe. After several painful attempts, we were all partly wet as our teammate Jun Prestillo (a replacement of Winley Alueta of the Accounting Dept.) kept pouring water into the pipe while we were trying to stop the water from coming out and letting the ball do what was expected of it.

It was already past 9 a.m. We gunned off at 7:30 a.m. and had to stop by 9:30 a.m. Overtime meant deduction. We had to reformat strategy to make good use of the remaining minutes. At CP3 where we had to deal with "Toxic Waste," we gathered six balls with the use of strings and rubber bands. Big ball carries a point while small ones which were a bit difficult to carry through the stretched rubber bands assure two points.

We failed to spot immediately the corner Negros Street and Cardinal Rosales Avenue for the final task. By the time we were at the site, the marshal warned us we could be too late for the homerun. I implored to have the task finished. So he was considerate to allow us a tail-less kite. The important thing was that we could fly our kite. Jun and Ervin were such pros at this task. We just assisted in handing over the strings and the dried midribs of coconut leaves to them. Our kite flew proudly and raced against the wind, and so the marshal signed our passport.

Back at the Linear Park we had to wait for some time for the results, so we spent the rest of the morning comparing notes on how we had been faring with our strategies. We were last of the five teams to leave Linear Park and again last to arrive, but we didn't give up.

"Actually, tie gyod unta," the head marshal announced. "But as game rules go, we have to break it. And so the second prize goes tooooooooooo: The FREEMAN team." (FREEMAN)