Stitch said “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten”
As the past month I already mentioned about Xiakers Competition on August, and here it is on 26th of August in Moganshan they held the race, at first I wanted to write of how the race was but turns out something very touching for me happened and I decided to write about it other than the race itself.
We were at Naked Stable-Castle or retreat whatever name it is, it’s a very nice place to chill, I mean look at this view. This is me and Binbin walking hand in hand like a kid haha
But, that night when we almost go back to our villa, I was so nervous because the next day at 09:20 we will have to start the race, and me myself I am not mentally and physically ready for that, the other boys are on a fit physical condition and strong and they did exercise every time but me….I don’t do that, I know that I can finish it and doing it but I need to do it according to my pace, which is slow…
Tim was calm me down by saying “think about how fantastic you will feel” but still my heart race was high it was 115 and Thorben did a breathing technique that helps me to lower my heart rate, the technique are: 10 x deep inhale and slow exhale, 30x fast inhale and fast exhale, then exhale completely and hold your breath with almost empty lungs as long as you can, when you can’t do it anymore, breath in fully and hold it for another 15 seconds with full lungs. And it works! It reduced my heart rate to 78! and I got some ants sensation on my palms and dizzy head but later on its OK.
And then! Night become morning and the day has arrived! I mean…. we hop on to the bus, while Thorben is busy setting up a bandage and a finger c*&ndom to his fore finger due to he sliced his fingertip 4 days before the race! and he is setting up a go-pro to record the race.
At first Thorben was running as the camera man and I was with ex-Luxembourgish Army Chris going to the obstacles but then at some point Chris went first and me and Thorben continue all the obstacles until we finished the 7KM and 30 obstacles.
There was one obstacles I think in KM 4th that we have to cross the water / pond or whatever, there was Chris and Aaron already on the other side while me and Thorben arrived, they suggested us to take off our shoes because the water was on their knee and due to I have many protectors such as ankle protectors after the socks it is hard to take it off therefore Thorben crossed the pond first, and he offered me to go on his back but I don’t want to because I want to do it by my own. And this is where this Ohana title came from.
I put my feet on the water, and the water was already on my thigh, I kept walking slowly because first I don’t want the water to touch my underwear and second its muddy so I don’t know where I should put my step, until the leader from the group behind us came from behind, he jumped directly to the pond and out of nowhere he pushed me to the side and I was completely soaked wet! now the water not only go to my underwear but also to my bra because I was wet from chest-down. I was soooooo upset and so sad because of it but all that I can hear was Thorben shouted FUCK YOU MAN and I was finally walking towards them. I literally wanted to cry but then I don’t have clean tissue or clean sleeve to wipe it so I didn’t cry, Thorben was helping me to tied my shoes because I really under bad moment that time, Chris said to me “that guy was a dick” and then 4 of us continue the race.
We went to a carrying bamboo for 400m of obstacles, me and Thorben carried 2 bamboo so we didn’t cheat on the rules, but I cheat on him, he carried most of the weight haha! 🙂 I feel like hmmm why its so light and Thorben said “Marlyn, if you carry it like this you give all the weight to me, thank you” hahaha! Sorry Thorben!
And then on the rope swing and monkey ring obstacles obviously I failed but Chris and Laurent helped me by grabbing my waist haha its cheating but yeah my bisep is not strong yo! mind you Im only 44kg.
Long story short, the race is finished!
and we went back to hotel with all the dirt, and the conversation during the lunch time started with somebody pushed me but nobody believe that that someone really pushed me that hard, they thought that he only pushed in a funny way, because this guy has a solid performance in the fitness community.
UNTIL!!! When we arrived Shanghai, Thorben realized that he forgot to turn-off the go-pro, he recorded it and he posted the video on the group. This is when my tears came out, I was literally overwhelm by all the support from the archery people.
Everyone-literally everyone that I know was mad at him! Rich was the one that made sure this guy know what he did. Everyone was mad in the group and they texted me privately showing how supportive they are to me and what a poor sportsmanship of this guy. It was really beyond what I expected that my friends will react that mad by someone that pushed me to the water.
Aaron (he’s not even there) texted me that he wanted to drown that guy, Yves wants to re-align his teeth, Binbin wants to pushed him, Aggy wants to post the video on her moments (but better no haha), Thorben won’t stop showing this video to the other Hungover boys, Rich was made sure that I was loved, respected and protected by the hungover boys. Everyone was so glad that Thorben caught his action on the video because nobody will expect that this guy could do such things.
I am really blessed beyond measure to have all of these boys and from the bottom of my heart I could feel that I found my second family in Shanghai, they came from all over the world- Germany, USA, Aussie, Mexico, Romania, Indonesia, China and you named it…and me.. what a lucky Marlyn!
XOXO!
