User blog comment:Chicken Bond/It's Over!/@comment-1221909-20110627143648

Here is the story of my toughest challenge: I did a 24 hour orienteering challenge in a group from 12 PM until 12 PM the next day. It was the toughest challenge in my life. 66 markers scattered over 60/78 kilometers which we had to walk to. Each and every one of them. Using nothing but a few hints, a map, and a compass. We had to walk all that! And we didn't even walk! It was either power walk, jog, or run.

ts tricky when you're in a tense forest like area 23:43	ChickenBond	Especially when your group only stops for 5 minutes before moving on. I think our longest break was about 10 minutes. So for nearly 25 hours, I got about half an hour's worth of rest. My feet literally exploded with pain. They were ruined by the biggest and worst blisters I have ever had. I was so exhausted by 1, 2, 3 AM in the morning. But I pushed on through and my team came second out of thirteen. WE ORIGINALLY CAME FIRST! BLOODY FIRST PLACE THEN WE WERE BOOTED DOWN TO SECOND! My team was devastated and very, very angry. You see, All teams had been instructed to get point-giving markers that had bike reflectors on them (so that at night when people were looking for markers, they could find them when light reflected off them). However, there was this one marker (#13) where there were two in almost the same spot, 50 meters apart from each other. One had a bike reflector on it one didn't. The one without the reflector was in the strategically correct position according to the map, but no bike reflector, meaning that it if it was anything but marker 13, wouldn't be worth any points. The other marker 13 was in the strategically incorrect position, but had a reflector, which is what we got. The team that came 1st got the other marker, but the teachers marked it incorrect, so we therefore came first. It was ANNOUNCED to the entire school we came first! However, After the 24 hour challenge, one of the teachers decided to investigate the anomaly of marker 13, and discovered the problem. (The mistake with the marker was attributed to the staff not having put the bike reflector on the right marker). He decided to give us BOTH the points for marker 13, meaning we were levelled out on points. But then it came down to time. They finished the challenge several hours before we did, and so they, therefore, won. And we lost. We were devastated and angry at the fact the teachers had done this to us AFTER we had been told we won! We had told our families that we were going to receive trophies at the end of school assembly. Then they dropped the news on our heads. They made us so proud, then they just... swept away all that pride and joy and happiness.

I was... So sad. So devastated. My team didn't go down without a fight, but still. Can you ever imagine me being sad? There's something new. I was furious at the fact the staff had not conducted this investigation BEFORE the final results were done, THEN ANNOUNCE then real winners. It was so cruel to be told you've won then to be told that you really should have lost.

But that's life for you...