Once again, proving that anything can happen during a race and to be prepared for anything!

Being accustomed to sea-based missions, four brave Navy sailors found themselves on unfamiliar territory - The Fair Dinkum Rush 2012. Despite pre-mission briefings to discuss strategy and equipment, nothing could prepare them for a rival team's idea of "fun". This mission would push physical, intellectual, and gastronomical limits to the max.

24 teams arrived at the start location, each sporting their own unique advantage - iron man triathletes, toy munitions, chauffeurs and private cars, backup teams, etc. To everyone there, the mission was simple...win at any cost. This Navy team relied on physical prowess, masking tape, sun block, and encrypted communications to a secret naval intelligence base renown for its pioneering work on pathfinding optimization algorithms (google) and high-volume data analytics (google). The race would start in Central and cover all corners of Hong Kong, Kowloon, and New Territories. Luckily, China visas were not required.

The race was off to a shakey start with the team heading in the wrong direction not once, but twice for the first checkpoint. Luckily lost time could be made up by being shampooed by dogs and putting live crustaceons on their heads for points because apparently, that is how it goes in Fair Dinkum-land.

Along the way, challenges were presented and challenges were crushed. A triumphant "oh cool" was let out as the Navy was the first team to succesfully assemble a chopstick crossbow and burst a balloon target. Back on familiar waters, the team destroyed the competition when they paddled away with the fastest kayaking time of 12 mins (to put this in perspective, the slowest time was 32 mins).

As the team gained points, so too did they gain their confidence. Using superior negotiating tactics, they were able to convince an MTR train carriage to do the conga line. There were no qualms about performing acts of public humiliation as naval bodies were on display for some subway belly dancing and the demonstration of man-on-man wrestling action. And who knew it would be so easy to serve free beer to random strangers on the street?

Checkpoints were reached at a constantly accelerating pace until finally, the team pulled ahead to lead the pack. The celebrations were short-lived as sailors saw their greatest challenge yet. No amount of training could have prepared them for this. No level of POWER UP calls could have pushed them harder. No amount of screaming from the Admiral could have convinced them to embrace the pain. The team was presented with 1 mint, 2 thai chillies, 1 chunk of ginger, and 2 bulbs of garlic. I know, the mint was the deal breaker. As Forrest Gump would say, "stuff was eaten."

With bodies freshly refueled, the team maintained a sprint pace to be the first team to cross the finish line with a time of 7 hours and 12 minutes. But alas, the race is not won on race time alone. After the points were tallied, the sailors would go on to secure a respectable 4th place finish. There was a honorable mention of the achievement in kayaking to once again reaffirm the Princely Navy's dominance at sea.