Mental Muscle conquers desert race
Four NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine students had to overcome their limitations, both physical and mental, to conquer the 250km Sahara Desert Race, held from 1 to 7 May in the Namib Desert, Namibia, in support of mental health awareness. Getting to the finish line required the students, known collectively as Mental Muscle, to mirror attributes found in mental health patients they had worked with. The Year 4 doctors-to-be — Nicholas Eu, Stephen Hwang, Jonathan See and Jon Tan — embarked on this venture after completing their psychiatry medicine postings.
“Hard work, tenacity and mental strength is truly all that is required to complete this race, and we see this in all the competitors here, just like we have in people with mental illnesses. If anything, this race has taught us most about what determination and tenacity truly mean,” said Jon.
Prior to the race, the students trained hard to overcome the physical challenges involved with the test of endurance. They carried 10kg backpacks, trained in the midday heat of Singapore and ran frequently to develop stamina. This, however, did not prepare them for the sandy, rocky and uneven terrain of the Namib Desert.
The young men’s ligaments and joints sustained injuries in the latter half of the race, due to the uneven terrain, but they still managed to get through the toughest stage, known as the Long March. However, it took them 18.5 hours to traverse the 77km stretch, after which they stumbled into their campsite at 2.30 am.
The team’s decision to finish each stage together, versus individually, meant each of them had to adjust their pace to suit the others. Despite the incredibly slow pace throughout the race, the team was pleasantly surprised to learn that it had won second place for the team category. The race organisers acknowledged during the awards banquet that it took a lot of teamwork for Mental Muscle to stay together and look out for one another during the race. The team’s second placing was an affirmation of this, Jon said.
Mental Muscle crossing the finish line triumphantly (Photo: Zandy Mangold/4 Deserts Race Series)
“Despite being in a new environment, I think most of us still felt like we were ‘within our comfort zone’, so to speak, as we always had each other to look to and depend on throughout the race. We moved slower as a team, but we also moved at a steadier pace,” explained Jon.
Even though Mental Muscle has achieved a milestone by completing the desert race, it is still one-third away from its goal of raising $50,000 for the Singapore Association for Mental Health. It will continue its social media awareness campaign till mid-June 2016, and ramp up publicity and fundraising efforts. The students are also searching for suitable successors to the project before entering the intense final year of medical school. They will also compile their experience and share it with their juniors, so that they can continue to build on this project.
