Day 27: Never have I ever... done an amazingly Amazing Race

I'm not a racer. Generally, I don't find rushing fun. And I became even less of a race person in the past year after being exposed to the nutty world of "adventure races." I totally respect the people that do them; but it just doesn't light the fire for me. And here's what I learned in this past year: there are people that seriously get off on wicking shirts, timing chips, training watches, hydration belts, and doing stuff faster than other people. Hey, it's cool. Competition is human. 

But, when my friend Christie told me that she was hosting an Amazing Race adventure for her birthday, I decided to lift my instinctual ban on races. This wouldn't be a typical race. Because when Mrs. Christie G. puts a project together, this is what you get--------------------> Hilarious+Creative+Clever+Cool+Unexpected+Awesome+SoMuchFunYouAlmostPeeYourPants+SomeoneLosesSomeCriticalItem. That is exactly what we got. And did I mention awesome? It was totally awesome. 

Team Blhite crossing the river

Birthday girl Christie, plus her family, served as the magistrates/masterminds for the day. She had the whole dang family in on it! I don't know how much time they spent putting it all together... days? weeks? There were so many thoughtful details, but I'll get into that later. There were six teams of two competing, for 12 total competitors. My team was a champion four-pack fusion of the Blue and White duos. We called ourselves Team Blhite. 

This blog post could have several titles, such as:  
Never have I ever... spent 45 minutes digging through five huge piles of leaf mulch with my bare hands in search of tiny plastic eggs. (One of which we never found) 
Never have I ever... sipped a blended concoction of coffee grinds, canned corn, peanut butter, sour gummy worms, and enough water to make it nice and frothy.
Never have I ever... crossed a rotting railroad track bridge with open ties, and a raging river 15 feet below. (Hello, vertigo. BTW, this was not part of the race. Team Blhite likes to find trouble.) 
Never have I ever... gobbled 7 saltines in a minute. (Ok, couldn't do it in a minute. No one can!) 
Never have I ever... crossed a freezing cold river in rubber waders. 
Never have I ever... crossed a freezing cold river in rubber waders... with a hole in them. (Yep. Wet up to my thighs)

Team Blhite grabbing our bandanas from high in a tree

The race included many more challenges than just those listed above, but some weren't new to me... like climbing trees (which is pretty much my favorite activity ever.) There were custom colored T-shirts, color-coded tasks at every stop of the race, audio clues on CD, and a map to guide the way. We were instructed to run (or at least hustle) from challenge to challenge, some of which were quite a distance apart. Some of the challenges included "war painting" your teammate's face, as well as puzzles and clues to get your from point to point. For instance, we were provided with a word search puzzle. Find all the words, and the remaining letters will form an address: your next location. 

I think you get the gist. The day was so festive and fun. It was like being at camp meets being 13 on the most awesome adventure with your most fun girlfriends ever. Except no one tried to make out with each other behind the boat house. 

Unfortunately, the end of the day had to come sooner than later. We couldn't finish the race, and we knew that when we signed up for the challenge. (Sad face.) Three in our foursome had a commitment back in NYC which required us to leave early. We had anticipated being so awesome at the race that we would finish as the victors in record time. Yeah... that didn't happen. We were dead last. In fact, we were dead last and lost. Let's just say we made a few critical errors along the way, as well as having some bad luck (hole in the waders!?!), and we dawdled along to get the full experience rather than even attempting to catch up with the pack. I guess I'm just not a competitor at heart. I'm a giggler, a tree-climber, a trail-singer and a teammate.

It was time to go home. But wait... something was missing. Where are.... my keys??? Here we go, folks. It was inevitable that during this day, someone was going to lose a critical item (see equation in first paragraph), and on this particular day, that someone was me. I will spare you all the details of how the keys got lost. There had been a lot of people, car switches, and location changes. It was now time for us to boogie back to New York, and we had barely left enough time to get home, park, and clean up in time for our commitment. Sadly, it was only then that we realized that my keys *probably* ended up in a granola box in the trunk of Christie's husband's car, which was in a completely different location, about 15 miles away (in the opposite direction from NYC, of course.) Why were the keys in a granola box in a trunk? Well, that doesn't really matter now, does it? In the heat of a race, keys are a trivial, unimportant matter! It was a tense couple of minutes until the keys were located. But luckily, they were. Now it was time for the real race. We sped over to recover the keys, made it back to the highway, and put the pedal the metal on the New Jersey Turnpike. After some coffee, some traffic, and some careful route-planning, we made it back in time. But only by a hair. And it wasn't a shock to anyone that a set of keys were somehow lost during this day. Luckily, no one left her wallet on the roof of a car at a rest stop, or had a stranger throw her cell phone into the ocean.

Results: This day was so much fun, I never wanted it to end. It killed us that we had to quit early. What other fun activities did genius Christie have in store for us? We'll never know. But it was the best Saturday I've had in a long time: Fresh air, sunshine, friends, adventure, and a healthy does of silliness. I think it's pretty awesome that Christie chose to give others a present on her birthday: a really awesome day, and a lasting memory with her and her family. And I can officially say: I did an Amazing Race, and it was amazing! 

Status: Who cares?! Some things are more than pass/fail. (Written like a true loser.)