The Amuzing Race

I feel a need to tell a story about a race. It was quite amuzing.

Colin and I decided to help out with the young adults at church in Sept 2004. We helped plan a few events, then in Jan 2005, the youth Pastor threw out an idea: "Why don't we do an Amazing Race type thing?". What an innocent question...

We decided to help because we LOVE the TV show. Someone comes up with the title Amuzing Race, the planning committee (5 of us) brainstorm fun events (and some gross ones), and meet regularly when we start realizing that there is more detail involved than originally thought! A talented graphic designer on our team makes a promo video to show at church...one that rivals the opening credits of the acutal TV show! To our surprise, 44 people sign up!

The day was great! Everyone had fun! They: did 5 legged races, speed eating a gelato, purchasing an item at IKEA from a photo we gave them, eating eel, finding books at chapters that had page numbers which opened a combo lock, and chugging a pail full of pop (to name a few)! They even had camera men following them around so it would feel like "the real thing"!

At the end of the beautiful May day, during our BBQ in the gorgeous sunshine, people started asking the members of the planning team: "When will Amuzing Race 2 be?".

PARDON ME??? AMUZING RACE 2??

Well, the answer to that is: "It was on May 6, 2006"! This year, 55 people signed up! Some repeat teams, some re-configured teams, and some brand new teams.

We made them: eat dried squid and pork fluff, get a bullseye or do a word puzzle, decode a message using allendorf cyphers at a museum (have you seen "National Treasure?), canoe out to a buoy that had a clue attached, build an Inukshuk, find a piece of rice marked with an "AR" in a pool full of rice...etc.

Unfortunately, this year was not the beautiful May day I had been praying for. And unfortunately, I had bronchitis, so couldn't talk very well and felt even worse! Not good, because my job for the day was to make 100 phone calls to keep the volunteers updated on where the teams were at. People fell in rivers, dumped their canoe, barfed in the car (there always has to be one person each year it seems), yet everyone was safe! And everyone had fun!

And that's what it's all about! At the BBQ at the end of the race, I enjoyed sitting back (while resting my voice) watching the teams mingle, laugh, and share stories about their day. They were talking to volunteers and thanking them for helping out. That was the most rewarding part of it for me. It made the 100+ hours of planning (no exaggeration - it was fairly life consuming) well worth it.

So, when will The Amuzing Race 3 be?
May 2007!