Savannah's Amazing Race

I had a chance to compete in Savannah's race this June. My sister Carol's friend Leah planned this "Amazing Race" style activity to help raise awareness about Down Syndrome. I am attaching the Savannah's Race webpage and the News story video they did before the race on Channel 9news. They do a better job of explaining why this race happened.

http://www.savannahsrace.org/

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=93479



Leah and Savannah



There were 9 pairs who competed and Carol and I (nicknamed "The Teachers") got 3rd. Every team had to have a camera man so Gabi volunteered to listen to Carol and I fight all day.

I am going to use the information on the Savannah's Race website to explain each task because that is easier. All credit for this goes to Leah. Her information is in bold and my comments are not.



3...2...1...GO! The teams are running to their cars to
open their first clue...They must go to DIA and find a
marked car in the East long term parking lot.

The three teams that raised the most money had a head start. We were not one of them. On the way we were passed by another team and they got pulled over right in front of us. For those of you who aren't familiar with the DIA airport the East long term parking lot is huge. We didn't know where to start. I was trying to figure out if they would just put the car in a random spot of a row that meant something. The rows are marked by letters. I told Carol just to drive to S for Savannah because I was convinced it was there. I was right and we beat every team except the team that left first.



The clue at DIA sent the teams to INVESCO Field at Mile
High. Here, they had to count the # of orange seats in
the Bronco's mane - then they got their next clue...



It was pretty cool to be running around Invesco Field while it was completely empty.



Which sent them to Ceramics in the City, where they had
to paint their own ceramic plate with a theme of Down
syndrome awareness



The clue teams got after they painted their ceramics sent them to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, where one teammate
had to arrest the other. They had to recite the Miranda warning by memory, cuff the suspect, frisk them, fingerprint them, and
as shown here, take a mug shot. Teams then opened their next clue, which sent them to an eating challenge at Rocky
Ridge Park. Then... The worst part for me was the eating challenge. We to eat a 6 inch sub. I know I am weird but I hate sandwiches so it eat a 6 inch one was painful. To make matters worse I had just eaten a big donut while waiting for the mug shot to develop. I almost throw up twice.



On to Kiowa Creek Sporting Club! Each person got 20 tries to shoot 5 sporting clays. Then the best shot had 10 tries to shoot a double clay: two clays with one shell. If they didn't make the required number of hits, the teams sat out for a 5-minute time penalty. Racers had a great time at this location, and did a great job - even some of the first-time shooters did great!



This was my favorite event. We got there are there were two teams in front of us. I have shot a gun before but have never hit a clay pigeon in my life. The owner of the shooting range was so helpful. and I hit my 5 in 12 shots.



Carol struggled to hit any until the last 7 shots and she hit her 5. After that I was the one to try to hit two clay pigeons with on shot. No one yet had done it at all and out of complete luck I did it on the first try. I was so shocked I didn't even run. The guy had to tell us to get going.


Teams were then sent to Strasburg High School where they had to complete a track and field event (shot put,
discus, and hurdles) and also complete a Greek word puzzle. I finally got to use my shot put skills I gained from coaching middle school shot put.

One of the more difficult challenges had teams diving in the Beck Rec Center Pool to retrieve 20 laminated cards
of their team color. Once they retrieved all the cards, there was a word puzzle they had to complete using
those cards. This was the reason we got 3rd and not 2nd. One of our cards got sucked down the drain. I were it the pool forever looking for it and finally one of the helpers swam around looking. When we lifted the cover on the drain our card popped out. Oh well it was for a good cause anyways. We won 2 one-hour massages for 3rd place. They raised $12,200 for the cause.



It was one of the funnest things I have every done. Leah did an amazing job at planning it and getting sponsors. It was very professionally done. I think we ended up driving over 230 miles.