AR Winners!!

Today was the finale of the Amazing Race. I did not get to see all of the challenges they had to do, but it sounds like it was a tough day. I helped with one of the first challenges in the pool. The teams had to get into the pool and keep a feather in the air until they got halfway down the length of the pool. The feather could not get wet. If it did they had to come back to the beginning and get another one.

Ken and Eric were the first to arrive and let me see if I can paint this picture for you as I saw it. I so wish we had this little scenario on video because I found it quite funny. As Ken and Eric run into the pool area we tell them they have to get into the pool. It looked like Ken hesitated for oh say 1 second and then he was in the pool...TENNIS SHOES AND ALL!! Eric looked confused, hesitated for oh say 2 seconds and boom he was in the pool same as Ken, tennis shoes and all! Talk about serious game play! I give them props because I bet it was not fun running the rest of the race in wet shoes and socks. Oh that is just a blister waiting to happen...ouch!

Lindsay and Angela were right on their heels, but they did manage to take the time to take off their shoes and socks. Ken and Eric finished first and then Lindsay and Angela weren't too far behind. Patti and Cynthia came in right before Lindsay and Angela finished.

Fast forward to the pitstop since that is where I went to next. Apparently they had to do a lot of running through the woods, they had a a memory challenge where they had to put the pitstops in order (I would have so smoked that challenge), and then I guess they had to do a ropes course as well. Then they finally came out of the woods and to the pitstop. And the winners are.....Lindsay and Angela with Ken and Eric only seconds behind!! Congratulations ladies on a job well done!!! 

See everyone next fall for SURVIVOR!! This time I promise to take the right person to the final two...Chad!!

A gift for me? You shouldn't have...

Today I received a pretty cool gift. I had just come back to the office after having a wonderful lunch and celebrating my manager's birthday and Chad sends me a note asking if he can come up to my office that he has a present for me. Of course...I love presents. What does he have for me? THE ROCK!!!!! The infamous rock the frustrated me to death for 2 reasons...1) trying to find the stupid thing and 2) being the only one to see the stupid thing (see previous post for more details on the rock) Apparently Charles grabbed it and gave it to Chad to give to me.  But now...it is mine forever. My very own PET ROCK. It is proudly displayed in my office and I am sure it will be a good conversation piece..."Um Abbi, why do you have a rock in your office?"

AR Leg 12: Mob Mentality

So today was the final leg that either got you into the final 3 to race on the final day or it did not. We made 2nd PLACE....okay maybe not. Here is now the day played out.

We started of the leg at the pool. Everyone thought we would have to get in the pool, but luckily we didn't. We were given a clue and a map. The map had 8 x's which indicated the location of puzzle pieces. There were 8 puzzle pieces total. There were a few puzzle pieces that were spread out and then there were several that were clumped together in their locations. Allison and I decided to head to the furthest place first and gather those puzzles pieces then head to the locations that were closer together. We worked with Chad and Charles to try and located all puzzle pieces. We got stuck on one piece for quite sometime and never could find it. We discovered after the putting the pieces that we did have together, that we could figure out the clue without it.

The clue had us using the interpretive signs around the lake to figure out where in the RFC we needed to go. Charles figured out that we needed to go where you'd find "chips and sweet tea". We know that was the RFC break room. So, me, Allison, Chad and Charles take off to the RFC. Now keep in mind Chad and Charles are way faster than us so we lost them when they went into the RFC. As we were approaching we saw several teams having to turn around. I have to admit I was a little nervous thinking that we had come to the wrong place. As it turns out they didn't know they were supposed to go to the break room, they just read RFC and headed there. We come  in the door and Domino tells us to keep on going that we are the 3rd team there and tells us we are on the right track. I was shocked and happy!!!

The next clue led us to the Aerobics room where we had to do some Salsa aerobics. I loved that part. :-) Once we were done with our Salsa lesson we had to either find a "stump" or a "fire hydrant" with our next clue. This is where I began to loose it a little. It seems that when we have to just wander around looking for a clue Allison and I don't do too well. We didn't know which one to look for. We decided to try and find the "stump" but we weren't very confident. We headed over to the picnic area as there a bunch of trees over there and I thought well maybe there were some stumps over there. If not then we were headed in the direction of the street where we needed to look for a hydrant so hopefully we'd find something. In the distance I noticed 2 stumps and thought I'd at least go check them out. I am so glad that I did....there was the clue!!! Whew...we lucked out!!!

The clue had us going to a rock bed near a drainage pipe and we had to search the rocks for our next clue. The clue was written on a rock...what we weren't really sure of was if it was written on top of the rock or if it was underneath a rock. As we are headed to the rock bed we notice the team that was in 1st. We were tired of running so we were walking at this point. The teamed asked us if we were done and we said "no". We weren't sure how far ahead of us they were, but we kept going our direction and they kept going in theirs. When we got to the rock bed we were the only ones there. Keep in mind we lost Chad and Charles again as they finished the Salsa aerobics before us and took off.

Now what we didn't know at this point was at the rock bed were were in 1st place. If we were on the real Amazing Race it would have "currently in 1st place" below our names. Love it. As we are searching, Chad and Charles come along. We decide to try and divide and conquer as there were TONS of rocks. No luck. The team that was in 1st that we passed earlier finally comes along and still nothing...with 6 people searching. Chad and Charles decide to head back to read the clue again to see if we need to look UNDER a rock or it will be written ON TOP of the rock. When they get back they let us know that the rest of the teams are now on our heels and are headed to the rock bed. SHOOT!!!!! We had such a great lead!! We are all together now with tons and tons of people searching these rocks. So frustrating.

Then it happens...I turn over a rock and I see..."TENNIS COURT 3". My heart starts pounding as I easily set the rock back down and pray that no one saw me. I slowly walk over to Allison and let her know that I found it. Then I proceed to let Charles know what it said. Next thing I know Charles starts running! And so does the rest of the MOB. SERIOUSLY???? These guys are way faster than me there is no way I can beat them in a foot race. So as we were running I hear Allison hollering my name and yelling for me to STOP!! As I do it was like a slow motion moment for me. I stop, I turn around to look at Allison and as I am turning I realize that the ENTIRE mob has stopped as well. It dawned on me that NO ONE knew where they were going...they were just running because Charles, Allison, and I  started running. Of course when we stopped Charles realized that Chad was not with us and they can't cross the finish line unless they are together. So, we make something up like, we were just kidding we didn't find it and we try to lure everyone back to the rock bed. We get back to the rock bed, we collect Chad and we decide to cut through the woods to try and fool them. Uh nope, that didn't work either. I hear someone on the street yell..."they are going that way". UGH they were killing me!

I was so very frustrated! Here I was the ONLY one that even saw the clue and these people were going to beat me to the pitstop and Charles, the person I told where the clue was, was leading them right to it. I was pretty upset as we were running...just ask Allison. As it turns out Charles tried to lead them astray and throw them off, but it just didn't work. We finally arrive at the pitstop team number 6!!! As we were running in though we lucked out. Domino had a fail safe in place. You had to tell him what the rock actually said. YES...I told him what it said....and woohoo team #2!!!! I was so pumped! We went from 10th to 2nd and made it into the final 3!! We were racing on the final day!  Then the bombshell...Domino asked me if we had all 8 puzzle pieces. Crap! We didn't...we only had 7 because we could not find the one to save our lives. Another fail safe. So in the end we get nothing and will like it!! Although I am bummed I am glad he had the fail safe's in and it is only fair the the teams that had them both be in the finals.

So, for me and Allison and Chad and Charles the race is over (they only had 7 puzzle pieces too), but congratulations to Ken and Eric, Angela and Lindsay, and Patti and Cynthia for being the top 3 that will race on the final day! GOOD JOB EVERYONE!!!!

Yumm!!! Gummies...AR Leg 11

No...we didn't get to eat them...although I suppose we could have, but then what if we didn't have enough for our project? That would not have been cool.

So our leg started off today outside near the back entrance to the gym and around a corner so we could not see where anyone was going. We lucked out that the weather was awesome. During the morning hours it poured cats and dogs and we all totally thought we'd be running around campus in the pouring rain As luck would have it the sun came out, but alas we didn't do a lot of running. We were inside for everything...figures.

Our first clue sent us to a building in the gym where we had to head down to the basement. While in the elevator we had to choose between two tasks: Stack or Support. Stack had to stack a bunch of playing cards to a certain height. Support had to use gummies and toothpicks to create a support system for two tennis balls. Each tennis ball had to stay on the support and it at to be a minimum of 3 inches tall. We chose support.

So, I don't know how long it really took us to do it, we weren't in the top teams leaving, but it also didn't feel like we were in there forever. We got our first little tower done and it held the tennis ball so we moved on to the next. By the time we finished our second one our first one wasn't looking so hot so we had to do some quick reinforcements.  I guess we could have had her measure our first one while it was working and then went on to the second, but I didn't think of that til just now. You know hind sight. :-)  Ours ended up measuring 4 inches tall each. Yeah, we're over achievers! I wonder if we had any extra gummies...I should have taken some for the road.


Once we got our clue we had to head up to the aerobics room for slide or shuffle. We had to choose which person was IN and which was OUT without knowing what we were to do yet. Allison chose OUT so I was IN. I had to get on a slide and work my inner thighs while Allison had to use a band and go from side to side working her outter thighs. Not so bad right? WRONG. We had to do it for three minutes. That seemed like an eternity. Pam finally said.."one minute" and I thought whew, that is good. Oh...no, that wasn't a one minute warning as in you only have a minute left....that was a you've only been doing this for a minute. UGH REALLY??? Pam started telling jokes, but I don't think that really helped to get my mind off the torture I was going through.  If that is what slide class is like I don't ever want to go.


Once our 3 days...I mean 3 minutes...of sliding were up we got our clue to head to the pool deck for the pitstop. Team number 10! WHAT? Ugh we only moved up one spot?? Next Tuesday is our last day and our last time to get into the top 3 so we can race on the final day. I will be very disappointed if we can't make it into the top 3.  I had a couple people ask me after the leg today as I was leaving if I put the "Amazing" in "Amazing Race" today. Uh folks, that would be a negative. There was nothing "Amazing" about it...except maybe that it was "amazing" that our gummy structure stood long enough to get measured.

Until Tuesday....

AR Leg 10: I've never jumped so many bushes in my life...

This leg (or at least one of the challenges) was a doozy for my teammate and I. We started off next to last, but did pretty good getting up to the soccer field. We had to first head and pick up one of the exercise balls and carry it with us to the soccer field. Once we got to the soccer field we had to take one turn around the track (which is 1/3 of a mile) with the exercise ball between us, facing each other. We had to keep our hands behind our back and if we dropped it we had to return to the beginning and start all over. This task was difficult for us as we are not the same height. So while the ball was even with my teammate's chest, it was high up on my neck under my chin. Any time the ball would start to slip she would push it up with her knee and then I'd get it up further with my chin. Needless to say my chin was a little bruised by the end of the task. It took us forever to do it, but we successfully completed the lap and never dropped the ball. Of course later I had a couple people ask me why we didn't go sideways. Uh...I don't know...didn't cross my mind in the heat of the moment? I was just trying to not to drop the stupid thing.

After we made it to the finish line of that task one teammate had to put whiffle balls into a hoola hoop. The further away the hoop the less you had to get in. Most were taken when we got there and the only one open was the one furthest away, but we only had to get two balls in. Allison was the one to putt them. It took her several tries, but she finally got them in.

Once we had completed that portion we had a choice...do we go look for a clue sticking out of some bushes or did we go all they way back to the gym for a physical challenge. We opted to look for a clue in some bushes as it was closer. We found it and luckily all we had to do was drop our exercise ball off where we got it and head to the pitstop. As we were close to the gym we saw another team. It was a sprint to turn the balls back in. We went inside and they went around the outside. Turns out their way was a tad quicker. They turned their ball in about 2 seconds before us. We turned ours in then headed out the door and saw the pitstop and the rest of the group. That team was ahead of us...but we couldn't let them beat us. After all this is the Amazing Race and I am tired of being in the back. We jumped the bushes (maybe we should have done hurdles in our past lives) and sprinted pass them to the finish. Of course...I think we are still 11th or something like that so I guess it wouldn't have mattered.  Oh well...better luck on Thursday in the RAIN!!

I've been bamboozeled!!!

I thought I would give you a couple of updates from a couple of my previous posts. Remember my post about the UARGE tree? How I'd never heard of it yet a co-worker sent us a wiki page on UARGE trees? Yeah...it was a joke and I totally fell for it. So far I have not lived it down and probably won't. If you look up gullable in the dictionary there will be a picture of me grinning from ear to ear. I will get you Charles...you just wait!  Oh well. It turns out it was a typo. Domino reversed 12 with 21 so it was indeed supposed to be the LARGE tree.

The second update is on leg 7...yeah the one I didn't write much about because I was so frustrated. So what I didn't mention was that the last part of the picture puzzle was supposed to be Natatorium. It was a supposed picture of a GNAT plus the letters UH plus what looked like a school bus, but it was supposed to be a TOUR plus the sign language letter for E (which looks like an "m" or an "s" to me) plus the logo for the University of Miami (UM). Of course to all of us it read... BUG - UH - BUS - E - UM which makes no sense. Below is the picture that we had to use for a gnat....can you please tell me the last time you saw a yellow gnat with a stinger wearing tennis shoes?? I didn't think so!! See our frustration?

AR Legs 8 & 9: Back on top....okay maybe not

If you will recall we started leg 8 in a 3 way tie for last place! Woohoo. But the thing about this game is things can change in a heartbeat. The first clue took us to the guard shack where we had to do push-ups, sit-ups and mountain climbers. Once those were complete we were given an empty cup and were told to search around the Fitness Center for a bucket of sand. We lucked out and found the bucket pretty quickly. We had to fill the cup with sand to the line which was about the halfway mark of the cup. After barely making the mark on our leg where we had to carry the coke we decided to fill it up almost full in case some came out we'd be okay. Once we fill up our cup we have to run to a little house behind the Health Care Center. I had no idea that little house even existed. It is amazing the things I've learned on this race. Once we were at the little house we had to do 100 jumping jacks....ugh!! After those were finished we were given a rope and were told to head to the soccer field. Once at the soccer field we had to put the rope through the brick that we had from the last leg and still had, then we had to balance the cup of sand on the brick and we had to finish the rest of the leg like that. The last part of the leg was to go to all 4 goals on the soccer field to figure out the clue to the pitstop. The clue actually had us go back to our very first clue to decipher the pitstop. Thank goodness we still had our first clue with us. We were told to go near the deer. Yep...it was the lovely UARGE tree again. I'm never going to get away from it! This leg we moved on up to THREE!!!!! Yes, our second best finish of the race! I'm on cloud 9.

Now leg 9 was a different story. Not so much on cloud 9 anymore. We started off great. We had to go through an obstacle course which we breezed through...then we had to take off our shoes and socks and one team member had to run from the softball field to the gym and return the brick that we had been carrying around for the past 2 legs. The other person had to run the bases on the softball field until the other person got back. I ran to the gym and my teammate ran the bases. Once I got back one team member had to do a softball toss. We had to toss a softball up on this hill and it had to land and stay in a hoola hoop. My teammate did a great job and did it pretty fast. So on we were to the next part of the challenge. We had to read this long and very confusing clue that told us to run out to the tobacco houses, however at the very bottom in tiny tiny print it said it was NOT at the tobacco houses and mentioned S overflow ( this is where cars can park over night if they are on company business). So we didn't bother running to the tobacco houses, we took off for S overflow. We searched and searched but nothing. We finally decided that maybe we should take off to the tobacco houses after all. As we started to do that we saw a large group coming back up the hill...it was not the right place to go so we were glad we didn't run all the way over there. We wondered around for what seemed like an eternity and finally decided to go back to the softball field and read the clue again.

By this time Jordan was cleaning everything up so we had to holler for him to wait! So we start trying to figure out the clue again and then we see it....for some reason now it seems plain as day, but before I didn't see it at all. There was a line that said to "ask for instructions". REALLY???? That' all we had to do the entire time??? UGH So Jordan smiles at us...flips over the folder and it says to go to the Aerobics room. So again, we ran around campus for nothing!!!

Once we made it to the aerobics room we had to get our picture taken in a Travolta cutout, then we had to do a quick 70s dance routine! That was the best part of the leg for me! Once we completed that part we had to search the woods for our next clue. We finally found it and it led us to a spot in front of the daycare center...our finish...second to LAST!! Oh well...we still have 3 more days of challenges therefore 3 more days to move our way into the top 3 so we can race on that final day....wish us luck!!!

Leg 7...I hate picture puzzles!

Well, I don't really have much to say about leg 7 since all me and my teammate did was run around campus!  Today we had to figure out a picture puzzle. The only problem is we never figured it out. It is kind of funny in that we thought we figured it out and went to a location and found a clue, except it was not the clue for the picture puzzle it was another part of the race. Luckily we weren't the only ones confused. We ran into 2 other teams that were just a lost as we were. Turns out we were the last teams to arrive to the task..I am not even talking about the pit stop. So we decided not to even do the task and take a last place finish. So we are tied with the other 2 teams we were lost with for last place. Hopefully next week will be better.

My brain hurts from leg 6

Okay...so let me just preface this post by saying...I am not a math whiz, never have been, never will be, and just because I have worked at a statistics company for 11 years doesn't mean I have learned math any better. With that said...this leg was about MATH!!!

So we had to run around campus counting things like the number of stone steps to the sidewalk, or lights around a piece of artwork, letters in a stinkin' paragraph on a picture on a wall, or wall plaques in a trophy case. We had the list of items to count and where we needed to count them...so instead of back tracking we decided to to just make our way in order of the buildings we had to go in. We get to the pool and we were done counting and luckily no other teams were in there so we sat down where it was quiet to try and concentrate on the puzzle. Really? My head hurt!! At first we started trying to match the numbers with the letters of the alphabet because we had a key that a 1 = A and so on down the alphabet. There were four words we had to decode. We weren't really paying attention to the spaces and commas and we were just trying to match up number for letter. Anyone know what BAAHGC spells? Yeah...neither did we. Can you see why my head hurt? Another team came in so we decided to work together. As it turns outs we needed to pay attention to those spaces and commas, but they did indeed actually spell out real words, not just jumbled letters.

Turns out we had to run to the UARGE TREE NEAR DEER. We have a piece of art here on campus that looks like deer running. We did not go spooking any real deer. Of course we all thought it was a typo cause lets' face it, that's not the first typo we've seen on this race ( love ya Dom). Turns out it wasn't a typo...one of our fellow racers discovered that UARGE is a type of tree....although it was still LARGE. :-)  Which by the way, I have tried to Google UARGE TREE and it keeps asking me..."did you mean LARGE TREE"? Pretty funny...you can see our confusion

Anyway so once we get the UARGE or LARGE tree there is a clue here for a detour. We have to choose Cotton or Candy. The team we were with chose Cotton and was closer to where we were, my teammate wasn't sure what we were going to have to do so she wanted to do Candy as she thought it might be easier. We get to the Candy detour and we have to take a straw and suck an M&M and keep it on the end of our straw, walk over to the window where more cut up straws were taped to the ledge. We had to then balance that M&M (assuming we still had it on the straw) on the end of the straw that  was taped to the ledge. We had to get six of these. Now...let us not forget that we have already been running all over campus and can barely breath as it is. Now you are telling us we have to suck in and hold it til we get across the room? Needless to say it took us a while to get the hang of it. There were lots of M&Ms dropped on the floor.

We ended up finishing 6th, but at least we moved up from 11th from the last leg. And had we been good at math or puzzles we could have probably been higher. We actually thought we were dead last so we were really shocked to come in as high as we actually did.

We'll get back up to the top 4 in leg 7!!

AR Leg 5: Seriously Twised

Twisted was the theme for this leg and that it absolutely was! Remember our locks from the last leg? We had to keep them and bring them them with us for the 5th leg of the race. We started where we ended the last leg...home plate at the softball field. Now one thing I didn't tell you all is that each person has a bandana that they have to wear at each leg. It is your team color. Remember ours? Yep..pink! So we had to take these bandanas and tie our legs together three legged race style. We could use one or both of our bandanas. We opted to use one while others opted to use both. We realized quickly once we go to our first clue and saw we still had to remain tied together that something needed to change. It was pulling too tight on my ankle. Once we got to the first clue we decided to use both bandanas and kept thinking...why didn't we do this before? Oh well. At the clue we had to take either a Blue, Red, or Green ribbon. I grabbed a blue one and we were off to the next task.

So the next task was a rope maze. One person was locked in (using our lock from the week before) and had to navigate around a bunch of poles and picnic tables. I chose to do the maze so my partner had to do mountain climbers. Whew...glad I wasn't doing them. I hate them with a passion, but not as much as I hate burpees. Hopefully the powers that be are not reading this....please not burpbees during this amazing race i am begging you! Anyway, we could only go one at a time on the rope. Now my competitiveness comes and goes. Sometimes I am and sometimes I am not. I think I got half my dad's gene and half my mom's gene on that one. Unfortunately the person in front of me was having a very difficult time navigating through this maze and there was nothing I could do. Initially I was the only one behind her, but then the line started piling up and there was nothing we could do. I think we all decided it was in our best interest to help her so that we could get started and be on our way. Because as we were doing ours there were 2 other rope mazes were going on at the same time. I have to admit I was very frustrated only because I knew I could have gotten through the maze very quickly...that is where the competitive was coming out...but alas, there was nothing I could do.

We finally all made it out of the "twisted" maze and had to head to the yoga room and do some yoga poses. They were all balance poses. While my balance is okay, it reinforced the fact that I am not flexible at all!! Perhaps I need to do more yoga. After the poses we had to hunt for a secret word written on one of the mats. Only one teammate could do it and I was the one. It turns out it was written in black on a black yoga mat. Once I found it, it was plane as day, but I looked at the mat a million times. I am convinced it was the way the light was hitting it that made it appear. Or maybe it was written in appearing ink instead of disappearing ink.

The next task was to make our way down the steps to the sidewalk and unscramble the chalk art. Let me say, I've seen better (haha, just kidding D if you are reading this). We approached and another team was standing there puzzled. I looked down and quickly figured it out. I didn't say a word I just took off running. When I did of course it hit them too I am guessing of the location of the pit stop. They sprinted past me and beat us by mere seconds to the pit stop. Oh well, we'll get em in the next leg. As a result of the wait at the rope maze we finished 9th or 10th or something. When you are breathing down the neck of the person in front of you it is hard to tell which team he is talking to. :-)

Needless to say I am pretty banged up from hurling myself over and under benches and picnic tables. I think I've counted 6 bruises so far. Until Thursday and leg 6....

My "Amazing Race" adventure

So, something you all should know about me...I like reality T.V. And some of those shows I'd like to actually be on. Mainly The Amazing Race or Dancing with the Stars. But seeing as how I am not a star nor a professional dancer I will not be making it on Dancing with the Stars. So that leaves the Amazing Race. It is possible to make it on The Amazing Race, my dad and I actually applied, but I don't think we had any "quirks" that make good television so we never heard anything back.

So, the closest I'll probably ever get will be doing Amazing Race  through our fitness center at work. Yes, you read that correctly...at work! It started about two weeks ago. I'll attempt to fill you in on the first 4 days of the program and then will do my best to keep you updated as each leg plays out.

There were 17 teams that began this race, we are now down to 16 due to someone having to drop out. Each team has two people. Unlike the Amazing Race T.V. show no one in this program is eliminated. The goal is to work your way up so that on the next to last leg that you are one of the top three teams to race on the last day of the program. Not for a million dollars...but for movie tickets and bragging rights!

My teammate and I are the PINK team. The first leg of the race....well I am trying to remember the first leg of the race. Ah yes we had to run out to a gate find a clue and run to our next destination. My teammate figured it out immediately and we were the first to arrive for our task. The task consisted of blowing up a balloon and letting it go trying to get it from one sidewalk to the next. After that we headed to the aerobics room for some intense cardio. After we were spent we then had to make our way to the Pit Stop. We came in 4th. Not bad out of 17 teams. I was pretty happy with our placement.

Leg two! Depending on your placement teams 1-4 get a 1 minute head start in front of the team behind them. After the 4th team then the teams leave in 15 second increments. Since we were in forth we had to wait our minute, but then the team behind us was on our heels 15 seconds later. Our task on this leg seemed pretty easy, we all finished in about 15 minutes. Pretty much running a task or two and then it was over. We finished 4th again. The top 6 teams finished in the exact same order. I was happy again.

Leg three! Oh this leg was a doozy. We had to follow plops of flour to our next destination. The problem was if you followed a trail it could lead to a dead end so then you would have to go back and find another trail. I think we did a 5k around campus following LOTS of dead ends! Oh and I forgot to mention the whole time we are doing this we are having to carry a full cup of coke! My teammate and I finally found the spot only after seeing all of the teams working on their next task. I believe we were the last to arrive. Luckily with all of our sloshing of the coke we still managed to have have the amount we needed to continue on to the next task. It was a roadblock which only one member can perform. We had to toss a ring and get it around a very tall piece of PVC pipe. My teammate took this one as she is taller than I am and we thought it might be easier. She tried several times with no luck, then we were told we could switch. I began trying it. After about the 3rd attempt I got it. I think it was luck more than skill, but I didn't care. Next we had to get a glow stick and go into a dark racquetball court and find our next clue on the wall. We found the clue...it was a sculpture near the softball field. I new exactly where it was since prior to that leg of the race I made the good decision of doing a quick cram session of all the art on campus. There were two teams around us who did not know where the sculpture was, but being as how they were right there we knew they would follow us. We ran our tails off and it paid off. We finished the third leg in FIRST place! I think we both almost threw up after that one though.

Leg four!! This leg was another killer! Lots of running. We had a good lead on this leg since we started in first place. We were pretty much done with the first task and on to the second when we saw the team that was behind us still in the middle of the previous task. Me made it to the gym. I had to bounce a ping pong ball off the wall and have it land in a cup. My teammate had to try and knock down a cup with a rubber band. She had 5 tries, but if she missed all 5 then she had to do 100 sit ups. Well she completed her part but I could not get that stupid ball to bounce in that cup for the life of me. I was later told that it was like beer pong and it seemed like all of the guys got it in a heartbeat. Geez...I've never played beer pong before so I definitely did not know any strategy so it took me forever. I finally got it in though. We then had to make our way to another sculpture...except this time I did not cram and did no know where it was. So we had to follow others and hope they knew where they were going. We had to run all that way only to get a clue that told us to run all the way back. I was shot!! We had a team where one team member was ahead of us, the other was behind us. The rule is that both teams have to be on the mat at the same time. There was hope since we were still together. Even if the first guy on the other team made it to the mat before us he'd have to wait until his teammate got there to check in. Unfortunately I was spent and I just could not kick it into gear...so the team member that was behind us passed us and they finished ahead of us. This leg we came in 5th or 6th, not really sure as there was some chaos at the finish line. As it turns out there were some teams that received penalties so we are in 4th place. I'll take that!

Until leg five...