BackBlast for THE AMAZING RACE at Purgatory
QIC: Burlap aka Phil Keoghan
Date: 13 March 2021
PAX: Airball, Argyle, Bluto, Boomerang (Africa -- winners); BAM, HOG, Parkay (WB), Starfish (Europe second finisher); Mongoose, Interference, Bulldog, Spamalot (South America third finisher); Pony Express, High Cotton, Lysol, Total Recall, Burlap (QIC) (North America fourth finisher); and Splash, Green Acres (WD), D-Day, Lemming (Asia final finisher)
The AMAZING RACE at Purgatory is a competition consisting of (1) a QUALIFYING portion that is identical for all teams, (2) travel to an exotic location on a continent that is unique to each team, (3) a task that will be similar for each team, and (4) travel to the finish line or rather, FINISH POLE. The first team to arrive with all team members touching the flagpole is the winner of the AMAZING RACE at Purgatory.
The QUALIFYING portion is completed here in the parking lot and is designed to comprise approximately 15-20 minutes of monotonous exercises.
When each team completes the assigned exercises – which I reveal later – the team will go to the set of envelopes by the planter and pick the envelope with lowest number. They are numbered from one to seven, so the first team to finish will get envelope one, the second team will get envelope two, and so on. Each team gets only one envelope.
[Note that there are two white obelisk-shaped poles on the driveway down the hill, that there is a park at the end of the parking lot, and that there is rock pile by the school entrance near the planter.]
The team must complete the travel and task assigned to it in that envelope.
Hint – you may want to read the instructions while you travel to the specified location.
Note that tasks are generally designed for a team of four. If you are a team of three or five, then read the instructions that apply to the number of members on your team. The number of reps are evened out so that there is no advantage or disadvantage to having a certain number of members on your team.
Once you finish QUALIFYING, come get your envelope, and follow the instructions on the task assignment in your envelope. Generally, it will tell you where to go, what to do to complete your task, and when to return to the flagpole with your entire team.
If your team is first to complete the AMAZING RACE at Purgatory by having all members touching the flagpole, then wait until the second team arrives, congratulate them, and then the first team will launch and find another team that is still completing its task and encourage them. However, you cannot help them with their rep total. The second place team should stay at the pole until the third place team arrives at which time the second place team finds another team to encourage and the third place team stays and waits until the fourth place team arrives and so on.
When all teams have arrived at the Flagpole, if there is time, the Q will continue the workout.
Now, I can reveal the qualifying exercises for teams of four were 200 Burpees, 400 Merkins, 600 Squats, and 800 LBCs. The team of five did 250, 500, 750, and 1000, such that each team member averaged 50/100/150/200. Teams did not have to split the exercises evenly, as long as the entire team was able to complete the assigned exercises.
The first team to finish the qualifying (after about 13 minutes) became the Asia team and got sent to the Scout building on Silas Creek Pkwy. The second team became Africa and went to the rock pile behind the building. The third became Europe and went to the playground by the tennis courts. The fourth was North America at the Lido Deck. And the last to qualify was South America and went to the front of the Rec Center.
Each continent had a Dealer’s Choice where a pax would announce an exercise and then run a specified length and return. Each team had total of 12 runners; this meant four of the teams had each team member run three times, while the team of five had two members run three times and the other three members ran twice.
After everyone returned, we had about 15 minutes on the clock and filled about 10 of them with mary and then finished with a closing ceremony and feted the winning team.
NMM
- YHC thanks the pax for at least skimming the pre-blast as that helped move the Race along more quickly and reduced instructional time. BAM correctly noted that it was “a lot of words”, and Green Acres was prepared for confusion and chaos. But it seemed to work OK.
- Early arriving crowd. The Q arrived a little early to set up envelopes and signs, but was PRECEDED by Bulldog!! What is going on? Dogs and cats living together?!?
- Great to see all the Nantans of F3WS in one spot — except for Cobra. His absence is excused. In fact, he may have been there covertly and no one knew.
- The Q used an OYO high knees exercise in Warmorama in order to allow him to scan and count the crowd to prepare for setting the number of teams. YHC made the mistake of telling this to the Pax who used this time to shout out random numbers in order to confuse and confound the Q. The crowd says it doesn’t like confusion and disorganized workouts, but once it’s in the moment, the crowd pushed for confusion and disorganization. #truthnugget
- The breakdown for the teams used signs for pax 26 years old and younger, 27-39, 40s and Respects. Like a normal Purgatory, almost half the pax were 50+ and Parkay was alone in the 26 and under category.
- The Q picked the teams with the eye toward burpees, knowing that 200 was excessive and each team needed someone who was in shape and willing to do Burpees. Mongoose asked the Q who that was on his team. YHC thought that between Interference and Mongoose, they would knock those out easily. YHC forgot that Mongoose does not do excessive numbers of burpees. While that team was the last qualifier, it came in third overall.
- There was about 90 seconds of prep time for teams to discuss strategies for splitting up the exercises. Some included just taking an even allotment per pax and knocking them out, helping out as the fastest one finished his set. Another split certain exercises among pairs, such as HOG doing a LOT of Burpees and Parkay focusing on LBCs, and then alternating when they needed a break.
- The Q warned the teams the first qualifier would have further to travel than the others, and the last qualifier would have a shorter travel time. This played out as the first team ended up finishing last. According to Splash, the Scout building is not in the AO, but Pony used it a couple of years ago at a Purgatory, so it counts.
- The winning team at Africa had the shortest distance to run once it got on site — around the paved circle near the rock pile. However, it was instructed to pick a medium rock and to run with said rock. We are on the honor system here. Asia and Europe had the longest runs once on site, around the Scout building and the tennis courts, respectively. Each were ankle breaking runs.
- YHC estimates the teams qualified within a couple of minutes of one another and finished overall within about 3 minutes, so it was pretty even.
- The Q was somewhat prepared for a long Mary session but didn’t feel like doing a full 15 minutes nor making us run more. The crowd worked pretty hard and spent themselves well during The Amazing Race at Purgatory. We included closing ceremonies in the workout.
- There was an astounding amount of MC and laughter emanating from the BAM area during Mary. YHC just kept calling exercises and counting; from what I could tell, the laughing crowd continued to knock out the exercises.
- Starfish correctly noted that we could have made seven 3-man teams and used all the continents, but YHC wanted 4-man teams by and large and saved the rarely visited Australia and Antarctica for another Race.
- YHC got into the planning to the point of freehand drawing the outline of the continents on their respective envelopes. Splash and a couple of others noticed, and I appreciate their appreciation.
- The Q was discombobulated by the closing ceremonies and went straight to announcement and prayer without a count nor a name-o-rama. We closed then did the name-o-rama last. Odd.
- The winning team was presented a Gnome as in the Roaming Gnome made famous by Travelocity ads on the TV show. Parkay and others asked the Q how much he was getting paid for the sponsorship. Fun Fact — YHC paid one dollar plus tax for that Gnome at the Dollar Store — but is contemplating taking that dollar from his wife’s or his kids’ accounts.
Thank you all for putting up with my excessive marketing and odd workout format. It was fun and difficult to plan, but I think folks enjoyed the novelty of The Amazing Race at Purgatory.
Congrats to the winner — they said they would proudly display the Gnome.
Peace,
Burlap
