My friend Melanie from work lost her father last year to prostate cancer and created this challenge in memory of him and to raise money for Prostate Cancer Canada. The PSA Challenge was designed after The Amazing Race, with challenges across the city of Barrie.
AJ and I were so excited when the date was moved and we were able to participate. We had trained at City Chase and were ready to take the challenge in our own city.
We recruited our friends Andy and Mel to race with us because we knew they'd be competitive and a lot of fun. And we were right.
Since it was the first year, only 6 teams signed up, but together we raised over $5,000! So many people asked about the challenge during and afterward, so I know it's going to be huge next year. I'm glad we got in on the first year.
Mel did a fantastic job planning the event. Each team got a clue sheet with 9 challenge riddles to locations around Barrie. We also got a second optional sheet with a list of photos to take and activities to perform.
The team who raised the most money got a 10 minute headstart, but soon we were off.
We headed to the library first where we had to solve a cube puzzle. We did it quickly and headed off to the East Bayfield Rec Centre where one of our teammates had to eat a pizza topped with mealworms and crickets. Enter AJ. He did it like a champ, chasing it with a bug creamsicle smoothie. Yuck!
Next we went to Georgian Chevrolet where we had to answer trivia questions. If we got 2 right, we had to push a small car, if we didn't we had to push a truck. Turns out, we were the only team that got to push the car.
Our backpack included a pair of blue striped socks which we had to trade up for something bigger and better, so we stopped by Andy and Mel's place and traded with their neighbour for a bottle of wine.
We used our lifeline to figure out the next challenge was at the YMCA. Two challenges in fact. First, we completed an obstacle course in the gym. Then around to the pool where we were given a bunch of cardboard and had to make a boat that would carry our teammate across the pool. We made a very fashionable and functional boat that made it across. But it took a lot of time. We could have skipped the challenge and only been penalized 15 minutes, but we wanted to complete it.
Next, to the Georgian Mall (which we really should have gone to after the rec centre in hindsight) where we had to find a person in a blue tie to give us a clue. We found him and had to choose between tying ties at Moore's or performing tasks wearing beer goggles at The Mansion. We chose The Mansion. We chose wrong. We had 5 tasks to complete wearing these awful goggles and it was very time consuming, but we did it.
Our last stop had a riddle that had to do with beer and horses. We thought it was the Flying Monkeys Brewery, but when we got there, they didn't know what we were talking about. At this point, we had heard that most, if not all team were finished (and we thought we were doing well!) so we decided to head back. (It was the Molson Centre, duh!)
Between all of these challenges, we completed all of the optional challenges - about 20 I think.
We got back and were 5th across the finish line. Kind of disappointing. But we found out that several teams had skipped the optional challenges.
When the final team arrived, we did awards. The team who raised the most money also won the race so they cleaned up with prizes. We did well though. I got 3rd place for most money raised. Our team got a prize for most optional challenges completed and we won best costume.
It was a really great day and we were able to be a part of a great cause. We'll have to start practising for next year!
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