The Amazing Race – The Race Begins

What I did this weekend can basically be summed up as a combination of three things: The Amazing Race. Drunk. In costume.

Oh my God. Where to begin!? It was insane! Okay, so our team was made up of Jill, Christina, Clarissa, my girlfriend Evana and me.

We got up on Saturday morning at 6:30 for a 7:30am start. By the time I packed my bag and put on my costume, I barely had time for breakfast. I had one small bowl of cereal before I cracked open my first (of many) beers. Didn’t want to be drinking all day on an empty stomach :P.

We had decided earlier that week that our group theme was going to be American Indians. The girls had bought some brown material from Lincraft, as well as 3 packets of turkey feathers (Red, White and Yellow) and some black elastic. From this the girls made their Indian dresses, as well as head dresses and arm bands for everyone.
I was hoping Mum would be able to make my costume and post it down, but I left it too late to ask her. Luckily Jill brought 2 sets of Indian pants (with authentic fringed edges) and an Indian vest that belonged to her 8-year-old cousin. The pants were so small they barely went past my knee, so I put some long cream pants on underneath and it looked a bit better. The vest was also way too small, so I put one of my cream shirts on inside out (to hide the design on the front of it) underneath, even after much pleading from Jill to just wear the vest by itself.
That morning I then had the brilliant idea of cutting the second pair of Indian pants in half to make sleeves. They looked great so I went to where the girls were to show them, hoping they’d be equally impressed.

Me: “I hope your cousin won’t mind that I cut up the Indian pants.” (grinning at my joke, thinking her cousin didn’t actually want these pants anymore)
Jill: “Are you serious?”
Me: “Are YOU serious!?”
Jill: “Seriously, Are you serious!”
Me: “I’m serious! I thought you were joking!”
Jill: “I’m serious too! I thought YOU were joking!”
Me: “How can I be joking!? The sleeves are ON my arm!”

Clarissa was laughing her ass off by this stage. It turns out Jill was serious. Oops! But it was a hilarious conversation and we were quoting it all day.

We also got 3 sets of bows and arrows, a hobby horse we named Rydeswell, and warrior face paint.
Our Indian names were:
Jill – Rattlesnake Handler (I think this had something to do with Jill having sex on the mind 24/7, and the snake being a phallus)
Clarissa – Moonlight Rider (she was always on the hobby horse)
Me – Big Brown Bear (It's from a Scrubs episode. I liked it.)
Evana – Curly Ox Tail (her curly hair)
Christina – Injured Foal (she twisted her ankle a few days ago)
The team car was called Running Engine.

Our costumes looked awesome, but the other groups’ costumes were equally impressive. There were The Wiggles, Nuns, KISS, Manchester United Fans, Scuba Divers, Ninjas, Beer Police, Firewomen, Santa and His Helpers, Trannies, Glitter Girls and Clowns (Judges and Reps). I’ll try and get photos soon!

After admiring everyone’s costume efforts and taking photos in the college car park (us in various warrior poses) we got the debriefing for the day.

The whole thing is based off the reality TV show “The Amazing Race”. In previous years the event was called “Car Rally”, but it got such a bad rep last year that it got banned (mainly because they stole vacuum cleaners and other shit from the Nathan college of Griffith University.) So MGRC just changed the name of it.
We had no idea about the final destination, but we were given clues to figure out where our next checkpoint would be, and had to complete various tasks and get answers to questions along the way. At each checkpoint there was also the chance to score bonus points for the activities there.

After the debriefing, we all got into our team car (Evana’s Holden Apollo, Evana driving), and cranked the music. The funniest was the Nuns, who played "Oh Happy Days" from Sister Act 2 for their first song.

We then got in line with the other cars, where we recieved the envelope with our first set of clues inside...