Thanks to Scott Moe of the Chester Copperpots team for this great race recap!
Hello all! This is Chester Copperpots coming to you. We won't go into heavy detail of the morning qualifier, but let's just say, we'll never eat another choco-covered hot dog again.
Well, our race is over. Another fun year. We thought we'd provide a 'short' re-cap of how our race went. This is our experience throughout the day. We earned a fast forward prior to the race. A fast forward allowed us to skip one challenge throughout the day. We had decided going into the race, that no matter what happens, we'll be skipping the food challenge. Last year, the food challenge was consuming a full bowl of the absolute hottest salsa you could imagine. It was not fun. Based on this, skipping the food challenge seemed like a no-brainer.
So the race started out at the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. Twenty-five teams were set to go as we began our journey. Our first task was using a rope to lasso your partner's foot from about eight to ten feet away. Swanson sat down on a chair, while Moe worked the lasso. It took us about five or six tries to get it right. We ran to the judges to get our next clue.
Our next challenge lead us a few blocks away to the Mill City Museum. We had to make something like a transforming brochure. The original picture on the front was of the museum. By using only scissors and vague instructions we had to make that picture transform into an explosion. We did this fairly quickly. A big shout-out to whoever that was who helped us by showing us what to do! Arts and crafts are not our strong suit.
From there we had to race upstairs to the observation deck of the museum and answer three questions. This was pretty easy and we quickly received our next clue.
Our travels then took us to Splatball, Inc. on University Ave near the U of M campus. We had to put on helmets and enter a firing zone and hit three targets per team member. About a minute later, we were out of there and on our way to Historic Fort Snelling via light rail. The clue leading us to Fort Snelling ended with a cryptic, "rest your legs now because you'll need them for the next challenge..."
Well, we arrived at the Fort Snelling light rail station and exited the platform with most of the leaders. We had no clue as to where we were going from there. We started following other teams and we kept going and going and going, almost Energizer-style. It literally was over two miles to the site through rough terrain. Once at the fort, we were given four questions to answer. We raced around the fort looking for things like, 'how long did Dred Scot live at the Fort?' The answers came quickly and we were given our next clue. Unfortunately, this clue was leading us to Minnehaha Falls, which meant another long trip, uphill this time, back to the light rail station.
Eventually, we got back to the station and met up with some other teams that were also waiting for the light rail. We talked and figured that we were in the second group of teams making our way to the Falls.
Once at the Minnehaha Falls Park, we had to find a specific garden. This was also an arduous task as we sprinted around the park and down at least 200 steps. We reached our destination and discovered that we had to throw a lacrosse ball to each other all the way down the field into the net. I think we finished this rather quickly with only a few dropped shots that cost us maybe a minute or two.
After that, we had to sprint, walk, and crawl back up those 200 steps to the main park. We had to hop on these side-by-side bicycles and make our way around the park solving trivia questions. Three of the four questions were easy, the fourth took us a little bit longer and we used some outside help to verify the answer.
We received our next clue leading us to an international market on Lake Street and 10th Ave. The clue said, 'be ready for a cultural experience.' This definitely sounded like a food challenge and we were prepared to use our fast forward to skip right passed this one.
When we arrived at the market, a ton of other teams were there waiting for their honey dew herbal tea with tapioca bubbles at the bottom of them. Tea? Who can't do that? Moe raced over to where the teams were drinking their teas and discovered that every single team was just downing them so fast. The decision was made to keep the fast forward and do this seemingly easy challenge.
We took our teas and sat at a table right in front of the judges. Every last ounce needed to be downed. Every last tapioca bubble needed to be consumed. We arrived at this challenge as the 12th team. The 13th team arrived at the challenge about two minutes after we started our teas. They were out of there, literally, within minutes. We just couldn't drink those things! Swanson was getting very upset wondering why we just didn't skip that challenge to begin with like we had planned. Moe didn't have an answer. Team after team kept arriving, and finishing well before we did. At one point, Swanson had had enough. He raced to the bathroom and started purging the tea from his system. Moe (and the judges) could only laugh as Moe shoveled some of his tea and bubbles into Swanson's almost empty cup. So yes, Swanson did have to drink a little more than Moe, and yet, he never realized it at the time.
Finally...FINALLY...we finished those dang teas leaving the market in somewhere around 16th or 17th place. Moe said that no matter what the next challenge was, we were going to skip it. We opened our clue to reveal our next location as Bryant Lake Bowl.
Bowling?! How the HECK can we skip a bowling challenge? We're both in a bowling league and it's literally right up our alley. We headed off to the bowling alley and were shocked to discover every single team that had passed us, and MORE, were still at the challenge. It wasn't normal bowling however. If it had been, we'd be able to handle it because one of us has a 200 bowling average. We won't get into details of which team member has that average, but as a hint I'll say it's "me" with an "o" in the middle.
Anyway, this challenge had teams facing away from the pins and throwing the ball between their legs granny-style. Teams had to get a strike or spare to move on, and each team member had to do it. Every team was having so much trouble. We decided then to use our fast forward and skip this challenge. Heart-wrenching to leave the alleys, but it was the right choice.
Our next clue lead us to the Target Center. Once inside the arena, we had to decide between each member singing the national anthem, precisely with no mistakes; or, running throughout the stadium, looking on the back of seats for small written words.Once the teams find four words, they rush back to the judges and give them the words.
Swanson was gung-ho for the anthem challenge, but Moe was confident he didn't know all the words, verbatim. So we did the word challenge. It took us two times around the stadium to discover the words, but we got them and raced out of there.
Our last clue told us to high tail it back to the finish line at the Stone Arch Bridge. It was about twelve blocks way by foot. I'll politely, and tongue-in-cheekly, say, we "raced" back to the finish line. At one point throughout the day we were in 17th or so place. We arrived at the end, finishing in 8th. A top ten finish!
Can't wait to do it again… Moe
Hello all! This is Chester Copperpots coming to you. We won't go into heavy detail of the morning qualifier, but let's just say, we'll never eat another choco-covered hot dog again.
Well, our race is over. Another fun year. We thought we'd provide a 'short' re-cap of how our race went. This is our experience throughout the day. We earned a fast forward prior to the race. A fast forward allowed us to skip one challenge throughout the day. We had decided going into the race, that no matter what happens, we'll be skipping the food challenge. Last year, the food challenge was consuming a full bowl of the absolute hottest salsa you could imagine. It was not fun. Based on this, skipping the food challenge seemed like a no-brainer.
So the race started out at the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. Twenty-five teams were set to go as we began our journey. Our first task was using a rope to lasso your partner's foot from about eight to ten feet away. Swanson sat down on a chair, while Moe worked the lasso. It took us about five or six tries to get it right. We ran to the judges to get our next clue.
Our next challenge lead us a few blocks away to the Mill City Museum. We had to make something like a transforming brochure. The original picture on the front was of the museum. By using only scissors and vague instructions we had to make that picture transform into an explosion. We did this fairly quickly. A big shout-out to whoever that was who helped us by showing us what to do! Arts and crafts are not our strong suit.
From there we had to race upstairs to the observation deck of the museum and answer three questions. This was pretty easy and we quickly received our next clue.
Our travels then took us to Splatball, Inc. on University Ave near the U of M campus. We had to put on helmets and enter a firing zone and hit three targets per team member. About a minute later, we were out of there and on our way to Historic Fort Snelling via light rail. The clue leading us to Fort Snelling ended with a cryptic, "rest your legs now because you'll need them for the next challenge..."
Well, we arrived at the Fort Snelling light rail station and exited the platform with most of the leaders. We had no clue as to where we were going from there. We started following other teams and we kept going and going and going, almost Energizer-style. It literally was over two miles to the site through rough terrain. Once at the fort, we were given four questions to answer. We raced around the fort looking for things like, 'how long did Dred Scot live at the Fort?' The answers came quickly and we were given our next clue. Unfortunately, this clue was leading us to Minnehaha Falls, which meant another long trip, uphill this time, back to the light rail station.
Eventually, we got back to the station and met up with some other teams that were also waiting for the light rail. We talked and figured that we were in the second group of teams making our way to the Falls.
Once at the Minnehaha Falls Park, we had to find a specific garden. This was also an arduous task as we sprinted around the park and down at least 200 steps. We reached our destination and discovered that we had to throw a lacrosse ball to each other all the way down the field into the net. I think we finished this rather quickly with only a few dropped shots that cost us maybe a minute or two.
After that, we had to sprint, walk, and crawl back up those 200 steps to the main park. We had to hop on these side-by-side bicycles and make our way around the park solving trivia questions. Three of the four questions were easy, the fourth took us a little bit longer and we used some outside help to verify the answer.
We received our next clue leading us to an international market on Lake Street and 10th Ave. The clue said, 'be ready for a cultural experience.' This definitely sounded like a food challenge and we were prepared to use our fast forward to skip right passed this one.
When we arrived at the market, a ton of other teams were there waiting for their honey dew herbal tea with tapioca bubbles at the bottom of them. Tea? Who can't do that? Moe raced over to where the teams were drinking their teas and discovered that every single team was just downing them so fast. The decision was made to keep the fast forward and do this seemingly easy challenge.
We took our teas and sat at a table right in front of the judges. Every last ounce needed to be downed. Every last tapioca bubble needed to be consumed. We arrived at this challenge as the 12th team. The 13th team arrived at the challenge about two minutes after we started our teas. They were out of there, literally, within minutes. We just couldn't drink those things! Swanson was getting very upset wondering why we just didn't skip that challenge to begin with like we had planned. Moe didn't have an answer. Team after team kept arriving, and finishing well before we did. At one point, Swanson had had enough. He raced to the bathroom and started purging the tea from his system. Moe (and the judges) could only laugh as Moe shoveled some of his tea and bubbles into Swanson's almost empty cup. So yes, Swanson did have to drink a little more than Moe, and yet, he never realized it at the time.
Finally...FINALLY...we finished those dang teas leaving the market in somewhere around 16th or 17th place. Moe said that no matter what the next challenge was, we were going to skip it. We opened our clue to reveal our next location as Bryant Lake Bowl.
Bowling?! How the HECK can we skip a bowling challenge? We're both in a bowling league and it's literally right up our alley. We headed off to the bowling alley and were shocked to discover every single team that had passed us, and MORE, were still at the challenge. It wasn't normal bowling however. If it had been, we'd be able to handle it because one of us has a 200 bowling average. We won't get into details of which team member has that average, but as a hint I'll say it's "me" with an "o" in the middle.
Anyway, this challenge had teams facing away from the pins and throwing the ball between their legs granny-style. Teams had to get a strike or spare to move on, and each team member had to do it. Every team was having so much trouble. We decided then to use our fast forward and skip this challenge. Heart-wrenching to leave the alleys, but it was the right choice.
Our next clue lead us to the Target Center. Once inside the arena, we had to decide between each member singing the national anthem, precisely with no mistakes; or, running throughout the stadium, looking on the back of seats for small written words.Once the teams find four words, they rush back to the judges and give them the words.
Swanson was gung-ho for the anthem challenge, but Moe was confident he didn't know all the words, verbatim. So we did the word challenge. It took us two times around the stadium to discover the words, but we got them and raced out of there.
Our last clue told us to high tail it back to the finish line at the Stone Arch Bridge. It was about twelve blocks way by foot. I'll politely, and tongue-in-cheekly, say, we "raced" back to the finish line. At one point throughout the day we were in 17th or so place. We arrived at the end, finishing in 8th. A top ten finish!
Can't wait to do it again… Moe
