The Amazing Race

18 October

My eyes opened suddenly. I felt mentally awake and decided to get to the remote. I raised myself onto my elbows and felt a sharp pain sear right up to my shoulders. My ribs stung me. My body just wanted to fall back flat onto the mattress. It was to be expected though. I don't really engage in such strenuous activities on a regular basis.

Upon reaching home after the race I calculated the distance our team had covered (8.267 km) and I weighed myself. It showed 58.7 KG. I was 60.2 KG in the morning when I left for the race.

To move was difficult as the body had stiffened up. Walking from the bedroom to the kitchen was a struggle. I tried to remember when exactly I had tweaked my ankle, couldn’t think clearly, needed ice.

I didn't feel like eating.  Water or juice was all I craved for. Why did I sign up for this? The shoulders, calves, knee, quadriceps, temples, ribs, spine were all reminding me of my exertions in the morning.

It was the IC Youth Fest and the first event was The Amazing Race. I've watched the show of the same name on TV and have always imagined myself in such a race. 

We didn't know how long the race would be in terms of distance and time. All we knew was that it would be long and it would be tiring. It would drain us physically and mentally. 

This was the only event of the Youth Fest that I was competing in.

The stops were scattered to avoid large queues at all the stops. We were timed at every location. The app would record the time at which we solved the riddle to our first location and then we would be timed whenever we solved the next riddle. The questions prior to every riddle contained 300 points for answers in 1st attempt and 200 in 2nd and 100 in 3rd and final attempt. Also at each stop our arrival time as well as our task completion time was noted. Maybe this was to help the teams that get delayed while waiting for their turn in case 2-3 teams reached the stop at the same time. The points and the times would be looked at and the winners would be announced the next day as this event isn’t like the Amazing Race we see on TV where all teams have tasks in the same order and have a common finish point. We couldn’t control the tasks beforehand, all we could do is walk fast and have a lower time. In the event of glitches, the organisers at the stop would note the time the task was completed to the time the team was able to solve the next riddle and continue on with the race.

Sitting on my bed and icing my knee I remembered the final task…

The Graveyard

This was the simplest task. We had to walk in the IC Church graveyard and find a particular grave and report the grave number to the task in charge. Simple. As we were 10 of us and we could divide the place amongst ourselves and search. The task was done in under a minute and the app told us that we were done. The brutal journey was over. I wanted to just sit down over there itself. No! Sitting there would only prolong my wait to get the rest my body was desiring. Now as I walked home, I noticed a limp, a pain in the ribs, and a feeling of dizziness. It was a quarter to two. 210 minutes back at 10:15 AM, when we were much fresher we had set off from the Church and headed to…

Cupcake Affair

I wasn't even aware of such a place. The riddle spoke about bite sized cakes. We entered the location in the app. Location confirmed. A glance around the church courtyard told me that many other teams were still figuring out their first clue. We quickly set off to the first location. The race had 20+ teams and we knew that all the teams would not be sent to the first location at the same time, but some of them would be, we had to reach first or else we would have to wait. The delayed start made us eager to set off as we wanted to move fast before the sun got higher and it became hotter. 

We reached the place and saw a table set on the footpath. There was a bucket of water net to it. We were first team to reach and could start the task (drop a 10 rupee coin into a glass kept inside a bucket of water) immediately.

Simple? No. The coin had to be held at waist high and had to be dropped perfectly into the water. It took us about 5 minutes to do it. I struggled here and was the 2nd last to finish. Upon completion of the task we got a question and upon answering it we got our next riddle. Our next stop was 2 km away at …..

Concessao Ground

Along the way to Concessao ground we passed a few of our competitors. I could see it in their eyes, they were tired. We put in effort in our walking so as to get into their heads a bit. I did it with the aim of getting them to go faster than they would and drain out their reserves. They did go faster :)

At Concessao, a hula hoop was placed on the floor, 2 metres away from a device that served as a slingshot. We had to fold papers and shoot them into the hoop. Easy task? Nope. The angle, pullback, wind currents etc. had to be taken into consideration. Also the psychological pressure of the race and physical exhaustion of walking over 2 km were factors. Would we be thinking clearly and focus on the task, or in the aim of finishing it just continue firing the paper aimlessly and wasting time with tired efforts?

3 papers had to fall into the hoop. Once a player shot a paper into the hoop they would be ineligible to try again. I waited a while whilst my team mates went 2 or 3 times (getting 1 paper into the hoop) and then having figured out a perfect angle, I fired a paper into the hoop on my first attempt. We got our next riddle which was surprisingly easy, but the journey… was not. We had another 2 km walk to……

Zen Garden

Taking all known shortcuts we reached Zen. I was getting a shoe bite. We saw 2 other teams approaching Zen and we ran so as to reach first and avoid waiting in a queue. The running left me panting heavily, but as all 10 of us reached, we beat out 2 other teams that were sprinting as well and they had to wait till we were done. I was struggling with a very simple task that required us to place a straw between our lips and transfer peas from one bowl to another. I feel I got an assist in that task, did I transfer 5 peas? Maybe. I remember doing 4 but I was really out of breath. I trust our officials, I’m sure they were competent and would have spotted a cheat attempt.

Psychologically I received a boost as after failing miserably in the task I overheard the other teams discussing where all they had been and overheard a 3rd team say their riddle out aloud. Those guys still had to visit Concessao. They still had to walk 2 km and they would be doing it under the harsh 11 30 AM sun. That energised me temporarily. We figured out that our next location was the ZOIC Pet Park (more commonly known as Dog Park)

Dog Park

This walk was relatively shorter and seemed like nothing after back to back 2 km walks. 

Our task here was to crawl and eat a biscuit from a string held by 2 volunteers. The catch was that all 10 had to do it without breaking the string. If the string broke the task would be restarted. We couldn't afford a restart. Upon completion we received our next riddle and found that our next task would be in our backyard of Holy Cross 1. Also the 450 M distance meant that we could run all the way there.

Slope

Our task here was to roll a tyre through two plastic chairs kept at a particular distance. Again, easy to think, but rolling that tyre on our uneven Indian roads meant that the tyre was constantly veering left and right. The app had a glitch here and all the three answers were wrong. We had to take an enforced pit stop (the time which would be deducted from our race time) This break gave me crucial rest time. It was now 12:10 PM. At 12: 45 we resumed the race and headed off to….

Mother Teresa Garden

After icing my knee I proceeded to the ankle, it was during the flat out sprint to the Mother Teresa Garden where I felt a slight tweak in my ankle. Possibly that extended break had caused my body to cool off and me trying to go at the speed I was prior to the break was not what the body needed, but it was crucial for the race.

I wasn't able to even properly participate in the next task (spoon in mouth and pass a marble to the next spoon without it falling. The task would be complete once the marble had been passed that way across all 10 players) dropped the marble but successfully managed to pass it to the next player with my hand due to some sort of distraction.

With every step I took a painful sensation was shooting up my leg right to my lower back. My brain was protesting at every step. It would have been kinder to quit and head off home. I didn't do it though, as this was the only event I was competing. I decided that I would give this my all and hold nothing back. After all, I would have the entire vacation to recover. Our next location was nearby though. That was another factor in me continuing on to the….

Crasto busses lane

The task here was that 5 people had to lift a potato with their legs, bunny hop 4 feet and drop it in another basket. This task was done quickly and we got our next clue after yet another glitch in the app (this time the glitch was solved in 5 minutes as we weren’t the first team to face it)

Our next location was….

Francis Ground

Back to almost where the race flagged off, we reached there fast, it felt as though we had hitched a ride there. Maybe a last push as we knew the end (an assumption as we had been to all the corners of our colony) was near masked the pain and just drove me to find that extra effort. Here we had to balance a ball on two ropes and roll it along the ropes, and drop it into a bucket. Crucially again, we were here first among the teams who had the Francis ground as their next stop. The game was paused as the organisers had their hands full with rectifying the glitches. Upon restart we were the first team to attempt that task before heading off to The Graveyard.

For someone who doesn't engage in such physical activities.

I had doubts about keeping up as it had been 5 and a half years since I quit tennis, and the team of 10 had college level footballers and basketballers. People who are active. My lifestyle is one of binging shows all day eating chips and my only activities are walking to and from college and running for a train and climbing the stairs in the college building.  

I considered completion of the race as an achievement.

19th October

It was the evening entertainment session of the IC Youth Fest. I went to church as I had told a friend that I would be coming after I missed the singing event the day before. To walk or even stand was a challenge, still, I decided to attend. It took me 20 minutes to walk from my place to the church. Usually that walk takes 5-10 minutes. The place was stacked with chairs and the youth were standing and enjoying the jive session from the corner. A few of us friends decided to get into the Pope Paul Hall as we wanted to get away from the sound. I heard the Amazing Race Winners being announced but didn't feel like I had the energy to go to the stage. Every step was a reminder of my exertion the day before. I pretended that I hadn't heard the announcement so that it would seem that I missed it rather than I couldn't climb the steps. I did go back out and stand where my team members saw me and gave me my medal.

This was the first time that I had received a medal for winning something, I’d mostly gotten certificates and coffee mugs for previous wins. The ribbon around my neck, weighed down by a shiny piece of metal did reduce the pain. I had seen athletes bite their medals at the Olympic Prize ceremonies and I tried it out myself. The cold, hard gold coin between my teeth made me smile despite everything. We had won and I was a part of the team.

The event according to me is one of speed (obviously as it is a race) and team work, there will be some moments where 1 or 2 out of the 10 may not be able to keep up, some people would be able to perform particular tasks faster and help.

The teams needed to have individuals who would constantly motivate their team mates and provide encouragement. We had that.

It is about commitment, as unless there was a serious injury, if we showed up at a task with less than 10 members we would receive a points penalty. It was important that we drag ourselves as we had voluntarily chosen to be a part of this event.

22nd October

4 days after the race, I finally was able to walk without pain shooting up my leg. I had a meal of rice on the 20th for dinner. It had just been juice, water and chips from the 18th afternoon to the 20th.

It was a test of my willpower, a test of endurance and it when I recount this story in person to anyone and they ask me what for. I can proudly display my gold medal....or a picture of it.