Buckets of Fun in Loveland, OH

Loveland’s Amazing Race was a real treat for Liz and I this past Saturday. She and I took part on this event that was very unique on its format. Before I say anything else I can assure you that we had BLAST!!!

It is safe to say that nobody knew what to expect before the race got underway. All we knew was the location of the Start/Finish line and the bike corral. We had no idea about the challenges that were waiting for us ahead.

But soon after 12:39PM we started to find out… after a quick run to the bike corral we rode about 2 or 2.5 miles to the Loveland High School where we encountered the start of the stations…
Station #1: Flipping a semi-truck tire end to end for 40 yards out and back – Back breaking to get things started.
Station #2: Bike handling skills (kicking a soccer ball while riding and aiming it to a goal; throw bean bag into bucket while moving; winding course through traffic cones; maintain balance on plank) – Kicking the ball riding is much harder than what you think!
Station #3: Lego house building – Liz nailed the roof, I completed the rest…team work in action.
Station #4: Run two laps around a parked car – We are not sure what was that all about… later on we found out that in the car’s trunk there were a set of envelopes with challenges in them and whoever drew before us drew for us to run around the car… don’t ask don’t tell…
Station #5: Choice between Rock Climbing and Mental Challenge – Can you guess which one we did?
Station #6: Fence building – That was an unexpected challenge. Lucky for us we got to see some people struggle with it so we got through it quick.
Station #7: Canoeing – Nothing to it…Liz has the guns and got us through it no problem.
Station #8: Paintball Target Range – Liz is a sensational sharpshooter, she got us out of there in no time with some accurate hits. I could barely catch my breath…
Station #9: Fire Department Water Challenge – My personal favorite, while Liz controlled the water hose I had to try and attempt to catch water in a small bucket and transport it to a bigger bucket until it was full. That was a ton of fun just standing in the water arch getting soaked to the bone…but on a hot day like that there was nothing better!
Station #10: Pitcher filling blindfolded – Thanks to Liz’s guidance I was able to gather all glasses and fill up the pitcher all while not being able to see a thing…
Station #11: Grocery cart challenge – At the Kroger parking lot Liz and I had to use all of out strength and coordination to get the carts through this figure eight field. I have a new appreciation for the people hauling the long line of grocery carts out there.
Station #12: 100 pennies – Can you estimate 100 pennies from a jar during the heat of competition… well we couldn’t…our estimate was way to high so we had to serve a 2 minute penalty in the sin bin.
Station #13: Dunk Tank – After a long run up the hill we arrived to the dunk tank station. Liz sat on the plank and I attempted to aim for the target. I missed all my tries so Liz thought she was off the hook…not so fast my friend! One of the volunteers was there ready to make her fall in the water… I was surprised and I am sure she was too!
Station #14: Bowling Challenge – Being soaking wet we made our way to the bowling alley to attempt our luck at a strike, or spare, or two nines… after slipping and falling Liz had the steady hand to get us two nice throws and I finished them up.
Station #15: Mental Challenge – I could barely tie my shoes do you think we could solve some math problems…? I think we copied the result from someone else doing it next to us…shhhh! Don’t tell anyone!
Station #16: Pizza Delivery – Have you ever seen motorized coolers…? Some how we had to ride these things around this course. Surprisingly enough they were fast, I could not believe it.
Station #17: Curves – We had to go through and use every single machine in the joint while collecting a set of letter to spell out a secret word. The ladies at curves had some serious enthusiasm. Great to see!
Station #18: Washers – After another long run we made it to the washers station. Each of had to put the washer in the box. We got through this with flying colors. Did not spend much time there at all.
Station #19: Move a Mountain – We had to move 300 lbs. worth of weights from one end of the parking lot to the next. Between the two of us it was not trouble. I am telling you my wife was some guns!
Station #20: Three legged challenge – Finally the last station! We had to go through a set of challenges and race to the finish line. The coordination factor at this point was a the biggest challenge but we got through it somehow.

TEAM GUANABANA completed the course in 1:48:00 good enough for 3rd place amongst all coed teams. If I remember correctly there were over 130 teams in the competition so Liz and I are more than pleased with out performance. It was a really good time. I would recommend this race to anyone willing to try something different and unique. For a first time event the organization was right on and I am sure a lot of people had a great time.

Thanks for reading.

The “Amazing” Clot Buster