Amazing Race at GCCC

September 29, 2013

What a fun day! Gold Creek Community Church Amazing Race was a great experience with our small group.

Gold Creek created an Amazing Race, styled after the CBS hit show all over our community. Our small group formed 2 teams: 5 boys against 6 girls. The ladies called themselves The Bigby small group: The Better Half.

At Sunday church service we had to go together and watch and listen during service for the code word starting with AR. It’s funny that while everyone was home for lunch with their significant others who everyone reacted; who was secretive, who tried to fool their spouse & who felt they could not trust anything the other said! As Joe said; Funny how a little friendly competition makes you question everything your spouse says.
Jackie getting ready for Gold Creek Church-The Amazing Race.

Bigby Team: The Better Half ready to race!

First task: each team had to stack chairs filling 2 carts worth in the sanctuary. This task is what did the girls team in. After being given the okay as the other teams ran out of the room, their chair stacks fell over. Our team spent time saving them from falling on people. We also stacked the chairs the wrong way twice. We were in dead last leaving the sanctuary. 

Second task: one team member had to sit on a skateboard while the rest of the team pushed and pulled them from the back parking lot behind the church to the front entrance drive. Of course with the girls being last Jackie had to sit her butt on the smallest skateboard the would not go straight.

Third task: The entire team had to run down to Island Time to earn a number of tickets playing skeeball and other similar arcade games.

Fourth task: At a storage facility nearby we had pop sheets of bubble wrap and climb through boxes into a small room to find our next clue for the next task.

Fifth task: We had to run back up to Gold Creek Community Church to scoop up 10 goldfish from a kiddy pool either with a frying pan or our bare hands.

Sixth task: Our next clue led us to Willis Tucker Park playground. We found the last #10 clue on the spiderweb structure.

Seventh task: We had to sing a "King" song to 3 expert judges (Pastor Larry and 2 others). We made up some time here by passing a team or 2. These judges were tough. You really had to put on the song and dance as a group to get through.
Eighth task: This clue was hard. No google search would help. Britton thankfully recalled this place on Hwy 9 that had a beach volleyball court. Bottega Fitness Personal Training had an obstacle course set up the entire team had to do.

Ninth task: We had to go to McDonalds. We ran in only to hear someone else to use the drive-thru. We never saw Cheryl to get the actual clue. We went thru the drive-thru and got our food & drink. We all had to get out of the car to eat all the food & drink before getting the next clue. The boys didn’t follow the rules. They got the drive-thru attendants not give them French fries and they dumped their soft drink so they had a lot less to scarf down.

Tenth task: We went to Glacier Peak high school football field. One team member had to search under cones on the field for our team number 10 and then we were given a puzzle to put together as a team. Ours somehow had an extra piece. That must have been a mistake. 

Eleventh task: Someone on the team had to kick a 20 yard field goal. Britton went first, no good. Kim went and first try the kick is good! The boys did it even easier. While everyone was listening to instructions, Ryan Bigby steps up and puts it straight through the uprights.

Twelfth task: We had to free our bag of 10 goldfish in the pond of someone’s backyard. Then bucket by bucket transport water up the hill from the pond to fill a bin to a certain level. We made up some time here by bending the rules. It never mentioned we couldn't fill our plastic bag the goldfish were in as well as the given bucket. As we ran out we noticed the boys team forgot their bucket plus other objects at this obstacle site. We began the internal debate if we should tell them or not. We were supposed to hold onto our bucket throughout the entire race and bring it to each obstacle as well as have all our clues at the end.

Thirteenth task: This was the toughest obstacle yet. The reason why we were told to wear something we didn’t mind getting wet. As we reached the backyard of this home, we were told the entire team had to get in the pool to collect 10 rubber duckies with our team number on them. Sara, Autumn and I quickly got down to our bathing suits and waded into the FREEZING cold pool for find the rubber duckies marked with a #10 on the bottom in the middle of the pool. Some of the other ladies waded into shallow end to find rubber duckies on the edge. It was so cold! We blasted the heat once we got our next clue.

Fourteenth task: This next clue really tripped us up saying it’s a popular destination on the 11^th of July. We were thinking 4^th of July at Silver Lake or something. The boys saw our car in the empty parking lot right when the date clued us in. 7-11! We drove over and sucked down a slurpee.

Fifteenth task: The next clue tripped us all up for a bit. A popular grocery store with international items. It took re-reading the top title: Market in the Middle. Central Market! The boys really lost time with this one. They were in first place. They went to Trader Joe’s before figuring it out.

Sixteenth task: We finally found Pastor Larry at the north entrance for our next clue. We had to find particular license plates on cars in the parking lot.

Seventeenth task: Next clue took us to Spotted Cow Cream and Bean. Here we waited in line to order a coffee. We made our order and gave the barista a wink to complete the task.

Eighteenth task: We were given a clipboard and ordered to get 10 people’s signatures on our petition to stop the rain in Seattle. We caught 2 girls running by, one that knew we were doing the Amazing Race because she heard about it at Gold Creek. We went over to Blazing Onion’s outdoor patio to try some guys in football jerseys. It took a little flirting but we got their signatures.

The boys team read the top of the next clue that read 'Pit Stop' which caused Joe to drive them quickly over to Clay Pit, an Indian restaurant in Mill Creek Towne Center. 4 guys run in and the hostess asks 4? And Bigby exclaims "YES Team 4!" It is then that they realize they were in the wrong place and run out. We still chuckle about this to this day.

Nineteenth task: This clue took us to Les Schwab Tire. Here we had to wash our car and tires to the judge’s high standards. We also had to eat some Taco Bell and then got our next final clue.

Twentieth task: We went back to Gold Creek to answer tough questions about things from our clues. Solon gave us some tips to help us finish faster.

Twentieth first task: Run around the parking lot to the back entrance to church. We made it to the finish line!

Kim, Autumn, Jackie, Margo, Sara & Britton at the final line 

The girls at finish line in their t-shirts

The boys at the finish line still upset with their misprinted clue. It was blank! 

We had a blast on our 3.5 hour race involving frying pans, storage facilities, obstacle courses, cold swimming pools and rubber duckies, 7-11 slurpees, Central Market, Spotted Cow, tacos, Les Schwab, and lots of running like mad men.