Who hasn’t watched The Amazing Race on TV and wondered if they have what it takes? I know I have, and, after competing in The Amazing Race for Charity two years ago, I knew I had the fire, if not the sense of direction.This year, CLEO rounded up eight of our most fearless friends (thanks to Living and Loving and People magazines for loaning us Lebo and Zea – they have been returned only slightly worse for wear) to compete in the ultimate race around Jo’burg because, well, we’ll take any excuse to wear tutus in public. Plus, proceeds go to charity and it really is the most fun you can have with your clothes on (and with them off as some participants proved at the pillow fight challenge, but more on that later).
Hosted by communications agency Halo and its founder Dean Oelschig, The Amazing Race for Charity started three years ago as Dean’s birthday celebration with 20 teams of his closest friends (I know, who has that many friends?). Since then, he’s organised one every six months, with proceeds going to charity. Over the years, it’s grown into a massive event, with teams putting the props departments of Oscar-winning films to shame with their outlandish outfits, ridiculous names and pimped-out rides.
A week before the race, it dawned us that we needed to put our game face on and Team Amazeballs was born. Practical and cute were key in planning our outfits and “toight and bright” became our dress code (think ’80s Madonna meets ’70s Jane Fonda). Suzuki came to the rescue, loaning us a sexy little SX4, perfect for navigating Jozi road works, potholes and detours in a hurry.
Cameras, phones and GPS devices fully charged, Team Amazeballs 1 and Team Amazeballs 2 arrived at The Baron in Sandton on Saturday, two hours before the start. Pretty soon, the quad was filled with Lego men, superheroes, pirates, Lady Gagas, The Flintstones, The A-Team, bumble bees, dominoes and a whole lot of spandex.
One Vida coffee and a Play Energy Drink later, and we were raring to go. First clue in hand, the teams dispersed in a manic fashion to track down the next set of clues. I won’t detail our every step because it’ll only make you sad that you weren’t there. Suffice to say, the clues were tricky, tricky, tricky.
After deciphering a crossword and an anagram, we counted coffee beans at 44 Stanley’s Bean There Coffee Company. We then rushed off to Nelson Mandela Square to take part in my first flash mob ever (I highly recommend it) and I can only imagine what the civilised patrons of the surrounding restaurants thought as hundreds of crazily-dressed people stormed the square with placards, shouting “His head’s too small” at the statue of Nelson Mandela. Moments later, the signal to disperse rang out and we made a mad dash to our cars for the next task. After shouting profanities at the Jaguar who’d parked us in, we hit the road again.
Pippa alley docked blind-folded while Nikki and I shouted, “Backwards, backwards grab!”, we performed the Thriller dance in the parking lot of Morningside Shopping Centre (another task I can tick off my bucket list), downed Jägermeister at The Codfather, as well as tequila at Cantina Tequila in Fourways (FYI: our driver Pippa abstained from alcohol during the race). We then tracked down the Fugitive (Dean’s leather-clad business partner Chris Koller – hot, hot, hot!) on his Harley at Giles Restaurant in Parktown, before making a chalk outline of our “dead” teammate Nikki on a suburban street in Parkhurst. Sjoe!
Two clues left to solve and we were stumped. We’d driven around Morningside, searching in vain for a Nashua Mobile balloon and overheard our competition talking about the pillow fight at the Field and Study Centre but were too suspicious to trust the intel (we later learned that some girls had performed the task shirtless, thus ticking off the number one task on every guy’s bucket list).
We turned to Siya (our cute-as-a-button fashion intern) who’d been monitoring the UJFM 95.4 airwaves all day on her phone looking for clues. The first teams were already in, so with no chance at winning, we hit a Shell Garage to take advantage of their pie-and-coke special (not part of the race but rewarding nevertheless) before returning to base camp for drinks, prize giving and high-fives.
In the end, 150 teams entered, all money raised (including a generous donation from The Baron) was donated to Philimpilo Community Care, the Lego Men won Best Dressed, and, after seven attempts, The Lost Superheroes won and donated their R10 000 prize money, sponsored by Play Energy and ABI, to Doctors Without Borders. Now that’s a win-win situation if you ask me.
If you want to be part of the next Amazing Race for Charity or see more pics from Saturday’s event, click here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087423&id=1463379015&l=0b8828c6ac
http://amazingraceforcharity.wordpress.com/
http://www.jeanetteverster.com/2010/10/the-amazing-race-for-charity-part-8/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7345882377
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