JanSport Super Sized Summer: Takeshi Castle and Amazing Race combined into one fun game

I’ve been into serious running for almost three years now and even before that, I always love to do outdoor sports like hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. I got into these types of sports mainly because I enjoy them more than playing ball games (which I was never really good at). I even joined indoor wall climbing competition before and joined a lot of races and often times I tend to be competitive.

I found out about the JanSport Super Sized Summer race from my wife, Ruth who is also a blogger and does the opposite of what I’m passionate about. She loves reading books, writing, blogging and show little interest in fast movement type of sports. I got excited about the event because I find the activities and obstacles to be challenging and fun. My wife got excited too when she found out that the first prize is 50,000 pesos.

Along with six other bloggers, we went to the bay area of SM Mall of Asia where the JanSport activity was being held. There were about a hundred individuals (mostly young people) who registered and we were all teamed in pairs. My wife insisted that we pair together so we can have the prizes all for ourselves (and she said this with much confidence that we will surely win). I agreed with her but in the back of my mind we won’t stand a chance against other pairs who were much fitter and younger than us.

All of us were given race kits with map of where the obstacles are located. As the emcee was briefing everybody about the rules of the race, my wife and I were busy strategizing our “guerrilla-tactics” with matching militaristic enthusiasm coming from her. I noticed the distances between obstacles were quite far apart and I was a bit anxious for her on the physical stress of the activity will poured on her. But I kept my cool and waited for the race to start.

At the start of the race, we immediately ran to the obstacle course and did our first task. It was a mix of tire-hopping, web-crawling and a couple of jump ropes and hula hoops. It was a surge of adrenalin rush for me and I enjoyed doing it. As we went to the second task, my partner was already having difficulty catching her breath. The Second task was the Sack Race, where both us will jump our way together inside a big JanSport Bag. That Sack race literally drained the life out of my partner in just few jumps. (So much for the militaristic strategy).

Right after the sack-race which made my partner partly De-commissioned, everything was on a snail pace and I was practically dragging her to go to the next station, and we’re just on our third task. Luckily, the succeeding tasks were not as physically draining for her like the coin crawler, the match the difference and a short wall climbing stint. Just as we’re about to finish with just a few stations to go, we were caught up in the Soda drinking task where both will have to drink a bottle of 1.5 litter of Coca-cola. The few sips were really thirst quenching but to finish the whole bottle was too much for two people can handle, most especially for a race partner with a bladder capacity of only two table spoon full. Naturally, I was the one that had to finish most of its contents which made me almost puke but was able to hold it. Unfortunately, some literally spilled out from my nostrils. 

After the last two stations, we finally finish the race and we ranked #31. We didn’t get to win but I was still proud of my partners who finished the race with me despite her physical limitations when it comes to sports and outdoor activities. 

After the short program, I we were treated with hefty dinner along with other members of the media at Giligan’s and had the most awesome time ending the summer with friends. ;)

Note: Photos courtesy of JanSport and Kumagcow.com