the amazing race - toronto edition.

Ever since I got called down to be a contestant on the Price is Right last year (I'll write about this in the future), Mister and I have been DYING to go on the Amazing Race. We've been HUGE fans of the show since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, they don't accept Canadian applicants. So when we heard about this one-day Toronto version, we were SOOO GAME.

In the days leading up to the event, we spent time researching what the event was going to be like, picking up tips, and planning our strategy. We knew in total, twelve clues would be given, though only 11 needed to be completed. We thought it was pretty obvious: rather than running around aimlessly, take the time to decipher all the clues in the beginning and figure out what would be the most efficient path to take. No matter how heavy it was going to be, we were going to bring two laptops and a Crackberry. 

And with 300+ teams, we were sure to get into the Top 50, or so we thought.

The initial meet-up point was at this bar on Front St. W. I had been there before, but not like this. Never in my life had I imagined it would ever be this packed, SCHIESSE! Just think, 600 bodies emanating retarded amounts of body heat on an already retardedly hot and humid day. Mister and I were sweating buckets even before the race started. (Now imagine how gross we were later. haha.)

Familiar t-shirt? Indeed, that is the same one we made for the Price is Right. We were hoping for some of that same good luck!

So as the guns fired POW (or rather little volunteer girls, my size, moved out of the way), we were off on our race, alongside our fellow mob of racers! We dashed to the nearest Second Cup and wi-fi'd all our clues. Both Mister and I are pretty much Google Masters, so we just made magic happen. With our combined OCDness, we had addresses, phone numbers, even screenshots of what these places looked like.

With our lists in hand, we went dashing through the streets. Weird stares from strangers left and right. Everyone kept trying to read our shirts. As we zoomed past them, we'd leave them in dust and they would whisper, "Whoa, Price is Right t-shirts!".  Haha. Oh, you bet! We are indeed the type of insane people who wait 8 hours in line to be on childhood game shows and run through the streets like maniacs.

The activities were all over the place: some required us to solve murder mystery riddles, fold orgami, tie nautical knots, decorate cupcakes, take pictures of random things, learn Muay Thai, and play with snakes!

Although we were weary that strangers would hesitate to take pictures with/for us, surprisingly, the response was the opposite! I have to say, I've never been so proud of you Toronto! People loved trying to help us out, they wanted to know how they could join something like this in the future and of course, everyone asked about our t-shirts (and thereafter heard a 30 sec rendition of our Price is Right story).

And time and time again, we'd be running like CRAZY HORSES! 

Or rather, I'd be running intermittently while Mister ran like a crazy horse. haha. 

You see, Mister is an avid runner and cyclist. Me? Not so much. I am more along the lines of a couch potatoer (at least when it comes to strict cardio). 

Of course, we'd always start out running together out of the TTC stations. Then after a while, he'd notice I wasn't next to him. He'd turn around, realizing he's ahead of me by quite a bit. Surely, I'd always wave from afar with a giant smile on my face. 

Our time? 4 hours and 6 minutes. 

Definitely not something to be bragging about, considering the first place team finished in nearly half the time. But hey, we wanted to play this game our way, without pairing up with teams and doing only half the clues (CHEATERS!), etc. etc. We wanted to have fun and run around like douchebags, and boy did we ever. We got to see the city in a way we never have (finally going to areas like Kensington Market, which I've been meaning to go to since high school), we got to bond over our (not-so-great) strategic organizational skills, we met a tonne of wonderful fellow Torontonians, and shared oodles and oodles of great laughs.

Overall, a really wonderful experience! So glad I got to do something like this with Mister Mister.

City Hall for our celebratory POO-TIN.