* From: Courtney Crooks
* Event: New England Fitness Challenge
* Event Details
Be aware – I did not compete – I went along as “team manager”, but did attend every event throughout the night/morning.
At Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA
Basically, it was a giant tailgate, before, after and during the event. People went all out with RV’s, grills, crock pots hooked up to car batteries – the works!
Portapotties were in the parking lot, however they got gross pretty fast. Luckily, facilities were open in and around the stadium for us to use.
Not sure on the schwag. From what I saw people taking out of the bags, they all got t-shirts, $20 gift cards to Reebok as well as assorted trial items – Shot Bloks, bars, etc.
* Race Details
The event started at 9pm with an opening ceremony and a meeting of the captains of each team (40 total) to give them a schedule of events. Teams were grouped into fours, however our team only had 3 in the group (we never found out what happened to the fourth).
First event started at 10pm and the last event started at 8am, with a closing ceremony at 9am. Each event started every hour, on the hour and was VERY well organized. We always knew where to go and when to go there. Between each event, depending on how long it took, you would have down time to go back, eat, use the restroom, change clothes or nap if you so choose. Each event had 10 members out of the 15 on your team compete. The only exceptions were the truck pull and the final run, which had all members compete. The list of events and descriptions was as follows:
Keg Relay – for this event, each team member had to line up on a 10 yard line (10, 20, 30, etc). Starting at the goal line, they would sprint out to the next team member with an empty keg, pass it off, run back, grab another one, repeat until all were passed to the other end. They then had to pass them all back to where they started.
Sandbag run – each team member had to either carry a Wreck Bag (sand bag) or push a wheelbarrow full of sand bags around the inside of the stadium and back.
Sand pile migration – each team had a huge pile of sand they had to move from one end of a parking lot to another, using only 5 gallon buckets, shovels and brooms.
Puzzle – each team was given a map to a location with a bag of puzzle pieces within the stadium. They had to get all the pieces and return to the start and assemble the puzzle.
Log carry – each team had to carry a log together to a check point. At each check point, the team would kneel down and another team member would cross the log. They would then return to start, team member would cross the log and they would move to next farthest check point. At the end, they all had to lift the log up and down until each member had crossed the log.
Super tag – all teams were given flag football style belts with 2 flags a piece. On go, they all basically just chased each other in a free-for-all and the last team standing with any flags was the winner.
Operation – each team had a station with a truck tire, 3 sledgehammers, a Wreck Bag and the board game Operation. While 3 team members hammered the tire at any given time, one other team member would run with the Wreck Bag up the stadium steps, across, down and back. They then had to take a piece out of the Operation game board and then jump into the rotation of hammering until all pieces had been removed.
Dolly – each team had a dolly they had to push up one of the stadium ramps with another team member sitting on it. Whoever was pushed up last would then run back down with it and pick up the next team member. This was repeated up a few flights and then they had to run back down.
Truck pull/Tire flip – each team had to pull a cement truck 50 yards, then run back and flip a truck tire to meet up with the truck. This was repeated 4 times. This was one of the two full team events where everyone was to compete.
Stretcher – each team had a medical stretcher. One teammate was strapped into it and the rest had to carry them up several flights of stairs and then back down before un-strapping them and running to the finish.
Final Run – an approximately mile and a half run around the perimeter of the outside of the stadium (approximately mileage based off of a teammate’s pedometer). This was the other of the full team events.
There was an after party, but it wasn’t executed as well as the event itself. I ended up leaving before it even started (2 hours after the event ended) because I was so tired, but basically they were just going to be handing out awards and serving food.
This is definitely going on my list for next year to actually compete. If you want to read more, with tons of pictures, check out the full review on my blog: http://dontblinkjustrun.com/2014/10/01/nefc-recap/
* Rating
Excellent
