Approximately 130 University of Central Florida Students participated on Feb. 20 in the thirteenth annual Adventure Race hosted by UCF’s Recreation and Wellness Center.
The race took place at seven locations all across the UCF main campus starting and ending at Lake Claire’s pavilion. It began at 9 a.m. and lasted until approximately 1:30 p.m. and was consisted of events including kayaking, a challenge course, rock climbing and other outdoor activities.
Thirty-one teams of four competed and a team of three were present for the whole race but were ineligible to win due to a lack of a fourth member.
As one of UCF’s biggest days of outdoor fun, students were engaged in multiple challenges that tested their team’s speed and determination to finish and win the race.
The Random Meta ChGs, a team of graduate students, were the winners of the race with a time stamp of one hour, forty minutes and thirty seconds. The team comprised of Colin Constant, Rafael Guzman, Laura Sisken and Abraham Vazquez. All four individuals on the winning team are students in the college of optics and photonics.
“It was a good time and a lot of fun,“ Constant said. “I like having a goal, doing active stuff, working in a team and solving puzzles.”
According to the winning team, they collectively agreed they didn’t expect to come in first place and that the win came as a shock.
Besides a rigorous workout and a good time, contestants of the race received a complimentary Adventure Race T-shirt along with other freebies including stickers, water bottles and pizza from Lazy Moon. Prize packages were awarded to the first six teams to finish the race and those six were able to select their prize as a team in the order they finished.
After all teams crossed the finish line, the event concluded with a raffle and a winner for most creative photo using the #adventureknights hashtag. Prizes for the raffle included outdoor tools and accessories, and three Adidas giftcards valued at $225 collectively.
Alisha Hardsaw, a junior and winner of the $100 Adidas giftcard, was ecstatic to win as two of her teammates left early and gave her their raffle tickets.
“Our other teammates left early and they were like, ‘I hope you win something with our tickets,’“ Hardsaw said. “I’ve never won anything before.”
Once the raffle completed, the RWC awarded a Kind granola bars package and the title of the most creative photo to the team of three who weren’t eligible to win the race.
The winning photo depicted Ashley Allen, a member of the smaller team, in the backseat of a UCF police car with the caption, ‘when you get in trouble for jaywalking.’ According to Allen, the photo was completely posed.
“My teammate thought it would be a funny picture. Since we only had a team of three we weren’t allowed to win just because we had less people than the requirements so we set a goal of trying to win the photo contest instead,“ Allen said.
Photos from the event can be found on UCF’s Recreation and Wellness Facebook page along with the hashtag #adventureknights on Instagram.
Photo credit: Lauren Pierce
