The First Vikes Amazing Race, and How YOU Can Help Lead your Faculty to Victory this Wednesday, November 22

You may have seen some of the signs around campus advertising for the first Annual Vikes Amazing Race, but what is it, and what does it have to do with you?

The Vikes Amazing Race is a fundraiser for United Way, which is a local charity that addresses issues like poverty by funding a network of services and creating long-term strategies to target the root causes of social issues.

United Way has a long term partnership with UVic, and you may have noticed some of their other initiatives around campus, like the Plasma Car Races, the Bug Push, or the Library Book Sale. This year, we wanted to come up with a new, exciting event to get students more involved.

So what is the Vikes Amazing Race?

Basically, we have recruited 21 athletes from 7 of our varsity teams (rugby, basketball, cross country and track, rowing, swimming, field hockey, and soccer) to participate in a sports-oriented amazing race.

Each varsity team has come up with a challenge that has to do with their sport. As a spoiler, the swim team’s challenge involves creating a pyramid out of kick boards. Athletes will then race in their faculty teams (e.g. Humanities) to try to complete all the challenges first!

How do you come in?

I don’t know about you, but I want my faculty (let’s go Education!!) to win. Students and faculty can get involved by donating to their faculty team or by completing challenges. Donations to your faculty team can be made here. The faculty with the highest number of donations going in will receive a thirty second head start over the other teams! So far, the faculty of Humanities is in the lead.

Here’s the fun part. After the Varsity athletes have raced their way through all 7 challenges, students and faculty members can come down and try the challenges (by donation). For each challenge a person is able to complete, they’ll earn five points towards their faculty, helping to determine the overall faculty winner. You’ll also get to enter your name into the raffle, getting the chance to win UVic swag, tickets to Cinecenta, or even a Strathcona Hotel gift certificate. Warning: the challenges will not be easy!! (But you will get to choose which ones to try.)

Where and when?

The main event will take place in the Fieldhouse at CARSA (upon going through the entranceway gate, head up the stairs on the right and onto the second floor, where the track and basketball hoops are), on this Wednesday, November 22nd at 12:30. The Varsity Athlete race will start around 12:30, and then students and faculty will have the chance to try the challenges from 1:15-2:00pm.

Athlete Roster

Faculty of Business:
Alex Hale (Women’s Rowing)
Logan Fisher (Men’s Soccer)
Timothy Longley (Track / XC)