free-roam frolic fans flame
Eugene’s answer to The Amazing Race
The scavenger hunt is an activity so egregiously
underrated by the adult world as naïve or childish
that it really sucks the fun out of all that nostal-
gia. I ask you this: What would a child’s Easter be
without an egg hunt? What would playing pirate be
without an “X” marking the booty spot?
This said, there have been attempts at
adultifying the scavenger hunt — CBS’ The
Amazing Race, for instance — but we can’t all be on
national television, so what about those of us who
don’t mind feeling “naïve” for an afternoon? Or
those of us who want to perform arbitrary tasks at
breakneck speed in the name of good fun? The May
19 Frolic Grand Prix had the answer, and it will
again on Aug. 25, during the Eugene Celebration.
The self-proclaimed “running, thinking, biking,
laughing adventure across Eugene” takes the child
and makes it wild. Some of the outlandish tasks
contestants needed to perform during the last
Frolic certainly weren’t designed for kids. The
race itself found its hub (start line and finish line)
at Monroe Park, but beyond the perimeter of that
grassy safe house stood five challenges waiting to
be conquered: a dinosaur spelling bee, a beer chug/
hot wing chowdown, folding a corner sheet, re-
creating a photograph and a pop quiz about biofuel.
Beyond the fact that these tasks had potential
to be taxing outright, there was another matter
facing the 23 teams that signed up to compete:
transportation.
With each task occurring at an individual local
business, watching contestants voyage efficiently
in teams of two was a display of improvisational
magic: Tandem bicycles, fanny-pack adorned
joggers and folks mapping routes on smart phones
and various GPS systems ran wild in the streets
surrounding Monroe Park, with each team covered
in spirited garb and colorful trim.
Sweat-soaked racers delegated among
themselves the chugging of a 12-oz. Ninkasi’s
Spring Reign and the consumption of a single
insane sauce wing at Hot Mama’s Wings.
“When did it get so hot in here?” remarked one
exasperated, purple-wigged fella upon entering
the joint. “I’ll take the beer.”
Frolic Grand Prix
Over at Laughing Planet Café, customers
were overwhelmed with mirth and excitement as
they held up plastic dinosaurs before the eyes of
exhausted contestants. Here the racers battled
with language — an admirable foe if ever there
were one — as they attempted to spell the names
of various prehistoric beasts without the aid of
pen and paper. Turns out reciting the word S-T-E-
G-O-S-A-U-R-U-S is a lot more daunting without a
physical cross-reference.
Back at the hub, Jurassic 5 blasted from a PA,
greeting waves of exhausted racers — most of
whom saved the photo re-enactment for last.
For the Indie Pop Soda-sponsored task at
McDonald Theatre, racers locked up their bikes
and set about snapping cell phone pictures (or,
for the less technologically advanced, furiously
memorizing) a photo. Upon returning to Monroe
Park, the teams had to replicate the image. The
results of this one were utterly bizarre, but full of
salty smiles nonetheless.
After advancing to the finals, three teams made
their way down to the Ninkasi Brewery in order
to complete their last, furiously competitive task:
solving before anyone else a jigsaw puzzle made of
blocks. In true scavenger spirit, the first to complete
their puzzle raised the flag of victory high for all to
see and were proclaimed the winners.
“It all went really well,” Frolic-founder Bryan
Jensen says. “The sponsors are happy, we’re happy.
We had a couple lessons learned, but overall it was
fairly smooth and a lot of fun.”
The good news is that this is definitely not
the last you’ll hear of Frolic Grand Prix. The
next circuit takes place Aug. 25 during Eugene
Celebration weekend. Sign up before June 23
to compete. This is a highly recommended stop
for your summer — just make sure you bring
your game face and a not-so-childish sense of
adventure. — Andy Valentine
For more information about the upcoming Frolic Grand Prix, visit
grinathletics.com/frolicgrandprix
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EUGENE WEEKLY JUNE 7, 2012
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