You may have seen or at least heard of the hit TV show ‘The Amazing Race,’ but what would you think if someone told you that the ‘A-Maze-ing Race’ was coming to Rexburg?
Andrew Graham-Porter and Cameron Paschal are the event organizers of the race, which will be put on primarily at the Escape Straw Maze in St. Anthony.
“I got really bored, so I started twiddling my thumbs, and I just started thinking about what would be the most fun,” Graham-Porter said. “I love the show ‘The Amazing Race,’ so I got 16 of my closest friends and came up with 5-6 hours of challenges for them to run through and they got tortured, but it was the most fun to watch.”
It may be fun to watch from the perspective of the event organizer or a spectator, but sometimes not so much for those actually in the race.
“He introduced it as a scavenger hunt,” Paschal said, talking about Graham-Porter. “All of us had this big misconception on what we were actually getting into, and then when we actually got into it, we were like, ‘Oh, OK, so this is going to be 5 hours of sprinting around, using our brains?’ It was pretty brutal, but it was so fun. Super fun, super hard.”
Despite how much fun the race was last year, Graham-Porter says this year will be even better.
“This one’s going to be even more fun because we’re having spectators,” Graham-Porter said. “It will end at The Escape Straw Maze, so you can come and watch them finish and do some of the challenges that the contestants have done. You’ll get to watch people have the worst day of their life.”
There is a $10 entry fee to watch the race at the straw maze. With a ticket, attendees will also receive ice cream and cookies from Iceberg and Twisted Sugar, coupons from local businesses, and be able to participate in some of the same challenges as the participants as a type of audition for next year’s race.
Stories will also be posted throughout the day to keep spectators updated throughout the race on the event’s Instagram page @AGPevents. Doors open to view the race at 7 p.m.