XRACE arrives in blazing sunshine and dazzling colour

XRACE arrives in blazing sunshine and dazzling colour

XRACE Arrives In Blazing Sunshine And Dazzling Colour
After two years in the planning, XRACE arrived to blazing sunshine and dazzling colour. Tauranga absolutely turned it on as friendly families went head to head in the first-ever XRACE – you just have to check out the photos of our smiling teams.

And first across the line was a 12-year-old girl – Miela Loveland beat out all the boys and all the other teams racing side-by-side with dad Mike as navigator.

At XRACE, we've never shied away from encouraging competition for our kids, but judging by the smiles on the faces I think the mums and dads may have been the biggest winners: they had even bigger smiles than the kids. I mean, be honest – when was the last time you went down a "backyard" waterslide with your son or daughter – Jamaican bobsled style?

Check out the photos and results here.

Dutch blind dad
The blindfolded parents challenge was a roaring success, and one Dutch dad tried a cunning ploy with his son: he told son to call out the instructions in Dutch, thinking that would give their team a fantastic competitive advantage. Problem was, the son was struggling under the pressure to remember the exact terms for "seriously, Dad, I said turn left", which may or may not have come out as "Dad, meat pie, meat pie."

World Champ Rugby 7’s captain competes for higher honours
Only in New Zealand do you get a sports star to quietly line up with everybody else – no VIP treatment or special privileges. At XRACE everyone puts on their own race number one safety pin at a time. On Tuesday, World Champ Rugby 7’s captain Matua Parkinson competed for the highest in any sport – racing as DAD. Matua lined up next to his 10-year-old son Marangai and did pretty well just quietly – he was the fourth dad home.

It's called the super challenge for a reason
Well, we finally figured it out: knocking off painting dads’ fingernails purple as the number one challenge is the super challenge, our insane obstacle course, which is easily the longest in New Zealand. And at the finish line, as we were asking the dads and mums what was the hardest challenge, they were unanimous: the super challenge was head and shoulders the toughest. Even our 7’s skipper above was and I quote race director Steve Nicholls here: he was "blown to smithereens" as Matua collapsed off it means we have an absolute cracker on our hands.

Check out our XRACE kit
It's fair to say we may have gone a little bit over the top with our goody bag. Those of you that have done other events before will know a goody bag at some races is nothing more than a race number and free safety pins. Not XRACE. Take a look at the photos of the shirts and caps of our teams and remember – both team members got a pair of flip flops and dad or mum got a commemorative diary as well. Nippers weren't left out: they got a cap, a kite and a yoyo.

And what about the medals at the finish line!

Calling amateur photographers
As we make our way around the country, we would love to have hobbyist photographers join our crew for a day. All you need to do is have a passion for photography, and in return we will give you the chance to snap some of the most amazing photos and fascinating subjects you will ever take. An all access pass awaits you, along with a few XRACE goodies. We will recognise you as the snapper on all photos taken, so contact us at volunteer@xrace.co.nz and we would love to have you on board for the day, getting some of the best photos you will ever take. P.S. You don't have to be a grown up to be our photographer - just make sure you get mum and dad’s permission first.

Time to get entering.
You can enter your local XRACE now. Click here to enter.

ENDS

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