Students from the Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies Program will host the first “Gopher Adventure Race” for students from 1 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22. The racecourse begins at Bierman Athletic Field and features highlights found throughout the East Bank, West Bank, and St. Paul campuses.
Modeled after the popular television show, “The Amazing Race,” the Gopher Adventure Race will pair U of M students in teams of two, competing to become the Ultimate Gopher Adventurers. The teams will complete a variety of mental and physical challenges that will test their knowledge and navigation of the campus as well as their adventurous spirit, including climbing a boulder wall and navigating the Mississippi River by canoe. The event will be accessible to people of all abilities.
“Other universities’ adventure races are more about who’s faster, who’s stronger, and who can bully their way through,” said race coordinator Connie Magnuson in a Pioneer Press story. But in the Gopher competition, she said, “If you can’t figure out the clue, somebody else is going to pass you by.”

The Gopher Adventure Race was organized by 85 undergraduate students and their instructors, providing students a hands-on experience in the recreation field. Magnuson, who is coordinator of the Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies Program, developed the “Amazing Race” idea with an emphasis on completing tasks and solving puzzles, while showing off features of the campus.
For additional information, please see the Gopher Adventure Race website.