Fun, challenges, laughter found at The Great Rockton Race

By Marianne Mueller

Reporter

One of the days activities and challenges was wearing goggles that make you feel drunk while attempting to put inflatable donuts on an inflatable dome.

Eleven teams mentally and physically prepared to take on challenges by following clues set by organizers of the fourth annual event “The Great Rockton Race on Saturday morning, Sept. 25. 

The team, “Hot Chicks, and Village Idiots” rode in in style and was ready to create special memories. “The day couldn’t have been any more fun,” said teammate Josh Normington. 

“We had a campfire breakfast cooked by Kevin King to start things off in the morning, Following breakfast we were escorted down to Settlers Park in a decommissioned Rockton fire truck where we made a grand entrance. 

“It was a great small town event. My favorite part of the day was seeing the high schoolers painting local shop windows mixed with our racers running around town.”

“The biggest challenge of the day was found at the Gem Shop where you made the attempt to string beads with no tying at the ends of the strand; this really seemed to slow other teams down as well. “

“My favorite part of the day was hanging out with Lindsey Swanson; she is truly amazing. She as always did an amazing job of making the shirts for our team,” Normington added.

At Rockton Inn Pub Grub & BBQ the challenge of seeing who had the best hula hoop skills proved to be super fun.  “The TV Show Family” team said that the youngest member was a strong hula hoop pro. 

Teams headed over to the police department where participants had a large feat to master. One person from each team put on goggles that make someone feel as like they are drunk. Each was guided by another teammate as they attempted to place inflatable donuts on a targeted inflatable dome. 

In After the Vine, teams tried to get a cork into a bucket. Extra fun and laughter was created with the playing of Trivia games or Tik Tok type Challenges. 

Winners from 2019’s The Great Rockton Race, “Superheroes in Training” returned again in 2021, ready for a friendly competition. 

More than 20 stops were made by teams. Once all tasks were completed teams returned to Settlers Park for a review of items collected along the race route. 

Overall winners were the “Two Mom’s” team. Coming in second place was “Team Paul.” Third place honors went to “The Boss Squad.” 

This year marked the fourth of The Great Rockton Race and was organized by the events originator Jodi May. Behind the scenes was a team of volunteers who made the day memorable. 

“The fun part of the day was meeting all of the teams, sending them off, then hearing all of their stories and seeing their completed tasks at the end of the event. It was over pretty quickly, so we had a hard time finding teams on Main Street, volunteer,” Sarah Baines said. 

Many teams and participants expressed excitement over coming back for more fun at the 2022 event.