Locals Take on Fox Valley Amazing Race

It was hot and it was muggy, and the last thing Montgomery resident Jonathan Ludvigson wanted to do Saturday afternoon was eat a lukewarm sardine.

But he had to do just that while participating in the third annual , a local adaptation of the popular TV show in which contestants must follow clues to different pit stops and master challenges in order to claim victory.

The Fox Valley version, which launched from the Vaughan Athletic Center, had teams of four going to the three-city metropolis of Aurora, North Aurora and Montgomery.

It was at Ballydoyle Irish Pub & Restaurant where contestants had to spin a wheel labeled with different food items, including sardines, lychee fruit, hot tamales, and jalepeno peppers, among others. Their fate was whichever one the ticker landed on.

“It was alright,” Ludvigson, captain for his team, said of the sardine. “I’m not a big fish fan so I had to force it down.”

Jordan Real, event coordinator, admitted not all the options were pleasant.

“There are a couple that are easier than others,” she said.

Montgomery resident Amy Henrikson, captain for her team, had to eat dried pork which she said “tasted kind of like sawdust.”

“And because we were so parched it was hard to swallow,” she said.

Henrikson, along with her husband, Jeff, and her brother and his wife from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, were participating this year for the third time. While in years past they’ve worn matching team T-shirts, this year they opted to dress as characters from Gilligan’s Island, with Jeff Henrikson going as Ginger, complete with a red wig, long black dress and makeup.

“It’s always a great time,” Amy Henrikson said of the race. She said the most difficult challenge of the day was the run up a hill at Spring Lake Park in Aurora.

“The hill was the hardest because it’s the steepest we’ve had, (more than in years past),” she said. “It was the most physically challenging of the whole race.”

She was proud of her team, which placed third out of the 40 participating.

“This is the first year we’ve done so well,” she said.

For another challenge, contestants had to get an Oreo from their foreheads into their mouths with no hands.

This proved to be difficult for some participants who had to scrunch their faces every which way to get the cookie to make it’s way down.

“This was a hard one,” said Steve Bertheau of Aurora after conquering the challenge.

During other challenges throughout the day, sometimes participants had to rely on more than just their teammates.

“The clues were kind of tough--some were so vague we’d have no clue what they were talking about,” Ludvigson said. “A lot of times we were on our phones trying to google stuff, so that helped.”

After the race, contestants, sweat drenched and tired, were able to celebrate together with a pizza party and awards ceremony.