Women Build, including this Adventure Race, is sponsored by Cox, who is committed to reducing our environmental footprint one community at a time. To help support their mission, have at least one team member download the Litterati app on your mobile device, which uses AI technology and crowdsourcing to clean up our environment. Up to all team members can participate. Once downloaded enter the Challenge Code “HABITAT” when prompted, to join the Cox Eco Challenge. Message HQ with the Litterati usernames of any team members that will be using the app so that we can track your progress. Then throughout the weekend find trash anywhere around San Diego County and use the app to document and discard at least 10 total pieces for your team. 

Competition Alert: The team that documents and discards the most litter throughout the weekend will win a prize pack from Cox. Since this data is used publicly to improve how the San Diego community reduces trash, be sure you’re using the app for actual litter found in the community and not something you place on the ground to get more points.

One of the pillars of this year’s “Women Build On” theme is strength. Go to Waterfront Park downtown and walk into the fountain. Take a video of you in the fountain for 10 seconds showing off your muscles. If you and your teammates are part of the same COVID pod you can all hop in, or you can spread out across multiple jets if needed.

Women Build loves supporting amazing women-owned and operated businesses in the area. Send one of your team members to “Thread Spun” located in Encinitas (1114 N. Coast Highway 101, Suite 4). Their initiatives support race equality, and their business model reflects the importance of human rights and minimizing our collective impact on the planet. Once there, purchase one of their fantastic greeting cards. Then write a welcome home message to one of our two families who will be moving into their new Habitat homes in Leucadia. Take a picture with your card to show you've completed your Act Of Kindness then drop the postcard into the provided box in the store labeled with Habitat's logo. Our staff will pick up all the postcards and give them to our new homeowners as a welcome gift. 

Bonus: Thread Spun is offering a 20% discount to all adventure racers throughout the weekend so check out everything else they have and make sure to mention you’re participating in the Women Build Adventure Race to get the discount!

There are so many female icons that have pioneered a path for every other woman behind them. Celebrate just a few of these legends by getting behind them, literally. Get to any local record store or browse your own albums at home and take a fun picture creating “SleeveFace” illusions with the album sleeves of any female artists. To learn what a SleeveFace illusion is and to see some examples click HERE.

Find any vending machine (either with food, kids trinkets, etc) and put enough money into it that any one item could be gotten. Don’t select anything but instead leave a note that says “Any item of your choice on us! Love, San Diego Habitat For Humanity - Women Build”. Then take a picture so that the vending machine, the deposited amount (if applicable), and your note are all visible if possible.

Get your team to any accessible beach area and using seaweed or other debris spell out a word or phrase that answers the question “what does home mean to you?”. Make it as large as possible and take a fun picture with your creation when finished.

May is a month where we get to celebrate not only the mothers in our lives but all women that have raised us, shaped us, and supported us along the way. Using your favorite social media platform, share a photo of a woman who has inspired or encouraged you in your life and include a caption about what they mean to you. Don’t forget to use the hashtags #WomenBuildOn #AdventureRace and tag San Diego Habitat if you’re using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. Take a screenshot of the post and submit to HQ. 

Whether you’re building a name for yourself, or building a home for someone else, sometimes it requires getting a little messy. Take a video(s) of your team successfully completing the Whipped Cream Catapult Challenge. Each team member will put the whipped cream on the back of their own hand and fling it up to themselves, at least 3 feet above their hand. Everyone on the team will need to make a successful catch in the video at some point. To watch a video of a team successfully completing a variation of this challenge click HERE. Instead of in pairs you will fling it up to yourself using the same technique. If your team is socially distanced this can be done with your team over video call by recording the call and downloading it afterwards. 

Click HERE to see a cropped image of a building located here in San Diego County. Work together as a team to figure out what building it is and where it’s located and then get to that spot and take a fun picture with that actual building clearly visible in the background. 

Loneliness in seniors can be as hazardous to their health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day (click HERE to learn more). A simple interaction like what you’ll do for this challenge can change that. Find a woman who is 85 years old or older that lives in San Diego County, take a video of you asking them “What is the most important thing we should do in life?” and submit the video of their response to HQ. You can contact someone via Facetime or video chat technology as a safe option. Take some time to chat with them, listen to their stories about San Diego County, or just ask them about their life.

Donate an item to the Habitat ReStore! Look around your home for an item that you no longer need, or source something from a friend. Then travel to any of the area Habitat ReStores during the designated donation times (during this event it will be Friday or Saturday between 10am-3pm) and drop-off your item. Make sure to read through the donation guidelines found HERE to choose an appropriate item and figure out the protocol for donating. Then take a picture of your team (or team member), and your item, during the donation process. Submit a picture and get verified by HQ. Whether or not your item is accepted, just learning the process will help you donate more in the future and change more lives.

Conserving native pollinators in San Diego County and better understanding their role in our environment is critical to protecting future generations. Get your team (or team member) to the non-profit called Butterfly Farms located at 441 Saxony Road in Encinitas (www.ButterflyFarms.org). Once there, tell the staff member at the front that you are with the Habitat For Humanity Adventure Race and they will get you set up to paint a rock and place it in their garden. You will also have full access to explore inside the largest Vivarium (butterfly flight house) in Southern California. Take a picture holding up your painted creation, and another picture inside the Vivarium with butterflies all around you. Butterfly Farms is offering these amazing experiences to all registered adventure racers for free so before leaving be sure to speak with one of their knowledgeable staff members to learn more about all their non-profit does, and how you can help save the pollinators.

*Please note that if you have other people joining you who aren’t officially registered, we ask that they support Butterfly Farms and pay for admission and the painted rock if they plan on participating with you.

Head out to the Torrey Pines area in La Jolla and choose ONE of these two possible options. You can either take a video of your team (or team member) at the Torrey Pines Gliderport while a glider is actively taking off. Timing your video will be the challenge here so that you capture yourselves and in the background a glider is actively taking off, not just flying around the landscape. The second option is to hike the Torrey Pines trail and take a picture of your team (or team member) at the Yucca Point overlook. A very detailed trail guide with turn by turn directions on getting to Yucca Point can be found HERE.

To become the best possible version of yourself takes incredible focus, especially when there are constant distractions that try to derail you. Click HERE to complete the Concentration Challenge. If you can’t access it via the link simply type “Telegraph Brain Age Test” into any browser and it should be at the top of the results. Once there, select the option for “Concentration” and get ready to begin the test. You will see a series of shapes. The goal is to decide whether the word inside the shape matches the color of the shape. If it does, click the check mark. If it doesn’t click on the X. Your score will be based on speed and accuracy. To complete this challenge successfully, any member of your team needs to score within the top 10% on the test. Once someone has achieved an acceptable score, take a picture of the skilled racer proudly displaying their score on their screen and make sure the score is legible in the picture.

Competition ALERT: If you’re looking for an even greater challenge you can compete to be “The Fastest Brain” and win a prize pack! To qualify, you can attempt the challenge as many times as you want throughout the 3-day event. Every time you break your own personal record and achieve a new high score, have someone take your picture with your device that clearly displays the score. Then on Sunday evening submit the picture with your best score and we’ll compare your results with everyone else in the competition. 

With military veterans making up more than 13% of the population, San Diego County is estimated to have the third-highest number of veteran residents of any county in the nation. To honor all of them, get your team (or team member) to the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial (www.SoledadMemorial.org) and record a video doing 10 push-ups or an act of strength at the base of the memorial. After you’ve finished recording, Facetime or video call a veteran or active duty service member anywhere in the US and spend a few minutes learning more about their time in the service before you depart, as a small gesture of appreciation.

Take a video of two team members both successfully completing the “Bottle Flip Challenge” at exactly the same time. The video can be taken over Zoom or other video calling platform. Basically, take a video of both members each flipping their own standard (16 ounces or so) bottle of water onto a hard surface, and getting it to successfully remain standing upright once it lands. The bottle can be filled with as much water as needed to improve your chances of completing the challenge successfully. What will make this challenge difficult is getting both people to make a successful flip on the same attempt. If one of you fails, encourage them and both try again. To watch a video of two people successfully completing this challenge together click HERE.

Bringing people together to build homes is what Habitat is all about. So as a team come together (virtually or in-person depending on your team setup) and build a birdhouse for a feathered family. You can design it any way you want, but if you’re looking for easy and affordable options there are a bunch on YouTube like this one HERE. To get verified by HQ make sure the house was actually built by a member of your team (not purchased complete, although kits are acceptable) and that it’s functional for a bird and made from materials that will last in an outdoor environment. Take a picture or video of your team while working on the project (over zoom is fine if you want a group picture), and then another with your finished home.

One of the pillars of the “Women Build On” theme is opportunity. Over the past year women have made great progress in breaking through the male dominated political environment and creating opportunities for women in leadership, from local positions all the way up the ballot. To honor this female power shift, find any street sign for a road that shares its name with a former American president. For example, Lincoln Road, Reagan Lane, etc. Then strike a powerful pose and take a picture while the sign is in the background to represent the women who helped get us here, while still recognizing the progress is not complete. 

Take a video of your team (or team member) completing the “Goldilocks Challenge”. Prepare a bowl of oatmeal or snacks with all the fixin's you love. Place the bowl somewhere about halfway between your front door and a bedroom. Start at your front door and “bear crawl” all the way from the door to the food bowl, taking as many breaks to rest as needed. When you get to the bowl, eat a few bites of food using only your mouth, no hands (like a bear, obviously!). Then continue your bear crawl to the bedroom to finish! To watch a video of someone successfully bear crawling click HERE.

A critical component in creating meaningful change is advocacy. Get dressed up in your best construction outfits, including any tools or safety equipment you have. Then get to either of the current Habitat build sites (740 Leucadia Blvd in Encinitas, or 405 West 18th Street in National City) and take a picture flexing your muscles and your tools with the build site or the Habitat signage in the background. Then download the TouchNote app on your mobile device and log in with an email address or social media credentials to create a new account. New accounts get a 14 day free trial and the ability to create 2 free postcards. Using one of those free postcards and the picture you took at the build site, create a postcard and send it to your local elected official and ask them to support affordable housing legislation (to see an example click HERE). Feel free to choose any representative that you believe would need to hear from you, from your local representative all the way up to the Governor or State Senator and find their mailing address online. Once completed, send a screenshot of the card to our HQ for verification. 

Girl Scout troop leaders first created the recipe for “some mores", now better known as s’mores, roughly 100 years ago. This classic camp snack is not only delicious but it encourages community among those that gather around the fire. To honor the Girl Scouts and everything their organization does to help build strong young women, find an available beach fire pit anywhere around the county or any safe fire source like a fireplace or backyard fire pit. Take a picture or video of your team member(s) roasting marshmallows over an actual fire. For info on some of the best beach fire pit locations around the area click HERE. 

Research shows that consuming raw garlic can boost your immune system. So take a video of all your team members each chewing a separate raw clove of garlic for at least 10 full seconds, Team members should be actively chewing the clove and not just holding it in their mouths. The video can be taken over video call or in-person depending on your team setup.

Locate any of the registered Little Free Library locations around San Diego County. This organization works to inspire a love of reading, builds community, and increases access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds. You have two options. Option 1: Find or purchase any book that highlights the strength of women or girls and donate to the little library. To see a list with just a few great options of children’s books click HERE. Option 2: Peruse the books already in the little library to find a book that highlights the strength of women or girls. Then, take a picture of someone on your team reading your book to others while the “Library” is visible in the background. When done, either donate your book by leaving it in the Little Library, or take a book with you so that others may be inspired too.

Get to any public space that has a decent amount of foot traffic throughout the day. Please be mindful about any neighbors or passersby. Using sidewalk chalk, write an open-ended motivational question, such as “If I was more courageous I would…”, or click HERE to see some other examples, or come up with one on your own. Have each of your team members write their own answer in chalk and take a picture with your questions and answers visible in the background. Then leave your chalk behind so that other passersby can reflect on your question and answer it themselves.