Challenges

#1: 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. Once downloaded enter the Challenge Code “CoxHabitat” 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 of at least 10 total pieces for your team.

Competition Alert: The team that documents and discards of 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.

#2: One of the pillars of this year’s “Women Build On” theme is strength. Get your team to Waterfront Park downtown and walk into the fountain. Take a video while your team members are all doing a 10 second duration plank directly underneath where one of the fountain jets lands. If you and your teammates are part of the same Covid pod you can all form a plank circle (click HERE for an example) with your heads all located where the water is landing, or you can spread out across multiple jets if needed.

#3: Women Build loves supporting amazing women-owned and operated businesses in the area. Get your team to one of them, called “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 click HERE to go to the Postcard Happiness Project website and scroll down to the profile for John Craig, an adult with Downs Syndrome that loves to receive mail. In your card include a fun or uplifting message and sign it with your names or your group name. The mailing address for John can be found in his profile description. Stamp your card and take a picture with it to show you've completed your Act Of Kindness.

Bonus: Thread Spun is offering a 20% discount to all adventure racers throughout the weekend so check out everything else they have!

#4: 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 and take a fun group 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.

#5: 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 of your team so that the vending machine, the deposited amount (if applicable), and your note are all visible if possible.

#6: Get your team to any accessible beach area and using drift wood 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 team picture with your creation when finished.

#7: 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. Find any woman pushing a stroller around the area and take a video of your team members all air hugging or air high-fiving her while you give her words of encouragement such as "we believe in you", "you're awesome", "you're doing a great job", etc. Make sure your video shows the stroller at some point, although the child doesn’t need to be recorded.

#8: 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 of your team successfully completing the Whipped Cream Catapult Challenge. There are two options for completing this depending on your Covid comfort level with the other members of your team. Option #1 is to divide your team into pairs. Have someone squirt a dollop (small lump) of whipped cream onto the back of their hand. Have the other person stand a few feet away from them ready to catch the whipped cream in their mouth. The person with the whipped cream on their hand will swing their arm back, palm down. When that hand gets back in front of them at about waist height, they’ll strike their wrist with their other free hand, causing the whipped cream to go flying. The second person should successfully catch the whipped cream in their mouth, or at least catch some of it in their mouth and the rest on their face. For this option, at least half your team should make a successful catch in the video, Feel free to wear rubber gloves if that makes this option more comfortable for everyone. For Option #2 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 head. For this option everyone on the team would need to make a successful catch in the video. To watch a video of a team successfully completing this challenge click HERE,

#9: 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 group picture with that actual building clearly visible in the background.

#10: Find a woman who is 85 years old or older that lives in San Diego County. If you’re able to do it safely you can find someone out in public or visit someone you know. You can also contact someone via Facetime or video chat technology as a safer option. Take some time to chat with them, listen to their stories about San Diego County, or just ask them about their life. Then at some point take a video of your team asking them the question “What is the most important thing we should do in life?” and submit the video of their response to HQ.

Then click HERE to learn about how loneliness in seniors can be as hazardous to their health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and how a simple interaction like what you’ll do for this challenge can change that.

#11: 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, and your item, while on-site during the donation process. Even if your donation for some reason gets rejected you can still submit a picture and get verified by HQ. Just learning the process will help you donate more in the future and change more lives.

#12: Conserving native pollinators in San Diego County and better understanding their role in our environment is critical to protecting future generations. Get your team to the non-profit called Butterfly Farms located at 441 Saxony Road in Encinitas (www.ButterflyFarms.org). Once there, get an admission ticket to explore inside the largest Vivarium (butterfly flight house) in Southern California and take a picture or video of your team with a butterfly on or around you. 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.

#13: Find a willing MALE team member, friend, or stranger and take a video of your team using any brand of hair removal strips to safely remove one strip of their chest, back, arm, or leg hair according to the instructions on the package. Choose one body location that they feel comfortable getting “waxed”, and has enough hair that it would show up on the strip after being removed. Just a warning that if you choose to do this to a friend you may want to treat them to dinner after the race, or else they might not be your friend much longer.

#14: 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.

#15: 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 to the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial (www.SoledadMemorial.org). If you’re able to do it safely you can find a veteran or active military while you are at the memorial, or you can Facetime or video chat one located anywhere in the United States. If you find someone at the memorial, record a video of your team all doing 10 push-ups or sit-ups “at their feet” to honor their strength. If you contact someone over video chat, prop up that device somewhere so they can see your entire group and the memorial. Then use another team members’ device to record your group doing the push-ups or sit-ups while on the call and submit that to HQ. After you’ve finished recording, spend a few minutes learning more about that veteran’s time in the service before you depart, as a small gesture of appreciation.

#16: Take a video of any two team members both successfully completing the “Bottle Flip Challenge” at exactly the same time. 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.

#17: Bringing people together to build homes is what Habitat is all about. So as a team come together and build a bird house for a deserving 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 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, and then another with your finished home.

#18: 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, including California’s own Kamala Harris. To honor this female power shift, find any street sign for a road that shares it’s name with a former American president. For example, Lincoln Road, Reagan Lane, etc. Then strike a powerful pose while the sign is in the background to represent the women who helped get us here, while still recognizing the progress is not complete.

#19: Prepare a bowl of oatmeal for your team (or separate bowls for each participant if desired) with all the fixin's you love. Place the oatmeal somewhere about halfway between where your front door is and a bedroom. Then take a video of your team completing the “Goldilocks Challenge”. Start at your front door and “bear crawl” all the way from the door to whatever bed is closest to that location in your house, taking as many breaks to rest as needed. Along the way, eat a few bites of oatmeal using only your mouth, no hands (like a bear, obviously!). To watch a video of someone successfully bear crawling click HERE.

#20: 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.

#21: 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 and take a picture or video of your team members roasting marshmallows over an actual fire. For info on some of the best beach fire pit locations around the area click HERE.

#22: The past year has been so tough on all of us, especially our dedicated first responders and essential healthcare workers. There is not much we can all do to thank them enough, although possibly saving someone’s life would be a great way to honor them. Click HERE and have someone on your team register to become a bone marrow donor. Submit a picture of the racer who registered, along with the confirmation page that appears on the website once the registration process is complete. FYI, filling out the registration form does not require you to submit the swabs you'll receive in the mail and it does not require you to actually donate bone marrow, but it's a good first step towards saving someone's life!

#23: Find or purchase any children’s book that highlights the strength of women or girls. To see a list with just a few great options click HERE. Then 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. Once you’ve found a location take a picture of someone on your team reading your book to the rest of your team while the “Library” is visible in the background. When done, donate your book by leaving it in the Little Library, so that others may be inspired too.

#24: Get to any public space that has a decent amount of foot traffic throughout the day. 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 then take a team picture with your question and answers visible in the background. Then leave your chalk behind so that other passersby can reflect on your question and answer it themselves.