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Key Terms

Please be advised that these are not, nor are they claimed to be, the real rules of The Amazing Race. This is a guide to help any group of people to plan their own ‘mock’ Amazing Race.

The Amazing Race consists of several challenging activities throughout it. There are different types of activities that can be encountered. These are listed below.

Detour
A Detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. Teams must successfully complete one of the tasks in order to receive their next clue.
Some tasks may look harder, but teams that do them well may to finish them quickly. There is no penalty if a team decides to change tasks part way through.
It is possible to fail a detour task, and so in that case a team will have no choice but to complete the other option.
If you get a detour card, you only have to complete one of the tasks on it.

Roadblock
A Roadblock is a task that only some of the team may perform. You may set a certain limit on the number of roadblocks that any one person can perform throughout the race.
The television show consists of teams of two, thus only one person is allowed to complete a roadblock. In larger groups, it is recommended that more than one person completes the tasks to prevent boredom and keep group morale high.

Fast Forward
A Fast Forward is task that only one team may perform, and only one Fast Forward is present on each leg of the race. If a team completes this task, they may skip all other tasks, and proceed directly to the pitstop.
This type of task is not recommended for a social race, as it allows one team to skip to the end, meaning they will be waiting for other teams for a long time.

Yield
When a team finds a Yield sign, they have the opportunity to stop a team behind them from racing for a certain amount of time. The team must place the name of the team they wish to yield onto the Yield sign.
When the yielded team arrives at the Yield, they must stay at the Yield sign for a specific amount of time, and wait for their team leader to signal that they can move on.
If a team is ahead of you, past the Yield sign, you cannot yield them. ie. You must place a Yield on a team before they reach the Yield sign.

Mandatory Rest Period
Though not often shown extensively on tv, the Mandatory Rest Period is a part of the Amazing Race.
This may be helpful to teams if you are planning a full day event, or longer. All teams are allocated the same amount of rest time at a point during the race (probably half way through).
It is difficult to plan this, as not all teams will arrive at the same time. It is up to organisers to decide whether the rest period begins when all teams have arrived, or whether all teams begin their rest period when they arrive, thus keeping the same time gap between each group.

Pit Stop
The Pit Stop is the final destination at the end of each leg of the race. If you are running an Amazing Race over one day, or one session, then one Pit Stop is all you need.
Teams will arrive at the Pit Stop, which is marked by a mat (see designs section). A greeting party will meet each team at the mat to tell them where they are placed in the field (1st, 2nd etc).

 

Also check out Amazing Race terms at:

http://amazingrace.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_and_Penalties