Treasure Hunting with Fitness Playground

A couple of weeks back, at the Lunges & Lycra social event, I took part in a Fitness Playground event. Fitness Playground already run a variety of sessions in the South Bank and Canary Wharf areas of London but this was a bit different to their usual group training sessions... this was a treasure hunt!

We were split into teams of 3-4 people with a nominated leader who was in charge of receiving the clues on their phone from a member of the FP team and sending answers/proof back. The aim of the game was to solve a number of clues to get to various locations in London, complete a challenge at each and get back to the start location within 45 minutes. This was a competition and the rules were thus:

• First team back gets a number of points, the second back gets less and so on.
• Any team back after the deadline is deducted points for each minute they are late
• Extra points are awarded for completing the challenges as each location
• Bonus points are awarded for completing bonus challenges that we were given a web link to

So you could still lose the competition, even if you're first back. This makes for a very interesting playing field! 

I think these girls made his day

It was a mad dash to exit the hotel we started from. Some of us may have gotten lost within the hotel... Once outside phones started beeping, announcing the arrival of the first clue and it was very much a race to the first location but as the first challenge could only be completed by one person at a time we were soon all travelling at different paces, balancing speed with completing other challenges en route. Our treasure hunt took us to Soho Square, Phoenix Garden, Seven Dials, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, The Mall and Piccadilly Circus before a mad dash back to the hotel.

I'm not sure he really understood what was going on, bless him.

We did prove to be quite a spectacle as we legged it round central London. 20-odd girls in vibrantly coloured lycra and multi-coloured war stripes... we were bound to draw some attention. It didn't take long for people to cotton on to what we were up to and my favourite moment of the whole event was probably a group of burly men in hi-viz jackets hollering "It's this way girls, the rest of them went that way!" at us as my team tried to find the next landmark.

Peace and tranquility on a busy pavement

On our travels we tried to cram in as many of the bonus challenges as possible. These broadly fall into "photo" and "collect" categories. We left many a bemused tourist and policeman in our wake, got told off my the Trafalgar Square Security Guards for assaulting the lions and busted out some yoga poses in the middle of busy pavements. And that only scratches the surface... do you know how hard it is to get business cards from people these days, or a copy of yesterday's paper?! Our site challenges included table tennis, races, climbing, deciphering roman numerals and finding out bits of local history. We were tested physically and mentally! 

You're not allowed to sit on the lions anymore, apparently...

Fitness Playground are hoping to start running these more often so do look out for them. It's fantastic fun, a great way to explore London and a real giggle. These sessions would be great to do with a group of friends as an alternative birthday or hen/stag event or perhaps as a corporate event, if there's an active culture. Connect with Fitness Playground on twitter or facebook to make sure you don't miss out, and check out their current set of group sessions if you haven't already... they're all fantastic.

This is not a sponsored post and all opinions are my own.