Okay. Standing Relay Race. I think this would be a somewhat fun sport/game for like, company picnics or something where there are a lot of non-athletes, but you want to get everyone involved in a quasi-sporting teamwork-based competition event.
So. The Standing Relay Race! "How does it work." "Easy." Suppose there's like, thirty people there. You want a bunch. You can't do this competitively with five people. So suppose you have thirty people, and 3 batons.
You need batons, I forgot to tell you that. Pack the batons before you hit the park-grounds. If you're just right now reading this sitting on your wi-fi enabled ass in the park, surfing for some fun activities suggestions for your big outdoor group or whatever who have already congregated around looking stupid with nothing to do but nibble on tidbits from a colorful patterned dixie plate of more or less delectable oddments and endments whilst balancing a waxy paper cup of cola with one ice cube in it and listening to the 10 year old rap dance hits of DJ Steve from Marketing's CD collection - if that's the position you're already in, by this point I'm sorry, but I can't much help your ass.
However, if you have had the hard-earned hindsight and the presence of mind to go scrounging for ideas first, and you've stumbled in here for that purpose, then in that case it's not too late for me to tell you: bring batons. You need batons.
So let's say you have 30 people and 3 batons. Merely for simplicity's sake. This just is an arbitrary distribution, you can make it work with other people to baton ratios. Just adjust it up with a little simple math. I'm not going to get into that heavily. That's not what this article is about, here. There are other websites to teach you that. So leave that aside, I'm moving forward with the 30:3 so as to illustrate in simple terms the way the game works.
Here are the rules:
1. Each team gets a baton. That gives you three teams with one baton each.
2. You then form up 3 teams of ten people each, in parallel lines of equal length with about a foot between each person. So it's a 30 foot race track. Or maybe 60 foot. If each person has a foot on their left and a foot on their right, it could work out to 60. However it works out is fine. You don't have to measure it - honestly, it doesn't matter that much. Just so each team has an equal number of people forming lines of uniform length.
3. Nobody runs. Each team forms a line, and each team gets a baton at the starting line, and when the gun goes off, nobody runs. To ensure this, best to not actually use a gun. Whatever else will serve the purpose to say "GO!" is fine. Some use one of those shrill referee-style whistles.
4. So like I'm saying, no running. It's not that kind of race. No running, just passing the baton. Pass it forward. Fast as you can. No skipping links in the chain! The baton must pass from person to person by hand. No throwing.
5. I guess throwing is allowed, but each link in the chain MUST have full and legal possession of the baton! No skips. So if you've got it, you can toss it to the next guy, but he has to catch it properly. No like, juggling it up across the top of the line with some people only just barely fingertipping it as it goes by! Although that would be cool to see if you could pull it off, but you can't do it. Especially since...
6. The baton cannot at any point touch the ground! Whatever team drops the baton, they have to scoot it all the way back to the starting line, dust it off properly, and pass it forward again from the very beginning. Maybe it would be simpler just to eliminate the team that drops the baton, but you don't want to rule out one of those miracle comebacks like in one of those cheesy 80's summer camp movies where the scrappy misfit team wins despite whatever trumped-up junk happened to them to set the stage for them having the deck stacked so heavily in their disfavor. A situation like that, however rare in real life, is all the sweeter for it when it actually happens! So you'd like to at least leave the door open to the possibility, I'd like to think.
7. Whichever team passes the baton to the finish line first wins! Maybe they would also have to shout something, in token of their victory.
See, that's fun, and safe. A little low-impact competition.
I think this idea is a winner. I can't find it on google, but it seems like such a natural idea. I'm surprised as to why this idea wasn't independently come up with already (if indeed it hasn't been) and indeed, as to why it may not already be the craze of outdoor gatherings where people come together for good, wholesale fun.
OPTIONAL RULE: If it's a corporate picnic and everyone has a good sense of wry sarcasm, and you find you have neglected to bring the batons for the relay, you can substitute a buck for each baton. That will work too.
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