By Lizbeth Landeros | Interim Inscape Editor

Allison Perez | Interim Photo Editor ( (Left to right) Sisters Hemelda, Stephanie and Jackelyn Rivera celebrate after they wo)

By Lizbeth Landeros | Interim Inscape Editor

While there was no Phil Keoghan, crazy taxi drivers or airport mixups, “The Amazing Race” did come to Riverside.

Students from Riverside City College, UC Riverside, Cal Baptist University and La Sierra University competed against each other on Jan. 22 in the first annual “Amazing College Race” which was presented by the College Counsel of Riverside.

The race led 60 teams of three throughout downtown Riverside where the contestants were given clues of different spots which included the Mission Inn, the Fox Theater and Mount Rubidoux.

Lizette Navarette, who is the education coordinator of Riverside, said the purpose of the race was to connect students from all four campuses together and to introduce students to downtown Riverside.

“Students running around downtown (allowed them to) really learn about (the city), and get to know the city,” she said.

The College Counsel of Riverside decided to host the race in January because they wanted students to participate without any homework or exams in the way.

“(The race) was at the beginning of the year, so it wouldn’t conflict with students in any major way,” Navarette said.

Each member of the winning team received a scholarship of $500.

The winning team in the first annual “Amazing College Race” was “RS Crew,” sisters Jackelyn, Stephanie and Himelda Rivera of UC Riverside.

The Rivera sisters were excited when they found out they won, and they said they did a lot to prepare for the race.

“We drew our own map and researched a lot of historical sites, and figured out main key points of what we would be asked during the race,” Jackelyn said. “We prepared just by researching and by getting to know the area.”

Jackelyn said their only strategy was to run once they received a new clue.

“The hardest part was running (at the end) because we ran the whole way from Mt. Rubidoux (back to the UC Riverside Arts Block),” Himelda said. “We were tired.”

The hardest challenge for every team in the race was the clue at Mount Rubidoux because the mountain was a long distance from downtown, and many teams couldn’t find the spot near the mountain.

“The hardest clue was at Mount Rubidoux,” Jackelyn said. “We thought ‘what bridge?’ they wouldn’t make us run all the way to Rubidoux and then back.”

“We had 30 minutes to run there and then run back, and we pushed it,” she said.

The sisters felt the race was a good idea and they were glad to be a part of it.

“Having us run around the city, we got to know more of the history,” Jackelyn said.

“We found out a lot about the history,” she said. “We never knew President Reagan got married at the Mission Inn.”

The sisters also felt that a lot of students from all four campuses represented their college in the race.

“It was nice to see school spirit because at UC Riverside we don’t really see a lot,” Himelda said. “We saw a lot (of school spirit from) UC Riverside and RCC.”