Frequently Asked Questions
1) Is being knowningly lost for most of the day actually fun?
In the entire 30 years of the race this is the question that has been most frequently asked. "Is what you're describing supposed to be fun?" second only to the question asked at the finish line by those same people hours later - "When's the next one?"
Part of the appeal of the television show The Amazing Race is that the racers get to experience things they never would have known about on their own. The same is true with The Human Race. There's always at least one location, shop, or just curiousity that the racers didn't know about before the race began that makes the entire journey memorable. In the Middlesex County race it was the grave of Mary Ellis in the parking lot of the Lowes Theater on Route 1 in New Brunswick.
It's also just a generally enjoyable way to spend the day with your friends, some think of it as an escape room writ large. Which leads to question two...
2) What constitutes a team?
In the traditional Human Race setting, in which you're expected to travel from point to point via a car, team size is usually three or four due to the limited space within the vehicle. Two is better than one, but three seems to be the best number. Often these roles are designated as the driver, the navigator, and the "clue getter" - the person who jumps out of the car and gets the actual clue, though often that ends up being the entire team. Also, when the going gets tough, its easy to convince one person to give up and go home.
Given that there is no expectation of using your own vehicle for the 2025 Manhattan race, it might be tempting to have even larger than the traditional three, but the Race Master suspects that if your team size is something like Twelve Angry Men you're going to spend more of your time herding cats than solving clues. But you do you.
3) How long is a race, typically?
Probably the toughest question to answer. The longest recorded race in history took twelve hours, the shortest four. Of course that is the time that the first (winning) team got to the finish line. Stragglers always come in after the pole position but are also welcomed to jump directly to the finish line (by contacting the Race Master) once the race has been won - though it is common for racers to want to "run it out" regardless of their position.
After decades of running the race it has been determined that the most fun with traditional races can be had when they're no longer than eight hours, and "walking" races (like Manhattan 2025) are usually targeted to be around six. Your milage may vary.
4) How long is a race, in distance?
A typical road race is now about 50 miles, and a perfect run of the Middlesex race would have been just over 47 miles, however a special race in the year 2000 ran from the NY/NJ state line all the way south to Atlantic City and was approximately 150 miles. We won't be doing that again. This of course assuming you run a perfect race, and considering the entire premise is that you don't know where you're going...
As for the walking races like that which is planned for Manhattan (though it is fully acceptable to utilize public transit), overall distance is not expected to be longer than six miles. It supposed to be fun!
5) What do I need to bring?
For the most part, just your brain. Even if you don't find any teammates, there's probably a team you can glom onto at the starting line, especially given this race's exclusion of personal transportation. In the past it was a good idea to bring a local map and even some reference material, but technology has supplanted those necessities. So just bring your cellphone; though it would be suprising in 2024 if you did not.
In traditional races it is common to load your car up with water and snacks to get you though the race, in a walking race it will probably not be as easy to "load up," so you may wish to bring some cash for purchasing nourishment along the way. In the past there have been known expected additional costs along the course and these fees will be minimized and conveyed in advance, so your team will need to that money on hand as well.
And of course you'll need to bring your registration fee.
6) Registration fee?
Starting with the Middlesex race in 2018, the Human Race is now exclusively running for charity, and that charity is Smile Train, a charity in New York City that "supports high-quality, local, sustainable cleft treatment for babies and children in over 75 countries." It has nothing at all to do with The Human Race but it is one of the good ones. 100% of the proceeds (after expenses from the race) will be donated to Smile Train in the name of the winners, or anonymously if they so choose.
The registration fee for the 2025 Manhattan Race will be $20 per racer.
7) What if my team gets stuck?
While there is only so many registered members of your team, Manhattan has a population of nearly 2 million, and so there is no reason why you can't ask any of them to help. In the Middlesex race, two teams helped each other so frequently they ended up merging into one team early on in the race.
However, if you find yourself really really stuck, you can reach out to the Race Master duing the race and they might give you a nudge in the right direction.
8) I don't want to race, but can I watch and/or help in any way?
There might be a place for you during the race, however given the nature of the race itself (everything is secret until the racers find it on their own) this utility is limited. If you really can't or don't want to race but you want to be a part, you can contact the Race Master at rm@humanrace.cc and we'll see what we can do.
