The Tricadecathlonomania was created in the year of our lord, 2001 by Alex Robins and Tad Johnson of Northfield Minnesota. In that year, this 24 hour long scavenger hunt first occurred. The concept of a scavenger hunt is a simple one, teams go out to collect objects and return them by the grace of god to the judges for points, and the team with the most points wins. Well, with the advent of Polaroid cameras and handheld video recorders, a new breed of scavenger hunt came forth. This allowed items to become larger, less tangible, heavier, grosser, and pretty much more righteous.
The Tricadecathlonomania sets its standards by pushing the bar to the utmost strain of legality and morality. While nothing on the list is technically wrong to do, it's all pretty wild. This allows for the Trica to be open and public, with lots of advertising. The first non-Northfield High School Trica was run by Pip Gengenbach in 2002 at St. Olaf Colege in Northfield, MN.
Over the last 5 years of competition, the numbers of participants had steadily grown in Northfield, at the high school, and in various colleges. In 2003, I decided to bear the cross up at UMD, so I wrote up a list, and spread the word. Sadly, in preparation for the event, I was immolated in a filming accident. Everything turned out alright, and I, miraculously, survived. I decided to ask around if some of my friends would like to host Tricas in other cities. Obviously, they did.
