Staff photo by Clay Schuldt The 32 Amazing Race teams dash to their team vehicles, before the smoke clears from the New Ulm Battery’s starting round. See more photos on page 7A.

NEW ULM — At 1 p.m. Sunday, the New Ulm Battery fired off a single cannon round signifying the start of St. Paul’s Lutheran Elementary School annual Amazing Race competition.

With the cannon fire, 32 teams took off from the sidewalk in front of the elementary school and rush to their vehicles in hopes of being the first to complete a series of challenges scattered throughout New Ulm. The first to complete the tasks and return to school is the winner.

This year’s challenges were held at Flandrau State Park, Joe’s Campers, Tuner Hall, Design Home Center, Ivy House and North Park. Each one of these locations had a unique challenge.

At North Park, there were 100 rubber ducks scattered around the splashpad. Each team had to find the duck that matched their team number. At Flandrau, a team member needed to toast a marshmallow over a campfire while blindfolded to create a s’more.

With each completed task a volunteer at the station would sign off for the team.

A final seventh challenge required the team to take a selfie in front of the New Ulm mural on the Nuvera building.

This is the seventh year the school has held the competition as part of an annual fundraiser.

Staff said it typically takes 45 minutes for the first team to cross the finish line, but this year the winning team took a little over an hour.

“Four Out of Five Filzens” crossed the finish line in one hour, and one minute.

The four Filzens on the team were Brandon, Beth, Larken and Lottie.

The four Filzens agreed the challenge at Joe’s Camper was the hardest, but the most fun. The team had to find photos matching school staff.

Though this year took the longest to complete, St. Paul’s staff said they received the least amount of calls from teams with questions about the challenges, suggesting the clues were the perfect balance of fun without being frustrating.