Part of the "Win Or Lose We Still Booze" team got together this weekend to participant in our first Great Urban Race event.
The basics of this event are... You get a set of clues that lead you to different spots in your city. At each spot you have to perform a task. You can go in any order you want, but must only go on foot or use public transportation. Finish with all the required documentation/items and see what place you get. Penalties are assessed for missing stuff. They claim its under 10 miles with 5 hours to finish. Piece of cake. We got this.
Everyone was given the clues promptly at 12:00pm. (Not sure why they start this race in the dead of the day when it's 90 degrees.) You can run off and solve your clues on the way or, like smart teams, sit for a few minutes, solve the clues, plot your course, then take off. This race also lets you use internet, GPS, etc. So BA made quick work on the phone trying to google different words & places to find the answers.
Once we solved most of them, I plotted what side of the city each was on, so we semi-grouped them together. You were allowed to skip 1 clue. There was a tic-tac-toe clue that involved finding different strangers and getting them to take pictures with you. We decided to skip that one so we wouldn't waste time chasing down strangers on the street. We thought we were golden. We were missing a few detailed pieces of some clues but knew they were in Fountain Square, so we set off just under 14 minutes of planning. We'd figure those out on the road. Here's the breakdown in the order we did once we left the Rathskellar (M). The letters in ( ) correlate to the map at the bottom of the post.
1. 500 Festival Office (B) - This clue told us the building, we had to find the address. Once there, we were required to figure out 4 missing words to Back Home Again In Indiana, pose for a picture with a car, and grab a sticker. BA got on the phone immediately and started reading the words as I filled in our sheet. We were in and out in 2 minutes.
2. Conseco Fieldhouse (C) - This clue was a pictogram that we had to solve that led us to an intersection. At the intersection we found Conseco. The task required us to shoot 3 combined baskets. Maybe 4 minutes here. We did spend some time trying to figure out the Greek Restaurant clue. Got it and headed on foot to Fountain Square.
3. New Day Meadery (D) - This clue was a word search spelling out the location with all the unused letters. Once there we each had to toss 3 corks into buckets. The weight of a cork was making this a bit challenging for me. Got it done and headed out.
4. Heirloom Jewelry (E) - This clue was a picture of the company logo. We didn't know the location when we left but we knew it was Fountain Square, so once we got there, I just started showing strangers the picture until someone knew. The task required one team member to create a necklace out of 1 wooden bead and 6 clay ones. The wooden bead hole to thread the rope through was small. I took on this task while BA was trying to look up bus routes. We were hoping it would be the fastest way to get back to the west side of downtown (which is where we thought we needed to go).
5. Santorini Fountain Square (F) - This clue asked us to translate a 9 letter greek word to find a restaurant. We were very unsuccessful translating the greek alphabet so we just googled greek restaurants in Fountain Square until we found one on a street already mentioned in other clues. The task required one team member to photo document and feed a piece of baklava to the other. Gross but its required.
1st Delay - We thought our next clue was pointing us to the JW Marriott. From Fountain Square, the hotel looked 10 miles and 1 hour away. We found a bus stop that didn't sync up with any that we found online but decided to take our chances and just let it take us as far back into downtown as possible. It was hot and we figured we'd rather save our energy. The guy already waiting at the stop said it'd be about 20 minutes. Ok. We didn't have any better information. As we waited, other teams approached and debated waiting with us or going on foot. It truly felt like Amazing Race sitting there watching teams go on foot wondering if we were making the right choice. While we were waiting, the other teams were completing the tic-tac-toe clue that BA & I opted to skip. But since the opportunity was there, we decided to join in case we needed it as a back up clue (and we did). We both had to lead a congo line with 5 strangers.
We had to both be photographed with a man with at least 2 tattoos.
6. Double letter street name - Also while we were waiting, BA spied "Woodland Rd" which solved a riddle about finding a street sign that had the same letter in a row. We snapped our pic with the sign for proof.
Heading to JW Marriott (G) - The bus finally came after about 45 minutes of waiting. We called it a wash figuring it would have taken us that long on foot. Plus I got to experience my first public transportation ride with air conditioning. It was worth it for where we thought we needed to go.
This was our biggest and only mistake of the day. The clue referenced glass and steel, a north entrance, pitching and aiming. We figured it was the JW because it's made of glass and steel, has a north entrance, and is across from the Wizards baseball stadium that involves pitching and aiming. We totally missed googling the 2 athlete names in the clue to help us. We were convinced. Once we got there and ran around both places not finding at GUR staff, we shifted gears and took a new route to finish.
7. Tic-Tac-Toe Finished (H) - One of the tasks had us donating school supplies. I figured the JW would have a convienence type store in it. It's a 5 star hotel for pete's sake. Well they did, but full of fancy stuff. Not a single pencil or notepad. We ran out to the conceirge and he said there was a Speedway 2 blocks down the street. We had to head that way anyway, so we decided to go tackle other tasks then come back and figure this one out. Again, no school supplies at the gas station. 2 pack of pens was the closest they had. The clue had 6 specific items to choose from. Crap. But we did score our final pic - A guy in a uniform.
8. Lucas Oil Stadium (I) - After the school supply debacle, we gave up and decided it would be the task we skip since we are covered with the T-T-T pic. Based on our geographical location and with the remaining clues, it made sense to head over to Meridian street which happened to put us running past Lucas Oil Stadium. As we are approaching Lucas Oil, I see a team coming down the steps. I stopped in my tracks and yelled "BA!!!!" and just pointed. Lightbulbs and humiliation set in. It never was JW, it was Lucas. Son of a Lucas! We felt so stupid. Turns out Joan Elmore and Brian Simmons, the famous names in the clue, were world champion horseshoe throwers. Duh, that would have helped! We did hear other teams say JW too, so we weren't the only idiots that made this mistake. We were defeated for a minute, but thankful that we literally just stumbled upon this. We pulled up our boot straps, BA got the horseshoe tossed, and we were back ready to try to make up some time.
9. JP Parker Flowers (J) - The clue to this address was a math problem that involved addition, division and square roots. When BA pulled out his phone to work on it he says "There's no square root key?!" So we went at it the other way and just started multipling numbers together until we got close to make a decent guess. The final number ended in 4 so I figure the square root ended in a 2, so I said "132" and that was it! The task had one of us needing to do an accent while the other just got to stand there. The volunteer says "Who's better at accents?" BA says "She is." What?! Says who?! Fine. I had to grab an accent paper and a feeling paper. Baby Tranquil. What the Lucas does a tranquil baby sound like? I still don't know but apparently this is what I look like trying to do it.
2nd Delay - After the flower shop, we needed some strategery to figure out how we were going to finish this race. We had 2 more clues to complete with 3 options. 1 was clearly out the way at the Canal and became the newest choice as our skip-allotment. So that left us back with the school supply task and one downtown near the finish. As I mentioned in this race you can use internet, GPS, even call people for help. So that's what we did. Between the 2 of us, we brainstormed one friend, BigR, that lived downtown. Luckily he was home and willing to help. Our Savior. He found the supplies needed and said he'd see us in about 20 minutes on his bike. We gave him our coordinates and waited. He showed up and I had $10 ready for his troubles. His comment "This totally doesn't look like a drug deal."
10. - Spencer's Stadium Tavern (K) - This clue gave the address and business name, and was just a drop off of the school supplies. No task. So they made it real easy. We are the idiots that couldn't manage to get this done efficiently. We were only 1 mile from our last spot so we started booking it. Another team yelled at us "Are you done?". We said "No", to which they said "Liars!" Another Amazing Race-like moment.
11. - Jillians (L) - This clue gave the company slogan of Eat, Drink, Play and I knew exactly where it was. I tried taking every tangent to cut time and energy but I still ended up needing to walk a bit. It was damn hot out there and I underestimated the cardio effort this race was going to need. Of course, this task was on the 3rd floor of the building. You had to roll 1 pool ball into the square. Sounds easy. BA stepped up and tried for several times. It needed a softer touch, so he let me take over and after about 10 rolls, we were done and headed to the finish.
Finish - Rathskellar (M) - We crossed the finish line at 3:25:xx. Official results are still pending. We went to the finish table to confirm all the pictures and things we'd accumulated over the race to ensure we didn't receive any penalties. There were several teams sitting around, but we didn't know if they had finished, gave up, who left and isn't even there. No clue where we were at but felt pretty good about being in the Top 25. Certainly many teams had hiccups like we did. We settled in to wait for the awards.
And it seems, several teams did NOT have the hiccups we did. As the started announcing the results and the teams were approaching to get their medals, it was teams we hadn't even seen. I started laughing at our horrible effort and BA hung his head in disbelief. We sucked. But we had a helluva lot of fun! Good memories with BA.
I forgot my GPS so I used Google maps instead. During the race I swore we'd done 15 miles. Check out our ridiculous 8.9 mile route. M is also A, where we started and finished.
But now we have learned from our mistakes and vow to comeback with a vengence next year! Check out the optimal map, and probably what most of the teams in front of us did. It's only 6.4 miles. Gees.
Another thing we will try to do better on next time is costumes. There is an applause based costume contest after the race. I'm glad we didn't do anything elaborate because it was so hot, but this group got first place from me, even though they got beat a Jamacian bob sled team costume.
They freakin' made them from art supplies at Michael's. I need to step up my creativity level!
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