Urban Dare Race Report
March 22, 2008
My friend Chris L. and I are huge fans of the reality tv show "The Amazing Race," which involves contestants following clues travelling the world, with various tasks and challenges along the way. I have always thought we would make a good team on the show, but that is a bit out of reach. So when the Urban Dare race series came to town, we thought it would be a fun one-day local amazing race.
I had done the (now-defunct) Urban Challenge races three times before, twice in Austin, and once in New Orleans, so the format wasn't all that new to me: solving a list of clues to lead us to various locations, and making one's way around town utilizing only your feet or public transportation. At each of the locations indicated on the clue sheet, we would either take a photo to document that we were there, or do a "dare," which is a twist on the old Urban Challenge format, meaning we would complete little tasks along the way as well. I think it makes the race more fun, takes out the element of it only being decided by who is fastest at getting from point A to point B, and it's more like the tv Amazing Race. You can have a support team available to help you solve clues, give you directions to places, etc., so Chris and I had our friend Paul at his computer with Google at the ready to assist us, and a couple of other friends were available for some back-up help.
We didn't do a huge amount of prep for the race: I was coming off of a business trip to Alaska, so would be flying overnight, landing in Austin at 9 am, and we were to check in at the race around 11:15 am for a noon start. We had both looked at maps and guidebooks, and had printed out a few key bus route maps. We charged our cameras and cellphones, had a bagel for energy, and Chris did a quick crossword puzzle to sharpen his neurons. I think that worked, other than the fact that we got partway to the race site and he realized he had left his phone plugged in at the house.
We're both runners (Chris faster than me), so we had the general fitness to move relatively quickly, though a strained hip flexor limited my running speed.
When we checked in for the race at Auditorium Shores, we were given our race t-shirts (must be worn during the race with our race numbers pinned on), and a "passport" with the numbers 1 - 12 printed on it. The passport would be stamped at the dares.
Of course, I was scoping out the competition, looking for some of the more experienced adventure racers who have elevated these urban clue-solving races to an art form.
At about noon, the race director gathered us together on a grid marked on the grass with the letters A, B, C, and D. He then asked us a multiple choice question, and we were to move to the square of the grid denoting our answer. The teams who got the question right would get their clue sheets first. Question: Who was Frieda of the musical group Frieda and the Firedogs? We had NO CLUE!! Oh, great. So, like copycats, we moved to the D square, where most of the other teams had gone. Answer: D. Marcia Ball. At least 1/2 of the teams were released to get our clue sheets from a couple of volunteers (who were instantly mobbed) and get started! yay!!
We moved away from most others and started looking over the clues. I took photos of the clue sheet with my cell phone and sent them to Paul so he could start working on them with us. Chris got several of the clues right off, I helped with a few, but just kept trying to remember to not rush and make sure we were accurate. If we showed up to the finish with an incorrect photo, we would be disqualified. We also needed to get some idea of the general area of the locations we would have to go, to minimize backtracking and extra running, so getting most of the answers before we started running to some random location was key. We did not have to visit the locations in the order listed on the clue sheet.
One of the clues was a
bonus that would subtract 4 minutes from our overall time: it was a photo of several oversized olives on top of some wood lattice. This probably cost us in the placings at least by one, because I was just sure that these olives would be in the outdoor decor of Whole Foods, which is just across the lake from Auditorium Shores. Several of the other clues were in downtown, so we decided to head for Whole Foods and continue from there.
We jogged along, crossing the footbridge, and I knew early on that my leg injury was going to slow us down. ugh. I hated that, because I didn't want Chris to be disappointed. We got to Whole Foods and looked...and looked....where are the olives? Are there NO giant fruits or vegetables in the outside decor? Oh, crud. I know there are some giant veggies at Central Market south, but that was beyond where the race would reasonably take us. Well, dang. I already screwed us up. Call in to the support people....any other ideas on the olives? Looking more closely at the photo, it looked like a giant toothpick skewering the olives, so we suggested the crew search for a martini bar or similar.
Luckily, our next clue would lead us to an establishment just a few blocks from Whole Foods, so we hadn't gone too far out of our way.
Roman Math Time-- Go to (CXLIII times V) West (MCDXXXIV divided by CCXXXIX) th Street, where your aim must be true on this dare.The math worked out to 715 W. 6th Street, which was Mother Egan's Pub. We ran in, and in good Amazing Race form, I asked, "Have there been people like us here?" (they ask that alot on the tv show.) The dare here was darts: one of us had to throw a bullseye. Since there were no other teams there at the same time, we both could throw until we got one. I almost had it--bounced off the wire, then Chris got one shortly thereafter. I wondered if it would have been easier if we had a pint to drink, but we didn't have time for that!
The Pillar of Autumn is this class of cruiser. Get your picture at this coffee house.
Paul had solved this one, I suppose with Google.
Halcyon is on 4th street, a few blocks from Mother Egan's, so we headed east and got there in quick time. A quick photo, and off we went.
By this time, our awesome crew had found out that the olives for the bonus were at the Cedar Door, on 2nd St., a few blocks east of Halcyon. Perfect! It was so good to see them, after my Whole Foods snafu. And I had no idea the Cedar Door even re-opened after they moved from Cesar Chavez! Supposed to be the best Mexican martini around.
The next few clues were close by, and close to each other:
Get your picture where Ratso Rizzo's roommate was first caught posing.
Chris got that this was Midnight Cowboy right away. I think the "caught posing" part threw him off, though. The Midnight Cowboy on 6th St. is a massage parlor...and lists "modeling" on the sign. So that made the connection for me (sometimes the clues will tie in like that).
Another
photo clue showed another oversized item with the letters "FO..." showing. I thought the shape looked like a bell pepper. There was something over the main body of the item that could have been a mouth, so another idea was a fish. ?? We thought it might be the type of thing outside Esther's FOllies on 6th St., so that was the next stop. Nope. Dang...we could not identify the giant items in photos! Isn't it my job to be visual?
Luckily, another clue was about 2 blocks away:
Next to the restaurant named for the capitol of the largest Caribbean island, find your water dare.Chris knew the island is Cuba, and the capitol is Havana. So we went next to Habana on 6th, where a water dare was set up along Waller Creek. It was harder than it looked. We had a plastic tub to fill with water, using a plastic pail tied to a line. We would fill the pail by dropping it to the creek about 12-15 feet below a bridge. Our bucket kept floating on the water and we had trouble getting it to hit the water at a good angle to let water in, but we finally got the task done.
We headed north for the next clue. But in the meantime, before we got away from downtown, we tried once more for the photo clue. Chris figured out it was an apple...I immediately came up with Forbidden Fruit (have only been there once, in college, mind you). So we had to backtrack about 4 or 5 blocks, but at least we got the right place this time! The backtracking led us right through Austin's homeless...a sad sight, but I also made sure Chris didn't get too far ahead of me.
So...major mistake diverted, we headed back north for the next clue and dare:
Napolean would have hated Austin, too many places with a foreboding term for him, Go to the part with this name and get your picture with a sculpture of a man known as the Liberator of Mexico and do your soccer dare.
Not too difficult to figure this was Waterloo Park, about 7 blocks north of Forbidden Fruit. Again, through the homeless crowd, including some enjoying the shade along Waller Creek, practically cheering us on and pointing us towards the park (so that made them seem less scary). Here at the park, Chris saved the day again, as I thought we just had to do the dare, but he read that we also had to take a photo. The dare was to dribble a soccer ball along a slalom course of cones, then shoot a 'goal' through two cones about 10 yards away from the end of the course. We could both take a turn, one as backup, in case the first person missed the goal, the second would be through the slalom part in place to shoot again. Chris missed. Then I missed. arrgh! I took another turn through the course, while Chris was confirming which statue we needed in the photo. I was enjoying this challenge...I played a bit of soccer in jr. high and could handle the ball fairly well. Then I missed the goal. So Chris saved the day with his 2nd turn!
Next clue had us heading west, to the Capitol grounds:
The Boy Scouts dedicated a statue to the state of Texas. Get your picture with it.
I knew this from my guide book and scouting out statues for a previous race. It is a small replica of the Statue of Liberty on the north side of the Capitol. Easy enough, and a couple of tourists were helping racers by taking their photos for them.
By this next clue, knowing we had to run about 8 blocks up to the
UT campus, I was struggling with my leg. And we were getting hot. I kept wanting to find busses to ride to the next stop, just to give my leg a break for a bit. However, my competitiveness held out. Every time I saw another team, I would dig a little deeper, and keep trying to run.
Get your picture with the first statue of a Latino on the UT campus.
Paul had determined this was a statue of Cesar Chavez, and Chris knew it was on the West Mall.
Go to the first sibling rivalry's place for your double dare.
Just about 4 blocks west of the Chavez statue, and a couple of blocks north was Cain and Abels. Chris encouraged me to push through and get there, then I could rest a bit while we did the dare.
I loved this one! We had to eat a mini-cheeseburger (yum!) and then, playing against other teams, win 3 games of Connect 4. I won one, Chris won one, then I won one more. We got some cool water, and gathered ourselves...just 2 more clues and the final dare to go! We were in the home stretch!
Go to the Greening WAR FILM (two word jumble). If we are in a bull market, get your picture with the bull. If not, get your picture with the eagle. Two minute penalty for the wrong pic.
This was the Greening LAW FIRM on 15th St., so about 8 blocks south of Cain and Abel's. We cut over to Guadalupe to head south, on the off chance that we could take a bus for even a few blocks of it, but we were apparently between busses. No worries...we had cheeseburger fuel! Chris (again) made sure we got the correct photo (I was thinking we just needed the sign, but then again, he had the clue sheet right in front of him or in his pocket and I was just going from memory). We tried to elude another team around this point by cutting along an alley, but that didn't help us too much. It was good to see other teams still heading north, as we knew we had one more stop until the finish. (hehe...yes, I am competitive)
UT's mascot sells books by the community college. Get your picture there.
This was the Bevo's bookstore, near ACC at 12th and West. Got there quickly, and then headed towards Congress. Paul had scoped out a bus for us to take, which we caught up with at Colorado and 11th. That was a relief, as the finish was just over a mile away. I'm sure that saved us at least 5-7 minutes. Another team got on the bus part way down Congress...they had taken a photo of Habana and not done the water dare, so had been sent back from the finish! This is one of the teams I know who are very good at these sorts of races, and they had been in 2nd place except for having to go back, so I knew we were among the top finishers! yay!
Finish-- The Thorpedo is an __________. Go to _________ for your final dare.
This clue caused us some consternation early on. I knew from the Olympics that swimmer Ian Thorpe is called the Thorpedo, but I really didn't think that would be an answer. Chris thought it might be a sandwich or other food name, which seemed like something Thundercloud Subs would have, so we considered that for a long time. That never matched anything for our Google crew, so it had to be the swimmer, and the location of the last dare and finish line was Aussie's.
When the bus we were on came to the final stop, we had a footrace between us and the team that had had to go back for the water dare. Of course, we still had the final dare to complete and they didn't, so the footrace ultimately didn't matter. Plus, they could just outrun us (or at least, outrun me). So they came in and got their 5th place finish....which means...after we did our dare of throwing ping pong balls (3) into cups of water (Chris nailed it!), we came in 6th!! Total time 2:21, less 4 minutes for the bonus photo, for a finish time of 2:17.
We had an absolute blast doing this event. I highly recommend it! A good mix of brains, skills (sort of), and athleticism. I was hoping for a top-10 finish and we totally had that. I was very happy with our communication during the race...these things can make you tense and make communicating difficult, but we worked very well as a team. I think we learned a lot about that from the tv show Amazing Race, but I also just respect the heck out of Chris.
What could be improved on? My running, for one. The only thing I think I would have altered about the course we took is to not have gone to Whole Foods, since it was flat out wrong, and the Mother Egan's dare could have been hit on the way back, as it is 6 blocks straight down from Bevo's bookstore. But then, we may have had to wait on the dartboards, etc...so it all worked out just fine. I mapped out our course afterwards, and we ran about 7.2 miles and took the bus for 1 mile. We could have saved about 1.3 miles by doing a more direct route. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, they say.
