Finally (or so I thought), the last urban
adventure for the season! After a really long City Chase,
the Great Urban Race sounded like a much more reasonable
race. Plus I had learned my lesson of not packing Mountain Blast POWERADE, so with two bottles stowed in my pack (and one to drink on the way), I was confident we'd have a great day! Kris was my partner this time. Since she lived down
the block from me, we could take the train down together.
Luckily, about 10 minutes before the train was due at my
station (Jenkintown) I remembered that it did not stop at
Glenside (where Kris was waiting). Somehow I was able to
drive to Glenside, pickup Kris (who doesn't have a car)
and get back to Jenkintown in time to catch the train -
our first good omen of the day!
After an uneventful ride, we arrived in Center City and
met up with two of our opponents, Jenny and Rosemary. The
start was at McFadden's on 3rd Street, near Spring
Garden. We were greeted by the usual assortment of young
and old runners, plus folks in odd and/or creative
costumes. We'll try the costume angle one of these years.
There were an impressive 125 teams in the race, and I
felt pretty good about our prospects after finishing the
past three events.
Joe (the race director) blasted out the directions -
via a megaphone - a few minutes after noon, then we tore
open our instruction sheets. There were - Yow! - three
sheets of locations to decipher! And, not a lot of white
space (and the pages were deep orange!) to write on. But
no matter, we were off! The GUR used some new lingo -
MANDATORY clues had to be done (not too surprising) and
DETOURS were either/or clues. You are given 12
clues/locations and had to visit eleven of them (thus,
one skip... but not a MANDATORY one... which was
apparently not that obvious since they had to add that
rule after a few races (should have had one clue require
you to find out the definition of
"mandatory!")).
We scanned the three sheets and found two clues were
things we needed to do/have. The first clue was to arrive
at the end having the two enclosed GUR temporary tattoos
on our arms. Pretty simple, but we decided to do this at
the end, since there was a good chance the tattoos would
be gone if we put them on now. I stowed them safely away
in my wallet. The other involved taking a picture of one
of those Duck tourist boatcars (which was simpler than
one thinks in the Old City area) or find a real $2
bill... and I just happened to have one in my wallet!!!!!
(A long family story) So, we were down to nine to go.
Kris knocked out one that had some sort of long riddle
telling you where to find something, then hide it again.
I did not read the clue but took her word for it (which
turned out to be very, very good advice as the teams that
did this clue took FOREVER). We focused on the other nine
and soon had all of them located and mapped out. We had
to take our picture at each location and sometimes do
something there.
The first stop was nearby at Dave & Busters
(again!). We had to get 10 coupons (five tickets). I
figured the quickest way was good ol' Skeeball!
Unfortunately, some teams had already arrived here (not
waiting to solve all the clues before starting out) and
were there already crowding the few functioning D&B
card machines (you have to purchase a debit card, then
use it at the games). We nabbed a manager, who sold us a
card from the bar, but Jenny & Rosemary had the
ultimate timesaver solution of giving a kid $4 (the
minimum card purchase was $5) for five tickets. They
saved $1, the kid made out like a bandit and they were
out of there fast: win-win-win! Kris and I nailed the
Skeeball fast and - after remembering to get the 2nd part
of the clue, a photo in front of "Feeding
Frenzy" - were out of there.
The closest next location was not our second stop - I
misread my map. Instead we ran up Race Street looking for
Elvis sitting somewhere nearby. I had both Joe and Mary
(phone support) quickly looking for a statue of him that
I just knew was not there. Suddenly it dawned on me -
Elvis was at Barstools & More at 2nd and Race
Streets! We ran to the spot where he and Blues Brothers
would normally be hanging out... but nothing. They must
have been closed on Saturdays, or at least that Saturday
(please check the course on a race day folks!!!!!). As we
discreetly walked by it, I noticed Elvis staring out from
the doorway. It was obvious to me that they had not
planned this, so I figured we could pick up a lot of time
if we could nab the photo before anyone noticed.
Unfortunately, the other teams did notice (well several
were looking for the location anyway), so we got our
photo and split, backtracking slightly to the Painted
Bride (again!!) for the clue starting with
"Gemalt" in German (meaning Painted) and
"Bruid" in Dutch - didn't need the translation
on the second word to figure out this one. We had to find
"in the buff" on the exterior, which would have
been difficult (it was a small tile!!!) if not for
another team already there. That's the trouble with those
small, wide open space clues - the first team spends a
lot of time finding it, then the next team spends no time
assuming they get there before the second team splits. I
suggest the organizers have had 5-10 different tiles for
teams to find. Not that we minded!
After that, it was back down 2nd Street to the
National Building (a MANDATORY clue, and the race
sponsor). We had to negotiate a big inflatable obstacle
course that they apparently bring and use at every race.
At the end we got our picture taken and we were off. Kris
and I decided to go to the furthest clue, then work our
way back. This took us down into the trusty subway and
off to 34th Street. There were several other teams along
for the ride, though all got off before our stop
(hmm...). This location was also MANDATORY and involved
going to either a restaurant at 36th and Lancaster (way
off track!) or one shown on a certain page of
Philadelphia magazine. Neither of my helpers had a
Philadelphia magazine, but Kris found a friend who had
one and located the New Deck Tavern - on Sansom near 34th
Street - which was the closest of the possible choices.
We raced there - alone - took our photo and ran to the
Circa Centre. It was the correct answer to one of those
logic questions that Kris solved and I confirmed. We got
the building number in the photo and sprinted towards
Market Street.
After crossing the Schuylkill River we ran up to the
nearest cart, where the vendor had a wrapped cheese
hoagie that one of us had to feed the other (well, just
for the photo). I unwrapped it, put it in Kris' mouth,
took the photo, and rewrapped it. Two clues to go! The
next clue was an incorrectly written anagram. The phrase
"Crank Bellman Tone" does NOT anagram to
"Mellon Bank Center" but the clue said it was a
skyscraper and there's just not that many candidates
folks. We snapped the shot, though it later turned out
that Jenny and Rosemary were stumped on this one. If only
they had put "Crank Bellmen Tone!"
The last stop was the big playing pieces by City
Hall. We had to count the dots on the standing dominoes,
then take our photo while holding up the correct fingers.
There were a few other teams there who apparently had an
issue counting to 15. Most finally got it right, but we
found at least one team (at the end) which did not. Our
trouble was getting the correct number of fingers, our
faces and the dominoes in the photo. Several tries seemed
okay, but we did one last one - thank goodness - had all
fifteen fingers in view. Now, back to the finish!
I decided we should take the Spring Garden bus back,
since the subway only got us to 2nd Street... forgetting
of course that it turned north and stopped at Spring
Garden!!!!! Kris and I ran up Broad Street, applied our
tattoos and caught the 43 bus minutes later. We rested a
bit, then sprinted along 3rd Street to the end. I rounded
the corner first and thought I saw some competitors there
get up for us... then I realized it was the judges. And
we were first!!!! I screamed to Kris, who was rounding
the corner, while scanning for other teams (no one!). We
were 1st and ready to roll! The next step was to check
our photos. Of course the first set was the domino photos
and Joe was being a bit harsh in finding the 15 fingers
(I told him the answer was 15). The good photos were
vague, but he finally saw the crappy photo and said okay.
He breezed through the rest and we were definitely in
1st!!!! After some finishing and check photos we settled
in to the bar and waited for the others to finish. 2nd
and 3rd came in about nine minutes later, and the rest
trickled in for the next few hours. After a good rest, we
received our medals and returned home for some welcome
rest and relaxation. Vegas, here we come!!!!
|