Two days, two urban adventures!
Not the best recipe for a relaxing weekend, but I was
able to make it up that morning – the shoes still
fit – and get powered up for another day of running
around the city. My partner today was Ryan, another
first-timer. We met at the starting location, the Irish
Memorial at Front and Chestnut Streets, as the weather
gods once again smiled on us. The extra layer of
protection that the Urban Dare shirt provided was quite
nice (as opposed to the shock of no High Trek shirt until
the end on Saturday). After greeting Kevin and signing
in, we waited for the start. Apparently, quite a few
teams had found my site and thanked me for posting the
past few years’ courses (and some complimented my
logo – thanks Joe!). We somehow became the team to
beat!
Only one team was still AWOL, so
Kevin started the race. We assembled in the four starting
squares and Kevin read the first question, which was:
which of the four states listed was not a Commonwealth
(like Pennsylvania is). Ryan and I correctly guessed
Louisiana (aren’t they still a territory?!) so we
left with the first (and big) group. After a small
(literal) pileup at the paper-hander-outer, we were off!
This was the first year that Kevin
did not have the questions ordered in sequence, so we
needed to determine all the locations before setting off.
I think that’s a great idea since it brings more
strategy into play (the beginners feel the urge to just
start running somewhere, while the vets realize that
early planning leads to less heartbreak at the end). The
clues were not too difficult, which was good since one of
my two helpers was nowhere to be found! Thank goodness
for Mary (for me) and Haroon (for Ryan). We got about all
the locations set in maybe 10 minutes, and then quickly
determined the best course. There were no random dares
(like, for instance, find five Ben Franklins, or
something else that could be anywhere in the city), so we
didn’t need to focus on anything between the actual
locations.
Our first stop was Dave &
Busters (an easy anagram to unscramble) where Ryan had to
top 24 in Sureshot basketball and I topped 230 in
Skeeball (which took two tries). A lot of teams started
here, so the place was full of blue shirts. Nothing like
running at top speed through the winding corridors inside
D&Bs. We shot out of the place and realized that
Callowhill would be best way under I 95. From there it
was a quick trip to the Painted Bride (which I was very
familiar with) and onto the Betsy Ross House. That clue
was the first real person on a Pez dispenser, which I
believe Mary confirmed for us. After that, it was a short
trip to the Jewish American Museum and the monument to
Jonathan “Yuri” Netanyahu. We seemed to be
moving at a good clip and not seeing too many other
teams.
It was a quick run up Market Street
and into the Reading Terminal Market. I made a beeline
for the center food court, but only found the pig statue
(definitely not a sucker, maybe a suckling) After quickly
wandering the halls, we ended up at the candy place just
across from the Down Home Diner – the biggest
suckers were hidden in the back, but we got them in the
photo. We ran into one-half another team (Tim from X Factor), so we knew they
were close. Leaving the market, we ran up Market Street
to get the photo of the Mother’s Day plaque –
finally someone used this in a race! We had over half of
the locations done!
JFK Plaza held our second dare, the
dreaded find the letters/points to spell some word. The
assistant said we could pick any word and held out the
sheet – which of course had the point totals next to
each word! We had “barnacles,” which I knew
from the sheet was 121 points, but just to be honest we
actually found all the letters and sure enough they were
worth 121 points (the “a,” for instance, was 17
points). Even better, we were the first team there!
Ryan and I ran along the Parkway to
the Boy Scout building, next to the Franklin Institute,
and got out photo with the Boy Scout statue. It was at
that point that I noticed the next location was not the
statue at Green and Fairmount, but it’s present day
location. Oops! A quick call to Mary and Haroon went in
our favor, since the statue was now even closer -
directly across the road from the Art Museum. Our third
dare awaited us – tossing a ball closest to a cone.
It actually isn’t a contest unless you are playing
against someone from another team… but no matter. We
tossed the balls and got our card stamped. I believe we
were only the third team there, so I’m not sure how
that happened.
We ran back down the Parkway and
hit a big break. The 32 bus was stuck in traffic entering
the Franklin Institute garage, so we could get to Winter
Street in time to jump on and take a much needed moving
break to 18th and Market Streets. Rejuvenated, we jumped
off the bus and headed to Rittenhouse Square using the
same route that Nick and I had the day before. We found
the frog and took our second-to-last picture! Some teams
had done this earlier in the race, but they had to run
along the Schuylkill to the next location. We had another
great – super! – break, when I spotted the 21
bus coming along Walnut Street. We got to 19th in time to
catch it and rested again until we hit 30th Street.
At 30th Street, we jumped off and
raced over to 30th Street Train Station. After a photo
with the memorial angel in the center court, we scampered
over to the food court to each play Connect Four with
another assistant. We waited a bit while another team
challenged him, and then took our turn. Ryan played one
board and I the other. Luckily, we both won on the first
game, got our stamp and raced to the subway. I’m
pretty sure we just missed a train, so we had to wait for
a while.
While waiting, two other teams (Rebecca & Tim, and Lisa & Margy)
showed up – oh no, shades of yesterday! Luckily, Rebecca and Tim
still had one location to go, so we only had Lisa and Margy to duel in a foot race. The train arrived – and
thankfully no more teams! – so we boarded the cars.
Ryan and I spent the time stretching when out of the blue
the other “finished” team, Lisa and Margy, jumped off the subway
at 11th Street! I called out to them and they replied
that they had forgotten to get the picture at 30th
Street! Kevin was very clever to embed two instructions
at that location – the photo and Connect Four –
and at least one team had not noticed it (more on that
later). So, it was us and Rebecca and Tim, who had to jump
off at 5th Street. I correctly figured that there was no
way they could get off there, get a picture and arrive
anywhere close to us (we were getting off at 2nd Street,
then running to Buffalo Billiards at 2nd and Chestnut).
The train stopped and 5th and I
waved to them. We got off at 2nd and sprinted down the
same side street that Nick and I did the day before to
arrive first at the place! Our last dare was hitting a
bulls-eye. Ryan had a couple iffy throws, so we decided
–since we had to use one board – that I would
throw and he would relay the darts. I nailed the
bulls-eye on the second dart and it was all over!
Rebecca and Tim came in a while
later and hit the bulls-eye. They asked about Lisa & Margy, and when I explained the forgotten picture at the
train station, they realized that they had done the same
thing! After a brief discussion, they bagged going back.
It was a full 20 minutes before the next team (Lisa and Katie) came in
(who apparently ran the whole thing!), so they got 2nd
and the other team got a 25 minute penalty for 3rd. After
another long wait, the “we went back” team, Lisa & Margy,
arrived for 4th. Ryan and I enjoyed beer from our
wonderful bartender Kristin as teams continued to flow
in. It was quite some time before the last team arrived
– they had eaten a few times, had some beers and
walked the dog during the race (?). The awards were given
out and we headed home triumphant!
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