The Great Urban Race!

So, Saturday, September 13th was the first annual Great Urban Race in Portland! Trina and I made up team "Wicked Enigma", and joined the approximately other 125 teams in the park blocks to prepare for the race to begin. It was suggested that we get into the spirit and dress up, and at least all teams had to be in matching outfits. There were some crazy costumes! We saw two girls in yellow bridesmaids dresses and sneakers, two girls dressed up likeDivo , and pairs dressed up like chickens, like cows, like brownies, like silly superheroes, and so many more!! It was so much fun! We opted for a more conservative team shirt in pink with our name ironed on the back (thanks Trina!), jeans, matching Keen sneakers, and matching bags. We pinned on our numbers, got our blue clue envelope, and we were off on our great adventure!

Meet team "Wicked Enigma"!

We started at this Starbucks, before the race began doing some pre-race talking. We also came back here first thing after the race began, to do some lightning fast googling. We answered all 12 clues and mapped out where to go, then took off! There were two puzzle clues to solve, and several others were we had to figure out where the place was. For most all the clues, we had to take a picture of both team members in front of the place the clue directed us to. Then at the finish line, they checked our pictures for accuracy.
Our first stop was at the Sugar Cube, a little cart place that had cupcakes. I fed Trina the cupcake while the cart owner took the picture. It was a very rich cupcake, and needed a milk chaser!
I was very proud of solving this clue, if I do say so. They gave us a picture of the statue, and we had to find it in Portland. I googled "Elephant Statue", and all I could find this guy's blog that had a picture in it, but no direction of where it was. So I blew up the pic on my computer, and found a Firestone sign in the background. So I googled the address for Firestone, and voila! Clue solved! The guy sitting nearby was a Firestone employee on his break and he wasn't too happy. I think we were the 8th team to ask for his help. What a grump! Just say no!

Our next clue took us to the NW area. We had to find one of those horse rings on the sidewalk that that artist guy attached toy horses to. We took a pic in front of that (not worth sharing), then went in search of Yogi Bear.
We found Yogi pretty quickly and after a fun picture with him, we headed down the blocks to Comedy Sportz. Here, we had to tell a joke to a lady. If we could make the lady laugh we got a stamp. If not, we had to get back in line and try again. We used an old joke that young Anna told me, which meant that I got to tell the joke.

"Why do pilgrims' pants always fall down?"
"Because they wear their buckles on their hats!"

Luckily, she laughed at my cute joke. The girl behind me told a great one:

"What did the chip say to the battery?"
"I'm Frito Lay if you're Everready."

After a glowing success with the joke, we hopped the streetcar and headed back towards Pioneer Square. There, we took a picture of the directional sign, another clue down.

Another of the clues was a dice puzzle that Trina cunningly solved. It meant we needed a picture in front of a building sign with an "8" in it. A nice chef student lady took this one for us.

From there, we hopped the MAX to get a picture of the Broadway Bridge, to complete our eighth clue. We missed the last stop, and ended up crossing the river. We were already tired, but Trina spiritedly suggested we just walk up and walk across the bridge, expecting we could find someone to take our picture in front of the bridge.
We did find a nice gentleman, who took a picture of us on the East side of the Broadway bridge. We then proceeded to walk over the river and back to the actual race territory. It was hot and I was not very excited.

I did, however, get a nice picture of West Portland from the bridge.

We next hiked our way back down Front street, to Salmon Springs. We had to have a picture taken of our team leap-frogging in front of the fountain. Trina was the frog, I was the leaper. This was a BAD idea. We did get the picture, but in the process of my unskilled and overzealous leap, I cut my thumb, tore my jeans, and sprained my knee. Ugh!!

The site of the leap-frog fiasco.

I left the fountain limping, and we set off in search of our 10th clue. We were both hot, and I was in pain and ready to be finished!

We found the Portlandia statue thanks to Trina's great memory, and had our picture taken in front of it . (here is just the statue.) Our final clue was to find a pencil with Portland on it. We made our way to the PSU bookstore, grabbed a pencil and some waters, and made our way gimpily back to the finish line. (There were 12 clues, but we were allowed to skip one. The one we skipped involved us and 2 others cartwheeling in the sand. I can only imagine the injuries that could have ensued...) We made it! Our official time was 3 hours, 15 minutes. We were the 104th team to finish. Even though we weren't close to finishing, and we didn't make it out unscathed, I was still very proud of us! And considering we spent about 40 minutes on the computer, I'd say we did pretty great! Trina is the BEST race partner, and even at our worst we still make a GREAT team. Next year, we'll have a lifeline set up at home, race in something cooler than jeans, and hopefully be in running shape. Let's hope my knee holds up!

Spice count: 8!! New things from this adventure-- Racing the GUR, Having a cupcake from the Sugar Cube, Pic with Yogi Bear, learning about that horse art guy, 30 seconds as a comedian, Walking the Broadway Bridge, Leapfrogging at Salmon Springs, and spraining my knee.