Finally (I think!), the last urban adventure of
the season. I had been training pretty hard for a while
(having some extra time) and this race seemed like a good
end to the season. The one sticking point was the
requirement to raise $200 in donations for the event,
which was a fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Foundation. It
was an easy target, but I only had a few weeks to
accomplish it and had just asked my friends for
contributions to the MS Walk. In the end, I decided the
challenge was too good to pass up. The next hurdle was
getting a team together - I had initially misread the
entry form and thought I needed to get a team of four for
the event. A quick email to the organizers confirmed what
the next sentence in the registration said: four is the
max, and 2-3 is also fine. Unfortunately, all of my four
partners were busy, except possibly Ryan. After some back
and forth, I convinced him to enter (plus we had a month
after the event to raise the money) and Clubedventures
was go!
That morning I checked the QUASH (Quest to Unravel
Alzheimer's Scavenger Hunt) site and Ryan had indeed
entered. The start was at Penn's Landing and Walnut
Street. I arrived a little early and it looked like a
mini-MS walk - there were lots of booths with different
sponsors, registration tables and oodles of volunteers. I
filled out my forms and waited for Ryan. And waited. I
gave him a call about 45 minutes before the start and the
call went straight to voicemail. Uh oh. Well, to cut to
the chase, Ryan never answered the phone (had an
emergency at home and left his charger at school, so his
phone was dead) and I was an illegal team of one. On the
plus side, I had Amanda and Jessica on phone support (who
proved to be super valuable!).
Luckily, I had corresponded with the organizers prior
to the race when I wasn't sure if I'd have a team. With
15 minutes to go, I approached one of them and explained
that indeed that was the situation. He (forgot the name)
said to wait a minute, then disappeared. Soon he was back
with Shamara, the midday DJ from POWER99 in tow. Her
partner had baled (for the moment), so we were a team of
two. We were still making introductions when Steve, the
Promotions Manager, arrived (her real partner) so we
became the POWER99 team of three!
Chris Gocong of the Philadelphia Eagles was the
honorary spokesman and explained the race. Within minutes
we were off! Ripping open our envelope, we found - yikes!
- three pages with 26 locations on them. Each location
was identified by some trivia question and assigned a
point value (10-50) - the quest was simple: the team with
the most points at the end of 2 1/2 hours wins! Steve
said that we would be running the whole way. I mentioned
we could use mass transit or taxis, but he insisted that
we run. And, I believed him! I suggested we map all 26
locations (well, 25, forgot about one of them) and plot
our course before setting out. A big thanks again to
Amanda and Jessica, since the questions were way more
trivia-centric (and difficult to guess) and really needed
someone with Internet access.
The locations were all not too far from us. There
were a few north of us, several around City Hall and a
lot straight west and south of us. I suggested we hit the
ones north, move to Center City, then pick up what we
could near the finish. Shamara and Steve agreed so we
were off. It turned out that we all ran different speeds
and distances, so the team adjusted its strategy
accordingly. The first stop was F.U.E.L., where they had
filmed the Real World Philadelphia. At most of the
locations, we just had to answer a simple question -
there were a few that had challenges, which we would see
later in the race. Then it was off to Elfreth's Alley and
Bladen Court (the side alley) to find the red
birdhouse... and Polly, who happened to pop out her door
just as we passed by (sort of a Batman TV moment!). Polly
let us know that they were going to close the alley in
about 30 minutes, so we had inadvertently picked the
correct rotation of locations!
The third stop was at Franklin Square, where Steve
and I had to do the first challenge - a three-legged race
(well, circuit), before picking up Shamara and jumping in
a cab. We cabbed it to the furthest location -
Rittenhouse Square - while Shamara interviewed us (mainly
me) for her video blog (it's online at POWER99). Stop
four was another challenge, Frame Games (you have to
guess a common saying from the picture clue), which we
got with a little coaching. The next few clues were on
Broad Street: Kimmel Center, Union League, big
clothespin, City Hall, Game Pieces place next to City
Hall, and JFK Plaza (ten stops already!). We collected
Shamara, jumped in a cab and raced to Washington Square,
stopping along the way to answer a question at the Hard
Rock Caf‚... and another taxi interview.
Washington Square was our 12th location and last
challenge - this was a number-letter substitution using a
QWERTY keyboard... which Shamara was nice to have on her
phone (way to go Shamara! Hi-5!!). After that we hit a
few historic houses on Spruce, some tourist stops on
South Street (note to organizers: Larry Fine was not
Curly! Curly was bald (long story), but I figured out
what they meant), and onto Head House Square. We got to
count (and ours was correct) the beers served at a bar,
plus the flags flying at another bar.
Time was running out (we had two and half hours for
the race), so we picked up some easy clues at the Vietnam
Veteran Memorial, Korean War Memorial and Welcome Park,
before cruising to the end - just in time. They tallied
up the sheets and we came in second - so close! We had
even miscounted the base of the giant clothespin (a
50-point location), so we were 60 points out of first,
instead of 10 (but still safely in second). As with any
good fundraiser, they gave us lunch and plenty of fluids.
Oh, did I forget to say it was HOT and HUMID. I think it
was the worse weather race day of all five events - super
sunny, but so humid. Still, it was a great time and a lot
of fun to race with Shamara and Steve. Till next year!
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