Urban Dare Champions Race - Orlando 2006

Ed's Log

Drew and I ran a tough race and finished 6th after an amazingly grueling 15 miles (and this is a conservative estimate - the Chicago team had a GPS receiver and recorded 17 miles) through Winter Park and downtown Orlando (well over double the Philly qualifying distance!).  Nine teams started the race at Hannibal Square in Winter Park – winners from DC, New York, Chicago, Tempe, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego (the Boston winning team was a no-show), plus the second-place team from San Francisco.  To make things interesting, we had to stand inside a large water fountain that cycled from nearly nothing up to all jets on – the longer you stayed there, the wetter you got!  We had to answer trivia questions with four choices by moving to a certain quadrant in the fountain – once you got the question correct, you could leave the fountain.  We correctly guessed the fourth question (who just bought the Hard Rock Café franchise) and were off.

The race director gave us a list of twelve cryptic locations (see the scanned sheet), so we quickly phoned our support team (mine was Anne, Joe and Jen) with the riddles.  The first checkpoint location was easy to figure out:  the white whale is a Beluga, and there was a restaurant by that name down the block.  After turning wrong on one street, we arrived into the pack of teams (some ahead of us and some still arriving).  Our first dare was to pick a word (we got combination), then find the letters - which were on 1 1/2" squares with the letter and a number - and add up the numbers.  It was quite a zoo as 18 racers ran around the porch of a restaurant looking on/under tables, chairs, bar equipment, etc. for the squares.  Most of the teams departed after many minutes of searching and it left only teams with “n” in their word.  That letter turned out to be the toughest letter to spot, but finally someone just stumbled upon it.  So we were in the back of the pack early.

The next checkpoint was down the road – towards downtown Orlando – at an Einstein Bagels.  We had to solve a Sudoku puzzle, which Sudoku Master Drew buzzed through while we caught our breaths.  Then it was another few miles into Orlando for Checkpoint 3 – and another dare – at a park.  The game consisted of a fence with three horizontal rungs.  You had a foot-long rope with golf balls at each end, which you needed to toss about 10 feet and attempt to loop it around one of the rungs – top = 1 point, middle = 2, bottom = 3 – to total 15 points.  We did it fairly fast and were back in the thick of things.

Our next checkpoint referred to “two of these in a deck of cards.”  Support was looking for someplace named Jokers, when Drew mentioned Jacks (I think he meant to say Joker), which suddenly inspired me to think of One-Eyed Jacks!  Sure enough there was a bar by that name in downtown Orlando.  We ran there for a double dare:  first, we had to remove one piece – chosen by flipping a card – from an Operation board.  Not so easy after running about 6 miles.  Then we had to collectively scarf down a dozen hot wings before moving on (at the dare locations, someone stamps our play card to prove we were there).

For our next checkpoint, we found an old courthouse with statues of gators and a gator wrestler in front of it.  If our helper at checkpoint 2 was wearing sneakers, we shot the wrestler; otherwise the gator.  Since she had flip-flops on, we did the gator.  Finally a photo stop!

Checkpoint 6 required us to unscramble letters to spell Church Street Station (a popular nightclub/historic area), then go there and find a particular brick on the ground.  Luckily another team was there as we ran up, so we saved a lot of search time (and they had found it thanks to yet another team being there before them).  After snapping a photo, we were for Checkpoint 7.

The clue for this one was just a photo.  We asked around and received bad advice the first time (which took us close to Checkpoint 8), then found someone who pointed us in the right direction.  The first statue we found looked close, but was not correct.  This told us that the correct one had to be close by (and by the same sculptor).  Sure enough, we found it on the other side of the building.

After snapping that photo, we headed to the lake where our dare was to peddle a swan boat around the fountain in the middle of Lake Eola.  Now this was pain extreme.  We had been running about 8-9 miles and had to sit in a crappy, wet boat designed for much smaller people.  Our legs were on fire, but we succeeded and hobbled on to the next checkpoint.

We found Checkpoint 9 and had to shot a foul shot, 3-pointer and lay-up in 15 minutes (why the time limit?).  It only took a few minutes and we got our stamp.  We were finally moving away from downtown Orlando and back towards the finish.

Checkpoint 10, the Forbidden City restaurant, was about a 1/3 of the way back.  After snapping that photo, we ran towards the museum area (another few miles).  While on the way, we saw a poster of the University of Florida (we would get a two minute bonus if we got a picture of someone wearing a UofFL apparel… while making bunny ears behind the person).  I figured they could hold up the sign, but sure enough the proprietors had an apron!  We snapped the shot, thanked them and headed back towards the museum area.

Drew and I thought we knew where Checkpoint 11 was (looking for a dog statue), but the critter we remembered was not a dog.  We spent some time roaming the area, until another team pointed us in the right direction (thanks!).  We snapped the picture, then lucked out by finally nailing a bus to save us some running.

The bus took us about 2 miles to near the end, then we sprinted into the bar.  There were many, but not all, teams already in there.  Our next dare was the good old jigsaw puzzle that we once again blew through.  Finally, our last challenge was to throw a bulls-eye at the dartboard.  And, much to my surprise, my very first dart nailed the center – stop the clock!

That placed us sixth.  The first place team – two FBI marathoners from DC came in at 3:02.  The second place team, from San Diego, was about 40 minutes behind.  Third and fourth were the two teams from San Francisco, who ran together the whole race, so only the jigsaw puzzle time separated them.  LA was fifth, then after us were New York, Chicago and Tempe.  Other than the super-human DC team, each group was about 10 minutes from the next finisher.  We were with the San Francisco teams until around the swan boats, so we had a shot at a trophy.

All in all a great time and a great reason to have a beer, or two, afterwards to replenish everything Drew and I lost while running 14 miles in humid Orlando.  Next year’s qualifier in Philly is May 5th!