Race Report for the Urban Challenge Philadelphia, August 17, 2002.
Aggie & I competed in the first ever Urban Challenge Philadelphia on August 17, 2002. It was awesome! We loved every second of it!
Click on the skyline above to go to the Official Urban Challenge website or read on for our account of the race.
What is Urban Challenge? Teams of two must unravel clues to locate and 12 checkpoints throughout the city. They must get to each checkpoint using only their own foot power and public transportation Teams must prove that they were at each checkpoint by having their picture taken with a digital camera on loan from Urban Challenge. Teams are set loose on the course based upon their answers to a series of Trivia questions. Teams can't have help during the trivia portion of the game but after that --- the more help you can get the better! The top 10 teams from each Urban Challenge city will earn the chance to compete in Las Vegas for the National Championship and a reward of $50,000.
 Race Headquarters / Trivia Challenge
At about 7am on Saturday morning we set out for Finn McCool's Ale House at 12th & Spruce. This was the race headquarters where the Trivia Challenge would take place. We were nervous wrecks and we couldn't wait to see the other teams and learn who we'd be up against. As we approached the bar we were thrilled to see a pair of middle-aged, out of shape, geeky looking people in matching outfits that we knew must be part of the race. We were so happy to see that we wouldn't be the only nerds in the bunch!
The bar was packed with people ready to race. Everybody from obviously fit runners, to father son teams and even a few pairs of geeks like us. Although they were giving out a prize for best costume only one team was wearing one: a set of guys who looked like typical runners, tall and skinny, who were wearing short little kilts. They called themselves "Team Britney Spears". We saw them running around town all day.
At HQ they also handed out our race numbers, a race passport that contained a photo of the Skip Chick (if you find her and get your picture taken with her you could skip a checkpoint) and our starting checkpoint. We learned that we'd be starting at checkpoint 3. They also gave us the digital camera and we spent the next half hour or so learning how to use it properly and fretting about what was in store for us. Some teams were asking us about our strategy and we confessed that we really didn't have one. I did suggest at this point that we should pop into Kinko's to copy the clues so we wouldn't make the mistake of losing the clues like Wil & Tara did on The Amazing Race.
At 8:30 the Triva challenge began. There were 30 questions on the quiz and we had read in a Boston race report that the first 20 counted and the remaining 10 were tie breaker questions. Some were impossible, some easy, and some that I think were written especially for us (For example: What was the first name of the character John Stamos played on General Hospital?) Click here to go to the Urban Challenge page and see the trivia questions. The good news is that we only got 4 questions wrong out of 30 and were able to start in the first group of racers. That gave us about a 25 minute lead on the people who were released last.
First panic of the day! Our digital camera seems to be malfunctioning! There are scary words written on the LCD screen and we can't make them go away. Luckily the race organizer guy slid a magic button to the left and the camera worked like a charm after that. Whew! At about 9:05 he handed us the list of checkpoints and we're off!
CHECKPOINT 3 Exactly How Long is That? Find the bench in the Rittenhouse Square District whose names fit the clues below: First Name: _______, go away, I'm no good for you... Second Name: Don't bring me down, __________. How about a team picture on the bench for CP3.
| CP3: Dawn & Bruce Bench |
|
| Rittenhouse Square |
We zoom off at a run/trot to Rittenhouse Square. I can already tell that I'm going to be slowing down Aggie because she's used to running and I am not. I decide to call Brian (one of our internet helpers at home) to get him working on the song lyrics -- this also gives me an excuse to walk instead of running. As we're zooming along assorted old guys who are hanging out along the street encourage us to go faster. HA!
We arrive at Rittenhouse Sqaure and find about a zillion wooden benches each with a tiny plaque that has a name on it. We split up and start scanning the benches to try to see if anything jumps out as the right name. I have no clue -- Aggie is on the other side of the park, she has no clue. This bench-scanning task is more complicated than it sounds: most of the benches are occupied by people hanging out reading the paper or sleeping homeless guys who haven't gotten up yet. Many of these pesky non-racer people are blocking the tiny plaques. Sigh.
I decide to call Allison, my other internet helper. A young couple is sitting on a bench drinking coffee and hanging out -- they ask what we're up to and we quickly explain. They point out a bench across from them where people had been getting their picture taken. Jackpot! We run across the grass and get in line to pose for the photo.
Allison calls and gives us the name Dawn -- that's the first lyric. Yay! That confirms that this is indeed the right bench. It says Dawn and Bruce together forever or something on it. We volunteer to snap the photo for the couple that gets to the bench a few seconds ahead of us. They have a baby with them in a stroller. They pose, then we hand them our camera and they take a picture for us.
Aggie tells me that the next clue is to search for Giovanni's Dry Rub at the Italian Market -- we call Mom and have her call around to find out if there is a store down there called Giovanni's. We take off trying to figure out the best public transit to the Italian Market.
OH NO! AGGIE REALIZES THAT SHE LOST THE CLUES!
She realizes that when the guy with the baby handed back the stuff after taking our picture he gave back our phone and our camera but he kept the clues! Where did they go? They have a baby, how fast can they be? We run around like maniacs looking for them. What do we do? We have no clues! We're furious! (Did I predict this or what?)
SEARCHING FOR CHECKPOINT 4:
Aggie realizes that the Clue-stealers have to be headed for the Italian market too and we decide to head down there looking for the dry rub and for the lady with the baby. Phone call to Brian to put him on the case of the Giovanni's Dry Rub. My apologies to him because I know I screamed at him at this point because I was angry that we had lost the clues. Anyway, we hopped on a bus that was supposed to take us to another bus that would take us to the Italian Market. (This was a tactical error -- turns out our feet were the best way to get down there.) Call to Mom - put her on the hunt for Giovanni's. She quickly calls back to tell us that there isn't anything named that in the market. Darn!
The first bus feels great because the AC is on full blast. We chat with a nice lady who is really curious about the race. We moan that we lost the clues and she wishes us luck.
Off the bus waiting for the next one --- RING RING! It's Brian he gives us the name of two Spice Shops at the Italian Market and their addresses. They're only 9 to 12 blocks away and no busses in sight -- we decide to bag the bus and hoof it down to the market. We're walking, I'm hot and furious and bickering like crazy with Aggie because I want to quit because we lost the clues. How can we finish the race without the clues? I see no way to find the people with the baby. I think it's hopeless. We trudge on.
She wants to run/jog and I can't/won't. My shins hurt and I'm totally unmotivated since I think we're going to have to give up anyway. Assorted people laugh at us for going so slow in a race. Aggie is still being a very good sport, I guess because she feels guilty for losing the clues.
We arrive at the Italian Market and are encouraged because we see lots of racers. We see some people who were also at the bench with us and might recognize the folks with the baby --- they tell us that they are around at the Italian Market and we should keep looking for them. No idea where Giovanni's Rub is. Vendors can't really help us out although they're good sports and try. We go to Brian's first spice shop -- they don't have it and they don't know who does.
Hey! There goes Team Britney Spears! They seem fast and like they know where they're going --- Aggie hustles off after them hoping they'll find the rub. I am scanning the crowd for the baby stroller and the Clue-Stealers. Up and down 9th street aimlessly looking. Hey look! We accidentally find Grassia's Italian Market Spice Company and go inside and YES! they have the special rub. Picture taken.
| CP4: Giovanni's Dry Rub |
|
| Bug Eye & Squinty |
SEARCHING FOR CHECKPOINT 5:
Now what? We don't know the next checkpoint although Aggie remembers it has something to do with a national bank and the number of columns outside.
Zooming up 9th street we start chatting with a couple of guys in the race and tell them our sob story about the clues. They're slightly sympathetic but not really. They tell us a little bit about Checkpoint 5 -- we need to find a national bank with 6 columns out front. On the phone to Brian on the bus --- put him on the case of finding the banks and figuring out which one has the columns.
Aggie successfully begs another team on the bus to borrow their clues. She reads them out to me and I try to scribble them down as best I can but it's hard to write on a wiggly bus and she was talking so fast I couldn't keep up. Still, we get most of them jotted down, but we're still missing checkpoint 2.
Off the bus near Independence National Historic Park. I think we're just wandering around but Aggie knew just where the 1st and 2nd National Banks were thanks to one of our trusty maps.
We see the guys from the bus again (Team Giants t-shirt) and we also see a copy shop. We come up with a plan to try to bribe them into letting us make a copy of their clues. Before we catch up to them we realize that the copy shop is closed. Foiled again!
We do catch up with them though and we offer to trade some clues with them. They tell us the answer to Checkpoint 2 is some kind of bar/restaruant called Bobby Blues. We tell them where the Icelander mentioned in Checkpoint 11 is located but they don't believe us.
We zoom to the bank closest to the bus stop. It's the 2nd National Bank but it has the wrong number of columns. A park ranger lady assures us & Team Giants shirt that there is a bank with six columns and she points us in the right direction. We find a bank but it's got 8 columns. Rats!
Phone call to Mom -- we put her on the case to get us the address of Bobby Blues.
We're still zooming around --- and we find the 1st National Bank and yes, it has 6 columns. Even better --- across the street is the Skip Chick and the Urban Challenge guy! They take pity on us and give us a new checkpoint list. THANK GOD! [Aggie has asked me to rephrase this section --- we didn't beg for clues or act like wimps who needed them, we simply asked to SEE the clues for a minute and they gave us a new sheet. There was no begging or whining of any sort.]
Two photos taken here, one with the Skip Chick and one of us in front of the bank. Interesting to note that Kevin McCarthy, Mr. Urban Challenge, suggests that we skip Checkpoint 6. Is that because it's next or does he already know that that one is causing problems for people?
Mom calls says she can't find a place called Bobby Blues but she found Barry Blue at 18th and Chestnut. She gives us the phone number too. Yay Mom!
We sit down on a bench to kind of re-group and read over the list of checkpoints. What happened to Team Giants shirt? They went down some side street and we never saw them make it to the bank. Very mysterious!
| CP5: 2nd National Bank |
|
| The Skip Chick Too! |
Here are the clues for checkpoints 4 & 5:
CHECKPOINT 4: Thanks, But Not Really! If you are looking for marjoram or fenugreek in the Italian Market, there may be more than one place to go, but if you want Giovanni's Dry Rub, only CP4 can fill the bill.
CHECKPOINT 5: Banco Primero o Banco Segundo? CP5 is a National Bank of the United States. CP5 has only 6 columns in front. Take your photo so we can count the columns.
| CP6: Bridget Foy's Giant Spark Plug |
|
| Giant Spark Plug |
It's about 10:45 and we're feeling much better now that we have the clues. We wasted some time but we've still got more than 3 hours to find the rest of the checkpoints and we can even skip one. We can do this!
CHECKPOINT 6: Danger! High Voltage! Although they are typically made of a material that conducts electricity encased in a ceramic body, the one that serves as CP6 wouldn't fit anywhere we typically see it used. Find it in the Historic/Waterfront District cuz it is CP6.
Brian calls while we're looking at the checkpoints and we decide to have him hunt for a red bird house at Elfreth's Alley and we also have him trying to find out who the heck the "Father of Snorri" is.
We have no clue what this high voltage thing could be --- so we hope we just run into it. We're considering skipping it but we don't want to waste our skip too soon. Meanwhile we start to think about:
CHECKPOINT 7: They Look so Serious! How about a photo between two Korean court officials near a river for CP7.
I called the Independence Visitor's Center and a nice lady sends me to the Korean Memorial at Penn's Landing. Great! But when we get there, it's a Korean War Memorial. This isn't what we need at all!
There are tons of teams milling around at the Korean War Memorial. Some are taking their picture here as a checkpoint but we're not convinced that they are right. Others are on the phone trying to figure out what the "giant conduit" could be. We had no idea what he was talking about with the giant conduit but we think he must have been looking for the answer to CP6. A nice old guy is visiting the war memorial and he's all confused by all the nuts with race numbers.
We start to chat with some other teams --- we're all frustrated. One nice guy tells us that the answer to Checkpoint 6 is a restaurant at 2nd and South called Bridget Foy's. They have a giant sparkplug outside on the 2nd floor. We stop thinking about the Koreans and run to Bridget Foy's. How on earth were we supposed to figure that one out? We suspect that this one tripped up a lot of people, Aggie heard at least one team say they had their photo taken at the Lightening Bolt sculpture.
We get our picture snapped and offer to take another team's photo. While we're here they help us figure out that the Korean court officials are over by the Hyatt Hotel at Penn's Landing. Aggie isn't sure where that is but I am since that's where my friend Brendan got married! Off we go! We stop briefly because some curious bystanders were very eager to help so we let them read our clue sheet. Unfortunately, they didn't know anything.
| CP7: Korean Court Officials |
|
| Korean Court Officials |
Time to call Allison again. Brian got us the name of the Father of Snorri (Kjell Kjartan) but he doesn't know where to find him yet. We get Allison looking for that and also ask her to start looking for the answer to this question:
CHECKPOINT 8: Philadelphia, New York? Copycats! Near a river, the name of the city which sits at the foot of the Apennines is carved in stone along with its distance from the City of Brotherly Love. Get your photo with the city name cuz it is CP8.
Aggie suspects that the city we're looking for is Florence because she's eavesdropping on other teams. I have no clue (what a surprise). She also knew that Florence is the sister city of Philadelphia. I am on the phone calling the visitor's center and the Penn's Landing visitors center trying to figure out where this stuff could be carved. The people on the phone are nice but absolutely no help at all. RING RING - it's Allison! She tells us the only place at the foothills of the Apennines that they can find is Bologna. Bologna? That doesn't seem right!
We have no idea what to do about this mysterious city & carving and if we use the skip here we can move on to Elfreth's Alley which is nearby and seems like an easy clue. That's the plan. We're pretty sure that the checkpoint was in Sister Cities Plaza. If we'd figured that out during the race we wouldn't have had to skip this checkpoint...of course we never heard of Sister Cities Plaza until after the race. [Update 9/17/02: We checked out the Sister Cities Plaza over the weekend and it wasn't the checkpoint! We have no idea now and are back to the drawing board to find out. Stay tuned for details... YAY! We got the answer! The guys who won in Philadelphia finally posted on the Urban Challenge Yahoo message board and I asked them about the Florence Carving. They said it was at the Seaport Museum down near the river and it was pretty close to the Korean statues. Thanks, Steve!]
| CP9: Red Bird House |
|
| We're all blurry |
CHECKPOINT 9: He Rocks in the Treetop All Day Long... Find a red bird house in the oldest continuously residential neighborhood in the USA. It is CP9.
Hoofing it to Elfreth's Alley -- it's really hot, have I mentioned yet how hot it is? We're in the middle of a giant heat wave and it must be close to 100 degrees today. I'm betting that the mysterious heat index they refer to is up over 100. I'm sweating to death and my Camelback (wearable hydration system - read about mine in my marathon Archive section) is just about empty. I'm strolling along and Aggie, like always, is way faster than I am. How can she not be dying of heat? She's wearing long pants!
Anyway, she keeps looking over her shoulder at me and this older guy with a beard who was also in the race, notices her frustrated look and turns to me and says "Hurry it up --- I can't stand to see that mean face again!" He totally cracked me up! I am tempted to tell him that she has a big nerve for looking bugged at my slowness since she lost the clues but I don't and make a feeble attempt to speed it up. I suspect he was really sympathizing with Aggie because his wife was even slower than I was!
We get to the alley and are walking so fast that we blow right by the side alley that leads to the birdhouse. Luckily, bearded man from a few mintues earlier hollers to us that we passed it. The people in this race are all so nice! We'd be doomed without their help.
CHECKPOINT 10: From Arlene with Love! Find a golden fragment of face artistically displayed on the Avenue of Technology! Get your photo there because it is CP10.
Our book about outdoor art clues us in that the Avenue of Technology is up near Drexel. Yikes! That's at least 27 blocks! That's way too far to walk so we have to hustle to catch the El. The slowpoke wife finds it hard to believe that they would send us so far away but I prove it with the book. She groans. We still don't know what the face is - none of the junk I'm carrying with me is helping at all.
Allison calls and tells us that we'll find the Father of Snorri out by Boathouse Row. It is the Icelander/viking dude we thought it was! Take that Team Giants t-shirt! I give Allison her next assignment: figure out Rick Blaine from Casablanca's favorite number. Brian gets the same assignment. This is an important part of Checkpoint One. There is another part of this clue that refers to the movie Lost in America (another Tillger family favorite). Aggie thinks the lucky number of Rick and the lady in the movie is 22 but she's not sure --- we need confirmation.
As we're heading to the train I get on the phone to call the Drexel Library -- they should know where the Golden face is, right? I finally sit through all the menus but by the time I get a librarian I am on the train car and the signal cuts out. ARGH!
I really want to ditch the stupid Camelback -- it plus the bag I'm carrying with all our books, maps, cell phones etc. is really starting to get heavy. It's just dead weight now that it's empty and we don't have time to stop and refill it. Aggie swears she'll buy me a new one if I dump it. I'm revived by the AC on the train, so I probably won't have to.
Off the train at 30th street station. Random people in the station can't help with the Golden face or the quickest way to Kelly Drive (our next stop) from there. Running up Market Street (which is the Avenue of Technology, for those who were wondering) we stop at a vendor to buy water. Some construction dudes ask what we're doing. We explain as we guzzle the water but they don't know where the face is. They didn't even know this was the Avenue of Technology!
We keep on running down Market, past Drexel, and we spot other teams across the street. Hey! It's the clue-stealers! Now we find them!
There it is! A giant, hideous, gold partial face. How have I never seen this thing before? I must have driven by it a million times going to games and stuff. Turns out it was sculpted by somebody named Arlene Love. Duh! That's right in the clue. Picture taken. [We really did go to this CP but for some reason the photo didn't show up on our CD when they sent it to us in the mail. Very mysterious!] Next up:
CHECKPOINT 11: Those are Not Good Odds, Guys! This Icelander, father of Snorri, built a settlement in the Philly area with 165 men and 35 women that lasted five years. We know this because it says so right on the plaque in Fairmount Park. Find it for CP11.
| CP11: the Icelander |
|
| The Father of Snorri |
We know where we're going. The Icelander guy is at the far side of Boathouse Row. How on earth are we going to get there? We got lucky and jumped on a SEPTA shuttle that happened to drive by the face and it took us back to 30th St. Station.
Navigation decision: We either have to walk/run to 23rd and then the 5 or 6 blocks to the Art Museum and then run past the boathouses to the Icelander OR we jump back on the El, ride to 15th & Market and then run to the PHLASH stop at 16th & JFK to drive us up to the Art Museum. We decided to go on the PHLASH, which Aggie still thinks was a poor decision but at the time I think we (well I) needed the rest. Besides, we were pretty sure we weren't going to finish in the top 10 thanks to our early clue mishap. So, we had time to share a Balance bar and cram the pesky Camelback into the bag with all my other stuff. (For some reason I thought this would be better than keeping it around my waist. I'm not so sure why I thought this would be a good idea.)
It took a little while for the bus to show up, enough for both of us to get a little panicky and then when we got stuck in a minor traffic jam around the library I was worried that this was a really bad move. Too late now! While we were on the bus I called Brian to tell him he didn't have to sit by the phone anymore. It was just about Noon. 2 Hours to go before the deadline and only 4 more checkpoints.
At some point, Brian and Allison both call to confirm that 22 is the magic number. Whew! One less thing to worry about.
We arrive at the Art Museum and run down a giant hill to get to the sidewalk leading to the Icelander and are a little concerned because we didn't see any other racers. We pass the first boathouse and finally see some race people heading in our direction. We also got heckled by old men vendors who were shocked that so many people paid so much money to be in this crazy race and then were walking instead of running when there was $50,000 at stake. He was a weasel and he charged too much money for a tiny bottle of water.
However, he did succeed in shaming us sufficently to make us run the rest of the way to the Icelander statue. Guess who was there when we arrived? Team Giants t-shirt. We took pictures for each other and then discussed how tired we were on the way to the next checkpoint behind the Art Museum.
| CP12: John Paul Jones Statue |
|
| John Paul Jones Statue |
CHECKPOINT 12: "In the Navy" meets "Stairway to Heaven"? Located on the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, CP12 is a statue of an American naval officer who shares his name with the bass player for Led Zeppelin.
This was Brian's question! As soon as we got the clues he fed us the answer: John Paul Jones. He even knew that that was a stage name and that his real name is John Baldwin. (Why would he know that?) Luckily we knew right where that statue was thanks to the Philadelphia art book I'd been lugging around all day. Another good thing is that it was very close to CP11.
We passed a fair number of racers (including the guy with the beard & his wife) headed toward the Icelander on our way back, and that made us happy that we weren't totally last. Of course, we didn't know what CP they started at so they could actually have been ahead of us. No matter, I was still happy to pass them.
A nice lady and her little girl took our picture at John Paul Jones and she asked for an explanation of the race since the first people whose picture she took didn't elaborate on why they needed it. We answered but then hit the road so she got stuck taking a 3rd picture for Team Giants t-shirt. They vanished at this point --- we never saw them again even though we thought they needed to head back to CP1 just like we did. Again, very mysterious.
Important Navigation Decision #2: Do we take the PHLASH bus back to Center City knowing that it takes the scenic route via the Zoo or do we use our foot power to get to the Municipal Services Building at 15th & Arch (pretty much a straight line walk down the Parkway.) We opt for the foot power and are pretty sure that this is the right decision. Lingering in the back of our minds though, is the fast-looking race guy who was trying to get ON the PHLASH bus when we were getting off on the way to the Icelander.
| CP1: Giant Bingo Piece |
|
| Giant Bingo Piece |
CHECKPOINT 1: And Bingo was his name-o! Find a rather large game piece emblazoned with the roulette number favored by Casablanca's Rick Blaine and Lost in America's Linda Howard. It is CP1.
During our prep-work for the race on Thursday & Friday I discovered that there were giant game pieces at the Municipal Services Building. So this was a fairly easy checkpoint for us. The hard part was getting from the Art Museum to the game pieces. I don't know why but the heat was just KILLING me during this walk. I walk this far all the time these days with the marathon training so this shouldn't have been such a big deal but I felt really awful. Eventually, at around Logan Circle I had to stop and sit on a shady bench for a minute or two. I totally felt like I was going to pass out. Aggie suggested that the weight of all the junk I was lugging might have been part of the problem so she offered to carry the Camelback. I had already ditched the art book in a trash can by the Boathouses so now it felt light as a feather. That little bit of rest and shade really helped and we pressed on. It was just about 1:00.
We get to the plaza where the pieces are and it's still blazing hot and there is nobody there but two ladies huddled in the shade smoking. We asked them if there was anything with a 22 on it there and they suggested the Bingo pieces. Sure enough, there is a 22 there and one of the ladies was nice enough to come out in the heat to take our photo. She even took two since something was messed up with the camera on the first picture. She realized we were in scavenger hunt and when she saw a swarm of racers guys approaching she zipped back to her shade saying "I'm not taking their picture, they can take each others!" We weren't waiting around either and headed off to Checkpoint 2.
| CP2: Berry Blue |
|
| We're Finished! |
CHECKPOINT 2: Wacky Equation!!! CP2 is a two-word establishment south of Logan Square. Godson of Willie Mays (what his momma calls him) PLUS Surname of Jake and Elwood Sounds Like CP2.
Ok, we had a lot of help with this one. Team Giants t-shirt gave us the first hint with Bobby Blue. Then Mom figured out Barry Blue and gave us the address and phone number. We got to 18th and Chestnut and it wasn't there! How can it not be here?! Mom gave us the address! I thought we were home free!
We ask a street cleaner guy if he ever heard of the place and he can't help us. Aggie starts looking around and I call the phone number that Mom gave us. It's ringing and ringing but nobody answers. I decide to call information while Aggie ducks into a water ice store to buy us refreshing treats and to see if they can help us. She comes out with lemon water ices and the address. I got the address from the information guy too and he tells me that it's called Berri Blues. It's just down the block --- closer to 19th and Chestnut.
We walk over there munching on our delicious sugary cold treats and find another team having their picture taken. We ask them to take ours but they totally ignored us. Creeps! I am glad when I realize these are people who got their picture taken at the Korean War Memorial. HA! They deserve to be disqualified!
A nice guy at a newstand offers to take our picture for us. Thanks nice guy! Now we know for sure we're safe! We're only a about 7 blocks away from Headquarters and we've got like 40 minues to get there. YAY!
We learned later from Brian that Willie Mays' godson is Barry Bonds so we could have gotten this one even without help from Team Giants t-shirt.
If we were real race types we would have run the whole way back to HQ but my slug nature won out and we walked and ate our water ices and still made it back with a half hour to spare.
It was neat when we got close to the bar there were people sitting there with their medals clapping for us. Silly but still fun.
THE FINISH LINE!
We made it! We were the 28th team to make it back but they told us that we would place higher because a lot of teams had been disqualified for getting the checkpoints wrong. [They posted the real results on Aug 26 -- we finished 21st which is better but not great considering only 24 teams finished correctly!] Not the best but definitely not the worst either. They checked our pictures and they were all correct so we got our medals and our cool T-shirts and our goodie bag. Highlight of the goodie bag: Star Wars Pez! Chewbacca for Aggie and Boba Fett for me. Awesome! Perhaps even better than the t-shirts!
We guzzled water and ate another Balance Bar while we watched the slide shows of some of the earlier finishers at the checkpoints. It was totally fun. We wound up sitting right next to the guys who won. They managed to win the race in 3 hours and 11 minutes and they left in the last group. And they thought they were slow! Their secret was they did it all on foot -- only took public transit to the big gold face and then they skipped the Icelander and saved a bit more time.
We were also very happy to see ten to fifteen teams coming in after us. Many of them came in just after the 5 hour "deadline" but they were allowed to collect their medals which was nice in light of the heat and other challenges of the day. A big pack came in at once that included Team Britney Spears (boy were we fooled that they knew what they were doing) and Team Guy with a Beard. I was also surprised to see the 4th place team from New York, who we thought would finish fast, come in with that pack. Guess they didn't know Philadelphia as well as NYC. We were puzzled that we didn't see some teams -- like the guys at the giant game pieces or Team Giants t-shirt or the father/son team. The important thing is that we weren't last!
They burned a CD for us with the pictures from our checkpoints but unfortunately we can't read the pictures --- they might send us new ones so keep your fingers crossed that they'll come and then I'll update this page with the photos. I'm sure they are all quite lovely and suitable for framing. Because you know we weren't hot or sweaty or anything like that. Autographs will be available for a small fee. |
