The Great Urban Race

I have been home now for almost 8 entire days, which has been the longest stretch I have been home for a while. (And by home, I mean in the city of Los Angeles / Pasadena, I don't actually seem to spend that much time at my actual home.)

So in light of all of this time "at home," I had signed up for the "Great Urban Race" in Los Angeles. For those of you not familiar with this event, consider it a mini-version of the Amazing Race, just not going anywhere outside of the city, no television cameras, no cool jackets, and a lot more people - apparently 960 (or 480 teams). The goal is to figure out the clues, get to the various points in the city, solve puzzles, complete events and get back as quickly as you can. We can use anything we want - except private transportation (which includes taxis, skate boards, cars, etc.) and had people lined up to help Google the locations of certain clues.

[As this admittedly is a long blog - anyone who is in need of a much shorter version (as if you really have anything better to do than read about me): We ran a race - now just skip down to the Finish and Prologue chapters and you are all set]

The Start Kary and I teamed up for the race. Also participating was another team made up of Jane and Dave.

The start of the race was Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. Lucky for us it was only a block from the office. We had packed the car with lots of random stuff we might need and headed to the start. (Not surprisingly we did not actually need any of the random stuff we thought we might have needed. But of course if we did not have it then we would have needed it.) At the start, we got our race numbers and our questions. Then at noon - we were off!

We quickly read through the clues and got our tech support people going (Dave O, Sarah, and Dave). Ironically, one of the clues was the sister-city signs, which Dave and I had discussed the night before. I always had seen it on my way to sushi for lunch, so knew exactly where it was. (Who knew my love for sushi would come in so handy.) So we were off and running (literally).

From there it was off to Olvera street and after finding the sundial off to Union Station to catch the subway. On the subway, I figured out the cryptogram and shortly thereafter we were running up the stairs to MacArthur Park.

First stop was "boot camp." I use quotations because it was not really boot camp. It was really a three legged-race with some hopping involved.

- - - - I interrupt my own blog for a random thought. In my boredom and curiosity, I actually looked up the company who ran the "mini" boot camp. The website looks nothing like our boot camp. Everyone on their website was smiling and looked fresh. One picture looked like they were lawn bowling with mini-medicine balls. By contrast, the boot camp I participate in, everyone looks like they got run over by a truck (a Hummer more exactly) and people are usually very sweaty, dirty, red in the face, and concentrating on simply trying to breathe. But I digress - - - - -

Second stop at the park was coming across a guy with a Laker's jersey and figuring out a riddle. Stop number three was a memorial, where we had to take a picture.

It was the longest I had ever been in MacArthur Park. Then back down to the subway and off to Hollywood . . .

The Protest (Part Un) When we came up from the subway, the first thing we noticed were the streets were blocked off. So we took advantage of the lack of traffic and ran up Vine to the Capitol Records building for another photo-op.

Then we had to head 5 blocks east on Hollywood Blvd. Turns out the streets were blocked off because of some anti-war protest.

So we suddenly were cast into this surreal movie like environment where everyone is standing around for something and we are trying to cut in and out of the crowds, chasing the two teams that were in front of us. While no one was shooting at us (as would occur in the movies), there was much dodging, ducking, shuffling, and "excuse me's." But we were determined not to let the team ahead of us get too far out. We got many looks from the people at the rally (some looking at us like we were weird, others unhappy we running through the protest), but the LAPD officers were smiling and cheering us on.

- - - - Yes, another interruption. It's my blog, I can do what I want. I have to say, I was not a big fan of the protest. Yes, they have every 1st Amendment right to be there on their spring break. I just think it is wrong (whether they philosophically agree or not with the country's military commitments) that they never seemed to recognize the efforts of our service men and women fighting for our country while they are safely in school. While I was not there for the entire rally, to the extent they failed to recognize the efforts of our service men and women, that's just a shame. O.k., this ends my political commentary for the moment. - - - -

Anyway, we ran from Hollywood and Vine, stopping along the way at a few stars . . . and the Guinness Book of World Records. Does this guy make me look short?

Yeah, I did not think so either. :)

The down side of the street closures from the protest was that the buses were not running regularly where they should and there was tons of traffic. So we decided to run out to La Brea and down to Santa Monica. And then finally hopped the bus. Some people tried to run it all the way to West Hollywood (another 2 more miles), but I think they watched enviously as we drove out of sight.

We then stopped to learn self defense. The place was crowded with participants, but you never know where people are in the race. We were almost done - just needing to get back to down town and make one more stop. But for others, they were not even half way done. You just do never know.

So at the self defense class, we learned to tell people that we did not want any trouble, poke them in the eyes and knee them in the groin. Once we demonstrated our mad skills on some padded person - we were off and running back to the bus.

Heading East Back to Downtown So we hopped back on the bus, but was soon bogged down in traffic. While I was enjoying the respite, it was then Dave suggested we run back to the red line (subway) rather than sitting on the bus in traffic.

The upside was we could make it there faster. The downside is that it required running another mile, most of it uphill. Hmmm. Well anyone knows the competitive streak in me could guess we went for the run.

We made pretty good time and reached the station stairs a minute before the train was going to pull out. Down the final stairs, the doors are still open. Yeah! Three steps towards the train and then - you guessed it - doors closed. NOOOOOOOO!!!! I banged on the door, but alas, the train just sat there for a few seconds and then pulled out of sight. Next train 12 minutes later. ARGH!!!!

Although completely annoyed about missing the train, I stood in the station strategizing. I was trying to figure out the next train stop. We only had one thing to do before the finish. So while I was considering the navigation, Kary was strategizing about where to eat and drink after the race. Also important considerations.

We arrived back down town, ran up out of the subway station and then headed to the Sheraton to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the Union Mission (at least something for a good cause, and yes we did wear gloves) and then back two blocks to Pershing Square for the finish.

The Finish So, as we were headed back to the park, a mere few blocks, my legs were starting to feel heavy. We had already been out about 3 1/2 hours, ran about 5.5 miles, and gone up and down hundreds and hundreds of stairs. The park was fairly empty when we arrived. When we passed under the finish line, we heard the following "Hey you finished in the top 20 if you don't have any penalties. Great job!" What??? How could that be? We were just trying to have some fun - never thought we would make the top 50 nevertheless the top 20. Crazy.

So we got our stuff checked and all was well - no penalties. Nothing to do but wait to collect our medals. We were pleasantly surprised and admittedly a bit giddy.

Although, Dave and I could not really get the 12 minutes out of our head from missing the train. Turns out we finished about 20 minutes behind the first place team. That 12 minutes alone, would have catapulted us to 4th or 5th place. Grrrr. But oh well, we still did a good job.

The Protest (Part Deux) So after sitting around for another hour, watching people, the teams come in and cheering them on, it was time for the medal ceremony. (Roll dramatic music. O.k there really was not any, but just go with it.) The guy started calling out team names. We were excited (yes I am still a little kid at heart) and kept listening. But then our team "In Search Of" was not called. What? How could that be? Did I somehow miss it?

Confused? We were too. And well, you might have been shocked and in total awe if this happened to you, but that is just part of being Carol. This stuff happens to me all the time. Then Jane and Dave's team was called up. Jane was trying to remedy the issue, but the person we needed to talk to was the one on the microphone. I think Jane contemplated taking the microphone from him in the middle of his speech so that we could address our tremendous injustice, but she used some restraint and waited. Although she did declare she was protesting and not leaving the park until we rightly had our medals. (Fortunately no street closures or police were needed for this protest.)

So after the guy finished, we explained the issue. They double checked the results and low and behold. . . . they screwed up and accidentally left us out. Again, just my luck. But we got our medals and they promised they would fix the finishing information.

They felt so bad that they put our photo up on their results web site. http://www.greaturbanrace.com/register09_losangeles.php Scroll down for the picture - it is the gigantic one at the end. If you look and cannot find it, please make an immediate appointment with your eye-doctor. :)

The Prologue Both of our teams placed in the top 25, (I think 15th and 16th) meaning that we get to go to New Orleans and compete for $10,000 in the national championship in November if we so choose. We think it is a good excuse to take a trip, see the city, and have some more fun. Will keep you posted if we go and how that turns out.