Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Great Urban Race

Forget tour buses or guided walking tours-- if you want to experience a city and all its intricacies, why not run around it by foot while trying to solve clues?

We headed downtown to the Fine Arts Building, checked in, and got our bibs.  Our team name: Tigers Blood & Adonis DNA (not so relevant now, but during the Charlie Sheen twitter overload-- it made sense).

Great Urban Race - Los Angeles

At exactly noon we all got our clues and we were OFF.  Our strategy was to solve all of our clues first and then plot out each destination so that we weren't running back and forth around Los Angeles. 

Great Urban Race - Los Angeles

Great Urban Race - Los Angeles

Don't be fooled, the clues do not keep you in downtown.  After a quick jaunt on the metro up to Hollywood, we found ourselves roaming down to La Brea on foot and moseying all over Los Angeles.  At each clue destination we had to accomplish some task before moving on.  12 accomplished clues later, we finished.

Great Urban Race - Los Angeles


After 4 hours and 16 minutes, we came in 38th place out of 232 teams.  We realized later that had we just taken public transit the entire time, we may have been in the top 15 teams.  Oh well.  It was a fun adventure and everyone should try it at least once.