Friday we went to Portland Running
Company to pick up our race packet and clues.
Then we stayed up until midnight preparing for the race. This was a little late for me considering we
had to leave the house by 5:30 am. Well
at least that is what I told Will so we could be the 1st team to
grab a spot at the transition area. It
opened at 6:30 am so that meant I wanted to be there by 6 to beat the early
birds. So yes, was first and got my
spot. The Nads were also there early at
about 6:15. See I am not the only
one. We got all set up and warmed up
and then Patty our third team member got there just after 7. We got a couple of prerace photos and our
all day transit pass just in case. You
never know when it will come in handy.
Emily, the race director also asked me to wear a GoPro Camera on my
helmet so I attached that then it was time to start.
To start the race, we had to find a
hidden puzzle, literally we had to find the puzzle and then solve the
puzzle. I found it pretty quickly and
took it back to our stall. It was a
logic puzzle of ordering objects on a shelf, based on limited information. When we showed the volunteers the correct
answer then we got our first passport.
Patty and I worked together on it and solved it pretty quickly.
Passport 1: Hoardenger – On foot we had to find 6 out of
8 items and bring them back to the transition area (TA). So off we went to get our six
1.
Penny from the 1970’s
2.
Draw a mustache on teammate (Patty got a nice gondolier style
one since we were just back from Venice and all)
3.
Turn all our shirts backwards
4. Picture with all teammates and a rose
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| And notice our shirts are on backward |
6.
Sing Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe (oh, we sounded good!)
Passport 2: Chipotle on Lovejoy- On foot we had to run
to Chipotle on Lovejoy and when we got there, there was already
another coed team there. They were
leaving just as we were getting there.
Oh no, where did they come from?
Once there we had to identify several plants used in their food and then
have it checked by the volunteer. We
accidentally mislabeled one and had to make a change so technically we got it
on the second try. We were told to go
give our sheet back to the volunteers at the TA. When we got there we found out that we had to eat an item and since
we took 2 tries to complete the challenge we had to eat a clove of raw
garlic. Yikes, that tasted bad enough
but now I would be tasting it the whole race, lovely.
Passport
3: Houndog rally – On bike we had to
locate and make our way to Houndog Bar in SE Portland. Once we got the address Patty said she knew
where it was as it was not too far from her house. She led the way and off on the bike we went. Once there we found out we had to compete in
an extended beer pong game. First we
had to get the ball in the cup normal beer pong style and then once we did that
we had to quarter the ball in the glass, then drink the beer, and finally we had to flip the cup and have
it land up on its end. Well Will had
been practicing this so we was ready to go but then they said that we had to
alternate and each do 2 cups (total of 6). The blue coed team was just leaving
when we got there so they were still out in front of us and the Nads were
already there as well so now we were in 3rd. We needed to pick up some time. So Will started and then we just kept
nailing the cups and we were out of there before we knew it. Who would of guessed, drinking games being
our specialty? We all 3 did quite a bit
of training in Europe this summer. So
we caught up to the Nads and we left at the same time as them. The next part of the clue was to locate a
specific food cart and go there to finish the task. I called Angela and Patty and Will started to Google it. We all got the same result that it was on
Lombard way out by University of Portland.
That was a long way from where we were at. We told the Nads where we thought it was but just as we were
leaving Patty found out that it moves.
We headed out and the Nads headed in the opposite direction. We were riding toward Lombard when Will ran
into an Oyster volunteer who said this was the cart. What? Oh my gosh here it was, we just ran into it and it was
pretty close to the bar we just left. Lucky for us. Oh shoot, we didn’t have the Nads number. Hope they caught that it moved. Just as we got there Amy, our friend that
did the race with us last year, called to tell us it had moved. Once there they said that one person had to
eat a rocky mountain oyster. Will was
putting his bike down and didn’t hear what we had to eat so I told him that
this was his challenge and to eat up.
He did and in fact grabbed for a second before the volunteer told him
only one. Once he finished I asked how
it was and he said it tasted like chicken.
It was only then that I let him know he just ate testicles. Well that was done and now it was back to
the TA. On the way back we saw the Nads
going North on Grand and we started
screaming at them to stop. We wanted to
let them know the food cart wasn’t on Lombard it was back where we just
were. They stopped and headed that
way. We got back to the TA and the blue
coed team also found the food cart so they still were out in front of us.
Shoot.
Passport
4: Mystery checkpoints on foot. We had got the location of these two by
getting clues for raising money for the race and on facebook so it was off to
PSU for the first one. We had to solve
a puzzle to get the room number and building.
Once we had it we had to go and take a practice SAT test and score at
least 80%. We had gotten the test the
night before for raising money and we got 100%. However, when we got there the volunteer wasn’t there yet because
we were the first team there. The team
ahead of us went to the other mystery point first. So there was no one there to punch our passport. We looked around a minute to figure out what
to do and then we told the race lady to take a picture with us and then text to
the TA that we were there. She did and
that would have to do because we had time to make up on that first place
team. We were then off to the second
mystery location which was glowing greens mini golf. We went there and found out that what we would have to do is to
complete one hole without using any hands, feet or club. So I got down on the floor and started
golfing with my elbow. Patty helped,
edging it out of the corner with her nose and then one last hit with the elbow
and we were off. Back to the TA.
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| Us with the Oyster worker - Volunteers weren't there so this pic had to do |
Passport
5: We got a puzzle that we had to solve
to find the location we would need to bike to.
The first place team was working on it when we arrived. Patty and I worked on the puzzle again and
had to get the maps out to find the location.
Once we found it we were off at about the same time as the blue coed
team. All right it was a dead heat
now. We took a different route on the bike
and make it to the park a few seconds before them and once there we had to use
a giant slingshot to shoot a shoe across a field and have one teammate catch it
in a bucket at the other end. I thought
Will should pull the shoe back, I would hold the sling shot and Patty could
catch, but I was overruled and Patty pulled the shoe back and Will went to
catch. I decided to sit on the ground
and told Patty that she needed to pull the shoe back and low to aim it high or
it would hit me in the face and I was facing her. She didn’t pull it back low enough and the bike shoe with the
cleat was coming right for my face.
Lucky for me I was quick enough to reach up and catch it with my knees,
the sling shot still hit me in the face though but I am sure it made for some
great footage on the GoPro. It brought
back the Amazing Race watermelon incident though, that was almost me. I have a nice bruise on my knee from the
bike cleat though. So after a couple
tries we realized that it wasn’t going to work with Patty pulling it back, we
could not get it to go far enough. So I
yelled at Will to trade with Patty.
Once we did that it was better.
It took us a couple more tries and then we had it. Although my arms were almost torn off from
having to hold the slingshot while Will pulled back with all his might. Next we had to navigate Will through a mine
field of plastic balls while he was blindfolded and he could not touch any of
them or he had to start over. Once he
was listening to me and learned his right from his left we finished pretty
quickly. The final task at the park was
for me to throw a water balloon at will while he was still blindfolded. Sure no problem there. I was nice though and just hit him in the
chest. I didn’t play dirty. We left the park at the same time as the
blue team and we were again in a dead heat with them when we got back to the
TA.
Passport
6: We had solve a picture puzzle and go
to that location on foot. (Voodoo
doughnuts). We ran there and they had
Texass doughnuts waiting for us (a glazed donut the size of your head, maybe
bigger). We had to eat it without
hands. Yum, let’s get started. What was kind of funny is that Voodoo always
has lines around the block on the weekend so we had plenty of spectators
watching and laughing at us as we dug in. We finished pretty quickly and then
got the second part of the clue. We had
to find a certain fountain in the picture.
Well lucky for us, it was one we had had to find in another race and it
took us forever in that race so I totally remembered where it was. We ran there and had to find a rubber ducky
in the fountain with a specific number on it and there were 100 or so ducks to
check. We started looking and got it in
a couple of minutes. And then it was back to the TA. When we got back to the TA we had beat the blue team and the
Nads back so we were in first! We also had doughnut glaze all over our faces for the rest of the race.
Passport
7: On bike find a gym with a specific
slogan. We had to call Angela again and
get her to google the slogan and find the name and address of the gym. Once we had it we knew it was in NE so we
took off. We got to the gym first and
found out we had to do a weight stacking puzzle with a bunch of weights that we had to put in a particular
order without ever having a lighter one on a heavier one. It was a bit of a logic puzzle again and
only one person could touch the weights.
So Will was in charge of lifting and Patty and I instructed him. It took us a couple of minutes to figure it
out but once we did it went pretty fast.
Once Will got done, then a second team member had to do it again. So Patty volunteered to lift and I
instructed her while Will rested. By
this time, the Nads and the blue coed team both showed up. We finished and raced back to the TA. On our way back there was construction on
Couch and some city workers were stopping traffic and moving heavy equipment
across the road. Shoot! The other teams were right behind us. As the worker motioned for us to stop Patty
yelled to him, “ We are in a race!”
Then the worker replied, “Then by all means come on through.” Nice, I thought he was mocking us but then
he said no really come on through. So
we snaked our way through the dumpsters and dozers. Thank you Portland City Worker!!!
Passport
8: The last one!! On bike go to the kayak dock and complete
the task. Thank goodness it was on bike
because by this time we were tired and we knew that the Nads and the blue team
were faster than us on foot. So we
headed to the Kayak dock by OMSI and found out that we had to stand-up
paddleboard. One person would go across
the river and the other two would run over the bridge and meet them and then
switch places and the two would paddle back (one sit on the board while the
other used the paddle) and then third person had to run back over to the dock. Will went first and Patty and I ran across
the bridge. We got there a little bit
before Will. Then we got on, I sat on
the front and Patty knelt behind me with the paddle. She paddled and I paddled with my hands. We could see the other teams and knew we had
a little bit of a lead. All we needed
to do was get across the river without falling off that board and we should
win. We did great together to get
across the river then grabbed our bikes and headed back to the TA. 3 hours and 1 minute, for 1st
place overall!!!!! Wahoo. We finally did it. The Nads came in second a couple minutes behind us and the blue
coed team was about a minute behind them.
Close race and thanks to all who helped. And thanks to the blue coed team for pushing us so hard all
race. We had a great time and can’t
wait for Seattle on September 15th.
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| Wearing our Gold Capes! Play Fearlessly! |
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