At exactly 8 am we were given our first clue. On foot find four different fountains around Portland and take photos with all teammates in front of them. So Angela to the rescue, we were given photos of two and we knew where they were but the other two we were given clues for and had to figure out what statue they were and where they were. I figured out the names of the statues and then Angela gave me the locations as we were running to the first statue. It is an art, reading clues, talking on the phone and running at the same time, especially with my cheapo pay as you go phone. No high tech here. I decided an efficient route and we hit all four, one on 4th and main, then 3rd and Harrison, then 3rd and Lincoln and finally up to the park blocks to salmon and 9th, back to the transition zone for clue two.
Clue two was to go by bike to two spots in any order, first was the East Moreland Golf Course where we had to drive a ball about 150 yds through two flags, and the other was to the West Moreland Manor Park and pig roast to complete a task. I had no idea where either of these were, southeast Portland was Amy’s strength and my weakness. So I called Angela and told her to figure out how to get from East Moreland Golf to the West Moreland Park. I would call when we got to one so figure it out. Meanwhile Amy was on the phone with her boyfriend getting the location of the East Moreland Golf. She said she knew how to get there and so as we were on the phone we had changed into biking gear and were ready to head out. At this point there were a lot of teams out with us and so we wanted to make up ground on the bike. We are all better bikers than runners for sure. So into Sellwood area we went. It was a bit of a bike ride but we made it and hit the west Moreland manor park first. Once there we had to toss beanbags into a board. Bill tossed, Amy retrieved bags, and I got a puzzle that had to be solved. Lucky for us and thanks to you all, we made our donation goal of $300 so as a reward we were given the puzzle the night before at packet pickup so I had already completed it and so as soon as Bill had finished getting the bag in the hole we were off. I called Angela and got directions to the golf course only ½ mile away. When we got there there were a lot of teams. We had to make a ¼ mile run in our bike shoes to the driving range and drive the ball. Bill took this task and at first had a nasty slice and it looked as though we may be there a while. As we started, the Nads came in and we were neck and neck. Bill relaxed and then hit a solid shot through the flags and we were off. The Nads were right behind us as Andy, their golf pro, hit a nice shot. Back on the bikes and to the transition area. As we rode back we realized that we were out in front of most teams now, the Nads, and one other men’s team was in front of us with a couple of other teams behind us. Amy led the way on the bike and found an awesome route for us and we passed the Nads, as we headed over the Hawthorne bridge, we saw a clue card on the bridge. I pointed it out to Bill but we were traveling too fast and in traffic for me to stop and pick it up. That could be trouble; you have to have all your cards at the end to finish. We make it over the bridge and back to transition when we see the other men’s team who was ahead of us and they are headed back out looking for their clue. We told them where it was but they said they couldn’t find it. Sorry boys, we tried. Now we were in 1st ahead of the Nads by just a couple minutes.
Clue 3 said to go by foot to the location on the puzzle you solved on the last clue (3rd and Yamhill was the answer which was a Chipotle). When we got there, we had all of the team’s hands zip tied together and then given the ingredients to make guacamole. I took the lead and ripped open the avocado and smashed it with my hands mixed in the onions and then scraped it all back into the container. It had to be up to Chipotle standards, the judge said it had too many lumps so I had to scrape it back out and really squeeze it through my hands to get rid of the lumps, and my band-aid then fell off in the guac. Yum, I had cut my finger really bad earlier in the week and probably should of gotten stitches but didn’t want to because it was a Sunday night and I just got a new wetsuit and if I got stitches I wouldn’t of been able to swim for a couple of days and would have had to spend the entire evening in the ER, however, now my wound which isn’t healed enough is bleeding into the guac, hope that doesn’t make it less than Chipotle standards, a band-aid and blood, okay right? They okayed us and cut the zip ties off , we asked for towels because my hands were covered in guac. However, since we were first they didn’t have any yet so oh well I was off and running with guac and blood dripping from my hands. Next we had to run up to the Portland farmers market and buy a piece of food that started with each letter in Chipotle. As we got there after our uphill run, I looked in my pocket to grab my cash and realized my zip lock I keep my cash, ID and credit card in was missing, Oh no, it must have fallen out on my bike ride when I was trying to talk on the phone and ride at the same time. I had kept my phone in the same pocket so when I reached in to get the phone I must have lost it. No time to worry now, the Nads were hot on our tails. Bill had cash so we started buying up produce, Carrots, hot pepper, Italian parsley, potato, onion, tomato, lettuce, and eggplant. Back to transition.
Clue four on bike, this one split us up. Two people needed to find a kayak launch on the east side of the river and one would then kayak to the west side while the other biked over. Then once on the west side they would switch places and the other would kayak back and meet the one with the bike. Amy and Bill said they would do that and so I was left to go to the next adventure store, the one located where a president would be and solve a puzzle. I knew it was their paddle store on 7th and Washington so I headed out. I got there and within 10 sec Will from the Nads was also there. What we had to do is search the store for small ORS stickers that were placed around the store and record the number on the sticker. There were probably 25 stickers hidden in the store but only 8 had numbers. This could take some time, I knew Will and I were out front so I asked him if he wanted to work together, he started on one side of the store and I started on the other. We found a few stickers but only 3 with numbers and by this time 2 more teams showed up. Once you found all the numbers, then you had to figure out how to solve the puzzle with the numbers. The clue told you that T=3 and D= 13. We only had a couple numbers to work with but I looked at the puzzle and saw it was 3 words and solved it without the numbers pretty quick, ALL STAR FIT, all star fitness was a sponsor. Moment of truth, do I sprint out the door and grab my bike and then we may beat the Nads and maybe finish 1st overall or do I share my find with Will. I felt bad since I asked to work together and so I told Will. Oh well now we were even and both back on the bike back to meet up with our teams and head out. We got back to TA, the puzzle solution was correct.
Clue 5, head by foot out to All-star fitness and complete some tasks. All-star fitness is the old YMCA at the bottom of OHSU; I used to go there when I was at OHSU so I knew where and how to get there. The Nads were right ahead of us but they are an all men’s team and they are really good runners so I knew they would be gaining a lead here. We started running on 5th hoping we could catch a max or the 8 bus because it was a long run and uphill. Oh yeah, did I mention, Portland hasn’t had any 90 degree days this year, but today we hit 96, a new record. Lucky us. Unlucky with the public transit, we didn’t catch any bus or max so we had to run the whole way. When we got there, they had us go to the spin room and while one person cycled, the others had to name 10 out of the 15 songs that were playing. They would play about a 7 sec clip of each song. We were doing okay and got about 7 when Bill remembered he had an app on his ipod that allowed him to hold up the ipod to the music and it would tell him who the artist was. Thank you Ipod because some of the songs were older than our generation. We got the last couple and then it was off to the swimming pool. At the swimming pool, we had to jump in and relay swim one length each. We all started taking off clothes we could, and I jumped in first. Wow, that felt great! We got out of the pool all refreshed, got dressed and headed back out to the TA. We were cool and it felt nice running in wet clothes for sure. Once we got to Harrison, lucky for us we caught a max. It would have been nice to catch it on the way up since the way back as all down hill, but the few blocks we got to sit was nice.
Clue 6 was the final clue and it said to go to Deschutes Brewery on foot. We knew that was on 11th and Davis so off we went. Uphill on tired hot legs but we pushed through knowing we were in 2nd overall and 1st coed. We got to deschutes and had to identify 4 different beers by taste and then identify two by smell for which hops they had. We did it in not too long, drank the rest of the beer for fun and off we went. All down hill back to the finish. We crossed the finish line at 3:00:19. Second overall behind the Nads by 7 minutes but they are all men so we were 1st coed. Had I not given them the answer to the puzzle it may have taken him at least 7 minutes to finish finding the numbers, correlating the numbers with letters and then unscrambling the letters to solve the puzzle. Darn it. But my good deed was repaid back to me. When we got home, Kaiser had left a message on my voicemail saying the Portland police had my ID and credit cards, someone had turned them in, the $50 in cash was gone but who cares. I had my medical card in the zip lock just in case I was injured so the police contacted them to get my contact info! The bad part was I had no ID at the end of the race so they wouldn't serve me beer! The police came over and told me that it was illegal for Bill to buy a beer for me when they saw Bill buy two so then we had to put it in my water bottle. I felt like I was 20 again.
The Nads and us ran away with the race, the 2nd place coed team was 32 minutes behind us and the next men’s team was quite a bit behind the Nads. The first place women’s team was also more than 30 minutes behind us.
We love this race and have such a blast every year. I am always saddened at the end of the day when I realize it will be another year before I get to do it again. Thank all of you for your support.
