Recap by Jen –
This year Challenge Nation offered a mega clue to the teams that got the most likes on their Facebook page. So I had to get that clue. I posted our team name on their FB page and then asked all our friends to like it. Next I typed up an instructions sheet to give out to my students. You have to use all your resources; I am a high school teacher and have access to a whole school of teenagers who practically have their cell phones glued to their hand. Twenty- four hours later we had over 100 votes and by the end of the contest we had 145 likes and the next closest team was 22! Yea, clue come to me baby.
So the night before the race we were supposed to get the
clue and for some reason it never made it to our email. We were driving back from Seattle and I kept
looking and no hint! I sent the race a
message via email, FB and Twitter and still no clue! I was going to go all Jill Diamond on them and then our friendly
rivals gave us the clue, thanks guys.
They were second in the contest and also got the clue. So now we had our mega clue and the 5 hints
that were posted on FB the night before so we started figuring out what spots
we would have to hit tomorrow. I
figured 4 of the 5 hints and knew where they probably were and then the mega
clue we knew as well. So our plan was
to get to Portland early and go look at all the ones we knew would be on the
list so we could just run there and know exactly where to find them and be as
fast as possible during the race.
We got to Portland at noon and picked up our numbers and solved the mega clue and got that one taken care of even before the start of the race, we needed to find someone with a driver’s license from east of the Mississippi and get a picture with them. 1 of 12 done.
We met up with some of the usuals at the race and met a few
new teams before the start and then we all circled up and waited for the
clues. They were handed out and off we
went. I opened them up and started
reading through them as Will sent the photo to his sister Annette who was our
phone support for the race. As I read
them, I wasn’t sure on 1, shoot, ah, 2 got it, 3 not sure, 4 I think I know it
but will get confirmation, 5 was the mega clue, check, 6 yep know it was one of
the hints, 7 ha another one I know another hint spot, 8 also know, been there
before, 9 pretty sure, 10 no problem, 11 another hint one that I know and we
sought out, and 12 the final hint that we knew. This is unusual that I read through the clues and know so many of
them, but the hints helped and so Annette only had to figure out 2 of them and
confirm 2 others. So we made our plan
and were off:
Stop 1: My car which was parked in the parking lot at across
the street from the start – we needed an out of state license plate with a
letter W, X, Y or Z. Lucky us we were
in Portland but we live in Vancouver, WA and my plate had 2 of the above
letters.
Stop 3: High water
marks diving and swimming under water
Stop 4: Mill’s end park – the smallest park in the nation
Stop 5: City Hall
liberty bell acting patriotic – this was the furthest out stop so now it was
time to head back.
Stop 6: Pioneer Courthouse Square and we had to locate a
brick with a president’s or first lady’s first or last name. We had a website that would find any brick
in the square so Annette gave us a general area to look and we found one with
both a president and first lady’s name on it!
Score.
Stop 7: We ran down to 4th and Burnside for the time capsule at the entry to Chinatown and acted out a movie from the 80’s (Footloose, I am offended you couldn’t tell)
Stop 8: Up Burnside
to the elephant statue and had to get a pic sitting under it
Stop 9: Up Burnside
a little further and there was a timbers game so we got a pic with some Chelsea
fans. We had to get a picture with
someone wearing a professional sports team not from Portland and act out that
sport. Okay, Okay so I know our soccer
playing looks just like our footloose dancing.
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Stop 10: Down 12th
to the Armory Theater to act out the Wizard of Oz with some strangers.
Stop 11: Jamison
Square fountain spelling out OR while the water went out, we were supposed to
wait for the water to “get going” we
hoped the water lapping the stones was good enough.
Then to the finish just 2 blocks away! Run, run, run, up the stairs to On Deck and
to the finish. 59 minutes for 4th
place overall. All our pics checked out
and we won a $50 gift card to the bar and free entry into the national
championship in New Orleans in December.
Last year we were 12th so this was an improvement. We will take it.
Thanks again to Andy for the clue and Annette for the phone
support.
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