Sunday, October 3, 2010
“I like having you as a teammate,” I said to Nicki as we waited for the Number 20 bus to take us back to Riverside & Congress.
“You like that I’m even more competitive than you!” Nicki laughed. And that’s what I love about her… she is more competitive than even me… and faster too!
Nicki and I represent Team Merrell ATX, Merrell’s local-area industry team. Though we come from different athletic backgrounds and don’t train together regularly, our chemistry and ability to work together as a cohesive unit on race day is undeniable. However, because Nicki had a lot of work to do that weekend and because I came back from Vegas the week before with a gnarly eye infection, our manager Jon Sanregret gave us the okay to skip the race altogether. I’m sure glad that we decided last minute to give it a go!
I’m not gonna lie, but we had absolutely no idea what we’d gotten ourselves into… think The Amazing Race meets Fear Factor. http://www.citychaseusa.com/about/ Neither one of us have ever competed in this kind of adventure race before so the Saturday leading up to the event we exchanged text messages, did as much research as we could possibly do, joined the race site’s social media pages, and met up with Jon at the Merrell booth on Sunday morning where he gave us one standing order: Have a blast!
Before the race began, a gal from Bally Total Fitness led a group warm-up; Race Director Corina Holtby gave the racers (or rather chasers) final instructions and even asked two women wearing red capes to sing the national anthem. They were a little flustered by this request and pulled some unsuspecting soul up on stage to help them out. He actually did a great job and the crowd helped them out as well. Then, it began.
Task #1: in order to get a cue sheet, we had to complete a scavenger hunt around the race venue. Take some pictures, answer some questions, acquire a grass stain, etc… easy enough.
Then we were given our pink cue sheet to which I took one look and said, “WTF!” This was the most cryptic cue sheet I had ever seen – so confusing in fact that we really wished we had had “eye in the sky” support. We seriously spent 20 minutes simply trying to figure out where to begin and started feeling helpless as other teams ran off in various directions. “GET OUTSIDE: Near one of Austin’s largest parks in the Lamar/Barton Springs area get ready to play. We hope you take care of the pigskin like Tony Romo today.” We decided to head in that direction, but there was a problem. The Cowboys had a real life bye week and we couldn’t find the check point – nor could five other teams who raced in that direction. Another 20 minutes wasted… dammit! So, we did the only thing we could think of – run from the moon tower at Zilker Park to First Base on 6th and Mopac.
After running across Mopac, we noticed that another check point was within range before we hit up First Base so we veered off and headed that way. We arrived at… a house… were told to go around back to a surprise that had Nicki exclaiming, “Oh hell no!” I laughed as a man placed a four foot long snake around her neck, but my attitude quickly changed as he said, “just wait, I’ve got something else for you.” The next thing I knew, the snake from the Britney Spears music video appeared from within a giant tub and he stated that I’d be walking around with this 80 pound monster on my back. Holding the snake was fine, but the damn thing kept turning its head to look at me… absolutely horrific!
From the snake house on Patterson Lane we ran downhill to Third Base to compete against another team in sports/pop trivia and quickly found ourselves down 4-0 in a first to 5 competition. I seriously contemplated getting a beer if we’d lost and were forced to take the mandatory five minute time penalty. Somehow the trivia gods shined down upon us as we came back to win 5-4. We wished the other team the best of luck and headed out the door.
Having had just enough time to sit down, regroup, and analyze the cue sheet, we now had a game plan and sped off to REI. At REI, we had to use Blackberrys to communicate instructions to our teammates. This is what I learned… I’ve become so dependent on my iPhone that I have no clue how to use BBM anymore and can barely take pictures. As luck would have it, the Blackberrys didn’t receive signal inside the building so the course judge made a ruling on the pictures I’d taken of various products and sent us on our way.
We then headed to Duncan Park at 9th and West for a fairly easy task of stationary bull roping, both of us completing the task in our second tries. Our next checkpoint was less than half a mile away and we quickened our pace as other teams started walking up the hill. In the gazebo at 12th and West, a beer pong table was setup with cups of water. One teammate had to clear the cups by sinking shots pyramid style, but if they missed the other teammate was forced to eat a spoonful of hot sauce. Remind me next time that Nicki is better at beer pong after she’s had a few because I ended up eating TEN spoonfuls!
The hot sauce didn’t exactly sit well with me since our next task was to take a hip hop class at Ballet Austin. This was actually a lot of fun and I purposely freaked it out at the front of the class which had the course judge taking pictures laughing hysterically. We jammed out to Flo Rida’s “Jump,” learned a dance routine, but still, the hot sauce wanted to come up and I was quickly running out of water in my hydration pack.
Throughout the entire race, another quiz needed to be filled out on the back of the cue sheet, but the good news was that it could be checked off at our last checkpoint at Hostelling International. From Ballet Austin we ran to Riverside and Congress, took the bus to the east side, completed our task, and waited impatiently at the bus stop to be taken back. If we could clear the course in under three hours, Jon said that we had a good shot of podiuming. Our time was now 2:58, the bus ride would probably take another 10 minutes, so I texted Jon that we’d hopefully finish in around 3:10 – Boston Marathon qualifying time.
The bus finally arrived, but one stop later another team had boarded. Not knowing where this team stood in terms of their score card and realizing that they could possibly pose a threat to us in a race for the finish line, Nicki looked at me and asked, “Are you ready to sprint!?!”
“Hell yes!” I said as we jumped off the bus and sprinted towards Barton Springs Rd. The other team was nowhere in sight when we turned the corner, but we maintained as we swung past the parked Mitsubishi, grasped hands and raised them triumphantly in the air as we crossed through the finish chute at Aussie’s. BUT, one of the holes on our score card had been punched by accident and we still needed to complete one more checkpoint. Total letdown!
Luckily for us, Aussie’s was hosting the American Idol checkpoint, which I thought was karaoke (I wish!) but the catch was that we needed to go inside the bar and find two people to sing in the Mitsubishi with us. So, I darted into the bar and made the declaration that I’d buy anyone who’d help us a pitcher post-race. Thankfully, a nice couple agreed, but the problem was that all four people needed to be singing the song and they didn’t know the lyrics to any of the songs on the playlist until we came across “I Will Survive.” The four of us jammed out in the car, the judges cracked up, and after a few minutes of belting out the chorus, they told us we were good to go. We thanked the couple, but with less emotion this time, grasped hands and crossed the line for the second time. Still unsure if we’d podiumed or not, I walked over to the timing table and saw our bib number being written down in the top slot. Completely confused, I walked over to Carina and asked, “Did we win?”
“You sure did… you’re going to nationals in Orlando!” she replied.
“Holy shit!” was all that I could mutter.
Although the race itself had been a blast, the energy and camaraderie experienced during the post-race party was simply incredible. Nearly everyone stayed to enjoy lunch, swap war stories, watch the action on the volleyball courts, and partake in the kegs of MGD 64. We had a great time schmoozing with the other teams and not only did we have the opportunity to meet Drew from Team Dallas, but Christina from Team NYC also called the bar to offer her congratulations and buy us a round. What a wonderful afternoon!
Thank you City Chase USA crew, CAMP Kesem, and all the wonderful volunteers for an outstanding event. Team Merrell ATX is now changing call signs to Team Austin; we’ll see y’all at the City Chase USA National Championships in Orlando!
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