Urban Dare May 7, 2011 (AKA Race #5)

Well we did it again. With only one oops, details about that in a few. It was a fine May morning. Warmer than our previous races, but not bad. Considering we have had rain for several of our other races, it wasn't bad. I will take sunny over rainy without hesitation.

Comparatively speaking there seemed to be fewer race teams and fewer people in costume. It always amazes me what people think of wearing when running around the city. Jonathan and I were pretty confident that we knew what we were doing. Knowing Dallas pretty well and having done little research we did our pre-race photo while waiting outside for the fun to begin.


I am fairly certain that Jonathan and I will not sport costumes in races, too much to slow us down. We wore our AmeriCorps Alums shirts this time (also the name of our Team). I liked that we stood out from the smurf colored folks running around the city and could sort of blend in with the rest of the citizenry. It was also nice to have a darker blue Urban Dare shirt as we had gotten light blue shirts in the past (pretty sure I have four).

We mulled around outside the Gingerman Pub (2718 Boll St.) waiting for the start of the race. The parking lot was not marked off, so I was pretty sure that we were not doing the trivia start as we have done in the past. The last Ft. Worth race had us just grabbing sheets from Urban Dare staff folks, so I stalked them and pointed them out to Jonathan. We picked on on the fringes and away from the main crowd. Jonathan sidled up next to him so he could get a sheet quickly. As with pas races we eyed a clue that got us started that was nearby.
4. Go to the Freedman's Memorial for your wheelbarrow dare.


I knew the exact location of this spot having been there a couple of times. I also suspected that there would not be anything in the race father away so it made a good starting point. Jonathan also requested that we do the wheelbarrow portion first as it is very tough to do towards the end (when we are exhausted). On the way there we started calling our research people to look up clues for us. My mom and sister and Jonathan's mom and aunt were our helpers. When we got to the park, I had the presence of mind to ask the race monitor to take a picture of us. I had never gotten one before and thought it would be interesting to see. Since there was only one other team there, she was all too willing to oblige.



Our next clue-
2. Born into slavery, he rose to become a prominent writer and educator. Up From Slavery was one of his books. Go to the high school that bears his name and get your picture with the Pegasus statue.
That one was pretty easy. I don't even think we had to look it up. Booker T. Washington High School.


The next clue had our researchers looking furiously online. 9. Get your picture with downtown playground by J. Lynn Kelly. At first I thought it was an actual playground. My mom and sister had found that it had something to do with the Catholic Foundation, then they said something about the Arts District. We headed that way and near the Cathedral de Guadalupe we saw some teams nearby. We didn't even have the clue figured out completely when we saw the mural and sign telling us we had found the Catholic Foundation Plaza and the mural.
As we were leaving the mural, I was looking at my phone and not paying attention to the steps below my feet and fell (OOPS). It wasn't quite the tuck and roll I did in the Ft. Worth race. I landed hard, but got up quickly. I am sure my race partner is tired of me injuring myself, even if it is just a little road rash and a couple of bruises.

Our next clue has us looking for a couple of folks who would be willing to pose for us.


6. PHOTO HUNT (part 1)- Get a picture of two people reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstadt. You may not use anyone in the race for these photos.
We found this lovely couple and they were only too happy to oblige. It seemed to even brighten their mood to participate in the public display of affection.


I knew exactly where the next stop was, but it was a bit of a trek.
3. Go to the Main Street Garden for your spellbound dare. Our word was snowmobiling and we found the letters very quickly. It was also the first time we got the math correct in adding up the letters on our very first try.

The park was having a festival and we decided to get a couple of other photo shots while we were there.

6. PHOTO HUNT (part 2)- Get a picture of someone doing a cartwheel.

5:00 Minute bonus- take a picture of a group of 5 people posed as if they were shooting bows and arrows. They must be non-competitors in the race.

While Jonathan was taking the pictures, a gentleman in a wheelchair asked me what all the blue shirt people were doing running around. We get this question a lot. It's fun to tell people were are doing sort of a local "Amazing Race". He said it sounded like a lot of fun and suggested a wheelchair version. I told him was an awesome idea. As we were leaving the park and the festival, there was a street vendor handing out Monster energy drinks. How fortunate is that? Free cold drink in the middle of a race. I didn't finish it all, but it sure was good.


We got a little confused at this point. We felt we had all of our clues figured out, but we saw several people near the park that were headed in a direction that made no sense to us. We took some time to review our clues once again. Then we determined we were on the right track.
1. He played fullback for the Dallas Cowboy's from 1966-1974, and wrote a biography Once a Cowboy. Get your picture in front of this restaurant. Walt Garrison was a rodeo cowboy and his restaurant: Rodeo Bar and Grill next to the Magnolia Hotel 1321 Commerce Street.


Downtown we encountered a lot more race teams. We also passed spots we had visited in earlier races. "Remember our first three legged race?" This is where we realized we didn't have a three legged race. Yippee, we are horrible at them. "Remember when we couldn't find that one plaque?" Fortunately this was not the case in this race.



8. On December 1, 1955 she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white passenger, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Go to her statue for your balloon dare.


At first we didn't realize there was a balloon challenge. We were just looking for the statue to take a picture. We were about to leave after taking the picture when we noticed several teams nearby. A lot of teams actually. That's when we looked at our clues again. A balloon dare? What in the world? Apparently we had to use instruction sheets to make a dog out of a balloon. This seemed to slow a bunch of teams down. Both Jonathan and I tried. The sheet kept getting blown around and blocked (accidentally) by people trying to figure it out. It actually took both of us to make the one dog. I twisted and Jonathan held the twisted pieces together as I figured out each step. Then we were through, as we were running to our next clue I gave our balloon dog to a little boy who was waiting for the DART rail train. He seemed to like it (though it wasn't the prettiest balloon dog ever- it had an unusually long tail)



We then went to the West End Pub just down the street.
10. Get your picture with the statue of Liberty. You will find it in the historic West End. The picture is extremely blurry because there were a lot of teams converging and we wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. We tend to have other people take our picture, but we did a lot of our own on this one. Mostly because we were either alone or just in a pack of teams.


We knew the address for our next clue (thanks to our research team), but misjudged where on the route it would be.
7. Dustin Hoffman was nominated for Best Actor for his role in this 1982 film, and Jessica Lange won the Academy Award for best supporting actress. Get your picture in front of the cafe that goes by this movies name.
Tootsies cafe 400 N. St. Paul Street. We had a three block detour to get to the cafe. This was our last stop in downtown Dallas, then we took Pearl to get back to Uptown for our next clue stop.


11. Go to Nodding Donkey and get your picture with the nodding donkey out front.
2900 Thomas Street was a long trek. These stretches can really wear you down. I tend to get talkative. Trying to be encouraging. Trying to motivate. Hoping that it will help pass the time. Oh, and for those who are curious a Nodding Donkey is the contraption you see in oil wells.



Our last clue- 5. Raymond Loewy headed up the design team that came up with this car for Studebaker. Get your picture in front of a restaurant with this name.
The car he designed was an Avanti a restaurant that was just down the block from the starting point.

Then we were back to the Gingerman Pub for the finish. Our official results 42nd out of 165 teams. Our total race time (after bonuses) 2:28:59 and our total race distance was approximately 6.5 miles. We relaxed at a nearby Baker Brothers after the race to cool off and to rehydrate. I put my feet up and it felt soooooo good.


So there you have it the grand tale of our fifth Urban Dare race. I felt much better after this one than any of the previous races. I think my training for the mud run definitely helped. I am really looking forward to the next race in Ft. Worth. Jonathan and I plan on really training to see if we can come in closer to the top 10 in Ft. Worth.


Dallas 1- 31/80 teams 8.33 Miles in 3:13:42
Fort Worth 1- 7/37 teams ? miles in 2:18:00
Dallas 2- 33/114 teams 9 miles in 3:25:35
Fort Worth 2- 32/196 6.25 miles in 1:56:45
Dallas 3- 42/165 teams 6.5 miles in 2:28:59