On Saturday May 3rd, my daughter Mandy and I participated in the “Great Urban Race” in San Francisco. Mandy and I have always talked about trying out for “The Amazing Race,” on CBS, but never had, so for my birthday present, Mandy signed us up for this opportunity. We had a wonderful time in the City, along with 180 other teams. Each team had a name; we were “Team ANDO,” because we both have a nickname that ends in “ando.”
The race began in the Italian District at 12:00 noon. Just as they handed us our clues and sounded the horn to start, my boss, Rich Lawrence called to ask a question about plants he had ordered for his home. I laughed, because it was such a great way to break up the stress of starting a race with 360 competitors. Many of the people had done this in previous years and we noted right away that many did exactly what we did and sat down away from the starting gate and began reading the clues, solving the puzzles and looking up our destinations on the map. Our flaw was not looking up all the clues in advance and only about a third of them.
During the race you are allowed to use public transportation or walk/run, but you can’t use a cab, bike, roller blades, etc. You may use your cell phone, computer, etc. We had set up with my son Josh (who had gone to SFSU) and my wife Pam, to be our Internet searchers and help us with the clues. Our set of clues took us all over the east side of the city from Fisherman’s Warf, to South Beach, to the financial district and Chinatown. Mandy and I got to see interesting sites throughout the City, that we would have never known was there, including a lot of sculptures. We didn’t win the race, but we completed all the clues and finished the race.
The Great Urban Race takes place in 20 cities throughout the US, with the finals taking place in Las Vegas in November. We are already making plans to do the race again next year and may even tackle the same race in San Diego, this Fall. We’ll be ready when the producers of The Amazing Race call us to participate!
The race began in the Italian District at 12:00 noon. Just as they handed us our clues and sounded the horn to start, my boss, Rich Lawrence called to ask a question about plants he had ordered for his home. I laughed, because it was such a great way to break up the stress of starting a race with 360 competitors. Many of the people had done this in previous years and we noted right away that many did exactly what we did and sat down away from the starting gate and began reading the clues, solving the puzzles and looking up our destinations on the map. Our flaw was not looking up all the clues in advance and only about a third of them.
During the race you are allowed to use public transportation or walk/run, but you can’t use a cab, bike, roller blades, etc. You may use your cell phone, computer, etc. We had set up with my son Josh (who had gone to SFSU) and my wife Pam, to be our Internet searchers and help us with the clues. Our set of clues took us all over the east side of the city from Fisherman’s Warf, to South Beach, to the financial district and Chinatown. Mandy and I got to see interesting sites throughout the City, that we would have never known was there, including a lot of sculptures. We didn’t win the race, but we completed all the clues and finished the race.
The Great Urban Race takes place in 20 cities throughout the US, with the finals taking place in Las Vegas in November. We are already making plans to do the race again next year and may even tackle the same race in San Diego, this Fall. We’ll be ready when the producers of The Amazing Race call us to participate!
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