It didn’t involve jumping over fire or crawling through mud – and all we got was a lousy T-shirt and not a Viking helmet – but my wife and I ran our own little adventure race on Saturday. We took part in Urban Dare, an Amazing Race-style dash through the city during which you have to use clues to find various checkpoints and complete “dares.” It was a repeat visit for Urban Dare, which is one of a couple outfits I know of that puts on these kinds of events in cities across the country.
It was the first time to take the challenge for my wife and me. We finished a respectable 18th (out of 125 teams). The course began at the Ginger Man, and the clues required us to complete 12 tasks at locations that stretched from Pinkberry at West Village in the north to the park across from Dallas Morning News HQ to the south. We covered about eight miles, seven of those on foot. (We were allowed to use public transportation only–no taxis.) We finished in 3 hours flat. The winning couple (second from the right in this photo) finished in 1 hour, 45 minutes.
The clues to the locations we had to visit were a cinch to someone familiar with Dallas – especially with a smartphone at the ready. I’d like to say that we ran a clean race, but I made a stupid assumption about one of the clues that cost us about 10 minutes when we had to double back. If you’d like to see if you’re smarter than me, take the jump.
Here’s the only clue that temporarily tricked us:
Get your picture with a plaque where the (CCXIV Times IX) Republic Bank once stood.
Where did we have to go?
