Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Pocket Protectors to the Rescue

Well folks I did it I ran my first race ever, and my body is asking "what the heck were you thinking". The Great Urban race was absolutely so much fun and amazing. It's a great way for couples, family and friends to bond. You really learn that you have to work together in order to succeed. At the beginning of the race I was full of stamina and excitement I was ready to go and find clue after clue. Then about 1 hour into the race my asthma started acting up and my body was giving up, I had no clue how I was going to finish this race. But my sisters constant support (and yelling) kept me going. I knew I had to finish, I teach my kids never to give up and I had to do the same.

For those of you who do not know what the Great Urban Race is, its pretty much a scavenger hunt between downtown L.A and West Hollywood. You are not allowed to get a taxi, ride a bike, roller skate or hitch a ride from anyone, you have to use your own two feet or public transportation i.e bus or subway. You have 12 clues that you must figure out within 5 hours the team with the shortest time wins. Our first clue we tried to complete our tic tac toe which was pretty much finding people with certain clothes, hair do's, or posters. Some were easier than others and some people were down right rude and refused to take pictures with you because they were scared there wife would see this pics and wonder why he was in LA. Well hello wanna be Tiger Woods don't lie to your wife idiot. Ok I got off course a little then we had to donate either 2 pairs of new socks or 3 toothbrushes to a shelter that was set up on our course. Well thank goodness I had bought some extra socks at Target the night before and didn't have to run around town finding a store that sold these items. So that was a score for our team. Then we found a nice group of gentlemen with ties to take a pic with us. As you can see this race will take you way out of your comfort zone. Then we hopped on the subway to WEHO and finshed 4 clues there.

We we're making good time until we got wrong directions a few times which cut into 30 mins of our time. After that back to Downtown LA we went heading to the Staples Center, PAWS, Nokia Place and finding some mysterious statue that no one has ever seen before. Which was up a pretty steep hill and at this point I was really done I can feel my feet we're wet which I knew was blood in my shoes and I just wanted to sit down and cry I was in so much pain. But we were almost there and I couldn't give up and we did it in 3 hours and 50 mins. I was finally done I did it. I might of had 2 bloody toes, a rash down my leg and a pretty good bruise but I finished. I know next year that I will be in better shape and get a decent pair of running shoes.

Here's some of pics from the race.