Fitness Can Be Fun: Urban Dare Pacific Beach 2011

Honestly, I’m not a runner. I can run, I do run, but I’ve never considered myself to be a runner. Why? Growing up around runners has put them on a pedestal of low body fat, expensive shoes, and clocking miles at a 2-for-1 pace versus mine. It’s mostly the latter that distinguishes me from them; they’re fast and I’m slow. I’ll call myself a jogger…but not yet a runner.

A few weeks ago I signed up for a half marathon in January. No time like the present to monetarily commit to a long-term goal, right? If it’s paid for I’m going through with it (know what motivates you!), plus I’ve got 5-6 months to plan and train. I figure I’ll start training in late September and follow Jeff Galloway’s plan.

Fast forward to Sunday the 31^st when I found a coupon deal in my inbox for Urban Dare, one of those adventure races (like the Amazing Race) where you run around your city eating foods, doing dares, and finding checkpoints. Half off of a race AND I get a t-shirt AND I’ll be doing silly things? I found myself getting sucked in to the psychological vortex of the daily deal, so I stepped back to research the race.

• It starts at noon on Saturday (Check! Not too early in case I go out Friday night.)
• The course is 5-7 miles (Public transportation is allowed!)
• Most people finish in less than 4 hours (7 miles in 4 hours = do-able in my book).

I sign up and ask my brother to run it with me. He doesn’t know much about Pacific Beach but he’s a solid runner and I’m not really a runner but I know PB. We set out to discover my city like any Internet savvy person does: via Google Maps and Yelp reviews.  We’re looking for statues (there aren’t many), places of interest (too many), historical designations (none), anything with an interesting name that might stand out (Enigma Tattoo? Mr. Frosty? Pretty Kitty?!?). EVERY storefront is creatively names and could be the answer to a clue, I realize.

Study breaks included Ken Kramer’s About San Diego on KPBS. I honestly wish I knew Mr. Kramer because he has the scoop on all of San Diego. He’d be a fantastic phone-a-friend option.

Last ditch efforts: I print out bus schedules of every bus that has a route through PB. There are 4 buses that lead to Sea World, La Jolla, Clairemont and Old Town, Clairemont is up and over a hill to the east, which would be a quad-killer of a run but it’s really not that far. It just seems far. So we plan for the worst, expect the best, and wonder what they’ll have us eating.

Day of the race: Brother and I fill up our Camelbak’s because it’s going to be a toasty day. The forecast says mid 70’s, but we’ll also be running and I know there isn’t much shade. I also bought us some awesome sweatbands because 

1. They’re practical
2. They look awesome
3. If we have to all wear matching t-shirts, we’ve got to up the ante.
4. Tradition. We made matching green shirts for our St. Patrick’s Day run this year.

We walk a half-mile or so to get to the starting point, Typhoon Saloon. The race starts at noon so everyone stands around drinking or checking cell phones for the time until the director pulls out the megaphone. I’d read online about the pre-race question and how they stagger the start so there’s no mad rush of people sprinting out the door. Apparently they decided to forego that this year, planting poor souls with the clue sheets throughout the crowd to hand them out and send us off. We agreed beforehand to answer the clues, plot our route, and THEN take off to make sure we weren’t backtracking.

Armed with cell phones, we sat down at tables and started (accidentally) eavesdropping and googling the clues. Some of the clues weren’t really clues, they were directions to take pictures of people doing things, so those would have to be dealt with once possible. Through the power of Google answered all but one of the clues (and had a good idea where that one was at), plotted the locations on a map, and ran off toward the beach.

50% of Red Squadron is ready

First stop: Another word for lacking clothing. The place we realized it would be easiest to have a photographer, as we had to take pictures of ourselves along with gigantic overhead signs.

Naked Pizza.

Second stop: The most out of the way location, so we could get it over with. Also, the name of a river that Napoleon crossed.

Attempted self-portrait at Rubicon Deli.

Third stop: The store of a Norse God, right on the beach!

Big Olaf's Ice Cream

Fourth stop: Heading North: riding a horse with no saddle.

Bareback Grill

Fifth stop: A checkpoint at a park where we had to do a human wheel barrel “race” around some cones.

Sixth stop: The northernmost point in Europe, as a gallery.

Yeah, I wasn't ready for this picture...

Seventh stop: The clue that befuddled us all. This Stegolomasaurus (sic) was impossible to find and required the assistance of out GoogleMeister.

You call this a statue?

Eighth stop: A second checkpoint where one person had hold a plastic cup and another had to run to the bay with a shot glass, fill the shot glass with water, and pour the water into the plastic cup. About 10 times. 

Ninth stop: Famous Man versus Food challenge site!

So close to home, yet so far away...

Tenth stop: Third checkpoint where we have to find the numeric value of a word given to us at the beginning of a race. There were 26 Popsicle sticks hidden in the grass, each with a letter and corresponding number. Our word was belligerent.

Eleventh stop: Japanese poem sushi

Very festive, no?

12th clue photos we managed to take along the way:

Hear no evil, see no evil, drink no smoothie.

That famous statue downtown / that famous WWII photo

5-minute time bonus photo:

If you know these awesome people, I'd love to give them a copy of the picture.

Last stop: Back at Typhoon Saloon.

The results: We were emailed the race results the next day, and we got 19^th out of 105 teams! I was pretty impressed with this, until I saw that the first place team was nearly an hour faster.  There’s always next year, and formal training.

Here’s the path we ended up taking: 

Yes, we ran the whole thing. Public transportation is hit or miss in San Diego, mostly a miss on the weekends.

The moral of the story: If you’re stuck in a rut, bored with your exercise routine, or not seeing results…try a race. Try something new, fun, different and exciting. I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor for the race, but I can guarantee I ran a LOT, had fun doing it, and pushed myself harder than I normally would have. Maybe you can find a Groupon or coupon deal in your city for something new, like horseback riding or kayak rentals. Or you’d like to purchase a training plan from SeeMeFit (wink wink). Whatever you decide to do, have fun! Life is too short to be stuck on the treadmill reading a 3-month-old magazine.