Great Urban Race

Lori Thomas, Me, Stephanie Flint and Melissa Peterson attempted the great urban race in down town Minneapolis.  Our team name was derived from the first letter of our names Small and Mighty Laughing Misfits.  We met in Hubert’s in Target Center and received an envelope with 12 clues at 12 pm.  We had until 5 pm to complete 11 of the 12 clues.  The clues were difficult and required smart phones unless you’re well versed in the Fibonacci sequence and where Prince was ranked in 2002 on the list of 100 most beautiful people!  There were puzzles and math problems we had to solve to get the clue which gave us the address we had to go to.  Once there, we had to perform a task.  We could only use public transportation and that proved to be exceedingly difficult.  We ended up walked 11.5 miles and completing the course 20 minutes late.  I felt like dead weight since I had no smart phone and no knowledge of the bus system (stops and routes).  My one contribution was climbing a rock wall at vertical endeavor.  One person in our team had to scale to the top which was quite high.  I’m fairly confident that I’m the only one who could have done it (not trying to brag) so for that, I’m glad I was there.  We got to play a Swedish game at a Museum, built something (a cat) out of clay blindfolded, do a ring toss with bike tires, sing 20 seconds of a Prince song on a stage, buy and donate paper products to Ronald McDonald house, and complete a quiz about alcoholic beverages.   I did have a fun time but wish I had been more useful.  I would do it again but would put more effort into learning about transportation.

Now I know that I would be a horrible contestant on the Amazing Race as much as I love to watch the show and pretend I’d be great.  We did get medals and appetizers afterward.  Another bonus… I had zero guilt eating donuts and peanut butter bars while watching fireworks that night.