Great Urban Race 2010 - Portland

One word sums up the 2010 GUR -- FUN!!

I was up at 5:30am, ready to put on my "costume" and head up to get Jessica on our way to Portland. The weather was fabulous - if not too hot at times! We got to the starting area early so we knew we'd be able to park and check in with plenty of time. Great plan - we had the closest spot you could get, and it did not require any parallel parking! It was fun just to be at the car listening to music and while putting on nail polish, sweat bands, knee socks, etc....  We may not have won the costume contest, but I think we looked absolutely adorable!!

Of course we got comments all day - ranging from "He's a Hawk" (in reference to TJ not being a Bengal anymore.), "Go Ducks" (um, F You!), "Yeah Beavers! Oh wait, Bengals. Wait. What?" --- given the fact that we were representing the Beavers and Bengals we did cause some confusion. Now Jessica understands what it is like to be a Beaver fan and how annoying people can be about it!

Okay, so noon comes and we are given our envelopes. We had 12 clues, 11 of which we had to complete. There was a 5 hour time limit to get it all done and be back at the starting line. Our plan was to find a more secluded spot in the shade and go over all of the clues to figure out the best route. It wasn't that simple though - first we solved puzzles in order to know the name of the establishment, then had to figure out WHERE that establishment was. Thank goodness for Jessica because I knew NONE of the places we were going to or where any of the streets were. 

So here are the 11 tasks we chose to complete:

1. We got our GUR driver's license. Jessica pushed me on those little square roller boards from grade school around a track. We gathered a little too much speed and crashed on the first corner. I am so happy I asked the volunteer at that station to take pictures of it all. That was probably the highlight of the whole day for me!
   
   
   
   
2. At Paddy's, an Irish bar, we counted the number of bottles behind the bar. Thank goodness for our amazing math skills, we got in the right range on the first try. FYI - there are somewhere between 504 and 540 bottles!
3. In Pettygrove Park each of us had to jump rope and hula hoop for 30 seconds. I rocked the hell out of that hula hoop ... on my arm. I didn't even try it on my hips!
4. Jake's Famous Crawfish was our first stop.
   
   
   
   
   We had to get a photo holding a menu and a live crawfish. Poor little guys. I felt bad for them. Imagine how many times they were picked up and down, up and down. Being overachievers, we EACH held a crawfish!
5. At the Art Institute of Portland, our final stop, we had to draw our team logo. Jessica was the lead on that. I just watched and colored in a pink bow on our beaver. If any of that sounds dirty .... it should.
6. The yummiest stop was Hot Lips Pizza. We sampled two flavors of fresh fruit sodas and then got photographed eating the yummiest Greek pizza. If you are in the Portland area, I highly recommend stopping by for a slice!
   
   
   
   
7. The coolest (woohoo for air conditioning) stop was AM Living for a game of Venetian solitaire. We were brilliant at it on our very first try!
8. Cheers! We hit the Rock Bottom Brewery to get photographed by the GUR logo on a mash turn. Apparently a mash turn is something they use to make beer. That was a welcomed stop -not for the beer we didn't drink, but we finally found a bathroom. Of course that wasn't as relaxing as it could be. In a mad dash to save time I grabbed paper towels to use the toilet that was out of toilet paper. And taking off my 2 layers of shorts was like peeling off a wet swimming suit and then putting it back on. I swear we must have sweat off a few pounds that day!
9. Tic-Tac-Toe was so much fun! We had a grid of 9 things to take pictures of, and had to complete a tic-tac-toe with it. We were overachievers once again. The things we got pictures of were: a teammate shaking a dog's paw, all teammates in front of a rose bush, all teammates in front of a taco stand, teammates pretending to dive into a fountain, all teammates with a street performer, and a teammate honking the car horn of a stranger.
10. At Apple Music Row we had our picture taken next to a cardboard Paul Stanley (from KISS) sticking our tongues out. No sweat, my pet!
11. 
    
    We had to jump off of this strange bicycle/tricycle structure. That took a few takes because the team helping us couldn't seem to capture us mid-air.
    
    
    
    

In all we covered 6.78 miles - according to the new Garmin! And we took 3 hours 11 minutes to finish it. I'm sure we could have done faster had we a) not stopped to go to the bathroom, b) not run into the parade over and over and had to wait to cross between floats, c) not paused to take in some sights and get pictures for ourselves, d) run the entire time instead of walking. BUT it was really hot, neither of us are used to running in heat. And we knew we had no chance of winning, so we just wanted to have as much fun as possible.

Leave It To The Beavers shall return next year. Same team, probably a new name and newer, improved costumes.  See you in 2011!