(no subject)
A friend of a friend, Martin, organizes as a hobby a sort-of semiannual event, modeled in part on TV's Amazing Race, called Race Across NYC. Last year I volunteered as a "greeter", with the intention to race for real next time. That time was this past Saturday. I roped in Eddie to be the other half of this team, and he raced even though he had just been informed on Friday that his new boss intended him to work on Saturday. Instead of canceling out of the race, he told me that we just had to finish extra fast. Now that's commitment. Since it was the first time racing for both of us, I didn't have any expectations for us to win outright, but I thought we had a good chance given our geographical knowledge of the city.
Turns out I was right about that part, as we finished a strong 5th out of 15, due in large part to our street savvy. But really, we should have finished even better, except that I might as well have had my shoelaces tied together, as slow as I was and for reasons that were entirely my fault. Here are things I need to improve upon for next time:
- Find my backpack. I swear I had just seen that thing lying around recently. But it could not be found last week, and I was forced to use a shoulder bag. Wearing a shoulder bag in a race is the pedestrian equivalent to racing a car with your trunk open. Comically inefficient.
- Buy sneakers. Half-shredded boots I wore on the Pihea Trail on Kauai are not appropriate footwear. Especially when the insides of the shoes begin to disintegrate while you're racing. That was comfy!
- Wear better-fitting pants or get a belt. I guess I didn't realize how big my pants were. I found out pretty quickly though as soon as I started trying to run a few blocks in them.
- Oh, I don't know, maybe do something (anything!) related to cardiovascular fitness in the next five months. And stop smoking, I mean it this time. (Here's the part where I have to point out that I'm encouraging myself to be healthier, not out of concern for my personal well-being and appearance, but so as to have a better showing in a one-day scavenger hunt race. I'm really smart!)
So yeah, all those factors together kind of slowed me down a bit. It was a learning experience. Never mind that my teammate got all these things right on his first try. It's just going to make it all the sweeter when we come out of nowhere to win next time. America loves triumphs of the human spirit.
And, for posterity, here were the events of the May 2008 Race Across NYC:
(1) Find a sculpture in Lower Manhattan, given only a photograph of it and a general map of the area. We recognized the building in the background of the photo, leading us right to it.
(2) One of us (Eddie) had to go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building to find a piece of information from the lobby.
(3) Search Morningside Park for 7 specified facts.
(4) Purchase "Lick Me All Over" incense and bath oil from a vendor in Harlem and take them to the Adam Clayton Powell statue.
(5) Circle the running track at St. Mary's Park in the Bronx, in tandem and using a home made hobby horse. We managed not to fall off the pony, allowing us to make the circuit just once. Eddie and I were actually still in first place when we left this event.
(6) Add up the denominations of a sack of foreign coins at Rockefeller Plaza. We were no longer in first place when we got here, nor when we completed it.
(7) One of us (me, unfortunately) had to finish a 4 oz tin of "caviar", in Liberty Plaza. May have actually been shark chum, as delicious as it was.
(8) Put together a jigsaw puzzle of Africa and the Middle East, at the African Heritage Monument in Lower Manhattan.
(9) Finish line at Rockefeller Park, by Hudson River. A terrific spread of food and water was waiting for us there, courtesy Martin and his family. A cold cut sandwich, three cookies, a refill of my water bottle, and pasta salad were enough to finally erase the taste of fish bait from my mouth.
Turns out I was right about that part, as we finished a strong 5th out of 15, due in large part to our street savvy. But really, we should have finished even better, except that I might as well have had my shoelaces tied together, as slow as I was and for reasons that were entirely my fault. Here are things I need to improve upon for next time:
- Find my backpack. I swear I had just seen that thing lying around recently. But it could not be found last week, and I was forced to use a shoulder bag. Wearing a shoulder bag in a race is the pedestrian equivalent to racing a car with your trunk open. Comically inefficient.
- Buy sneakers. Half-shredded boots I wore on the Pihea Trail on Kauai are not appropriate footwear. Especially when the insides of the shoes begin to disintegrate while you're racing. That was comfy!
- Wear better-fitting pants or get a belt. I guess I didn't realize how big my pants were. I found out pretty quickly though as soon as I started trying to run a few blocks in them.
- Oh, I don't know, maybe do something (anything!) related to cardiovascular fitness in the next five months. And stop smoking, I mean it this time. (Here's the part where I have to point out that I'm encouraging myself to be healthier, not out of concern for my personal well-being and appearance, but so as to have a better showing in a one-day scavenger hunt race. I'm really smart!)
So yeah, all those factors together kind of slowed me down a bit. It was a learning experience. Never mind that my teammate got all these things right on his first try. It's just going to make it all the sweeter when we come out of nowhere to win next time. America loves triumphs of the human spirit.
And, for posterity, here were the events of the May 2008 Race Across NYC:
(1) Find a sculpture in Lower Manhattan, given only a photograph of it and a general map of the area. We recognized the building in the background of the photo, leading us right to it.
(2) One of us (Eddie) had to go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building to find a piece of information from the lobby.
(3) Search Morningside Park for 7 specified facts.
(4) Purchase "Lick Me All Over" incense and bath oil from a vendor in Harlem and take them to the Adam Clayton Powell statue.
(5) Circle the running track at St. Mary's Park in the Bronx, in tandem and using a home made hobby horse. We managed not to fall off the pony, allowing us to make the circuit just once. Eddie and I were actually still in first place when we left this event.
(6) Add up the denominations of a sack of foreign coins at Rockefeller Plaza. We were no longer in first place when we got here, nor when we completed it.
(7) One of us (me, unfortunately) had to finish a 4 oz tin of "caviar", in Liberty Plaza. May have actually been shark chum, as delicious as it was.
(8) Put together a jigsaw puzzle of Africa and the Middle East, at the African Heritage Monument in Lower Manhattan.
(9) Finish line at Rockefeller Park, by Hudson River. A terrific spread of food and water was waiting for us there, courtesy Martin and his family. A cold cut sandwich, three cookies, a refill of my water bottle, and pasta salad were enough to finally erase the taste of fish bait from my mouth.