Urban Adventure Race- Part 1

Charlotte Go Urban Adventure Race- The story

Step 1: Recruitment
I got an email from a sort of boss of mine at Venture that there was an upcoming “Urban” Adventure race. The problem was that the email was two weeks before the race, and only a few days before the price increase deadline. So, I quickly called a bunch of people I knew and sent out facebook messages. It seemed like nobody actually answered their phones when I called…as if they knew I was calling with a moderately crazy idea. Finally, a guy named AJ who used to work at Venture sort of acquiesced and agreed to be my partner. Teams had to be two people. Once I got another person to run along side me, I had to find a support crew. The race suggested either carrying a laptop (i.e. an electronic weight), bringing an I-Phone or some other internet accessible phone (umm…sometimes I eat out of the dumpster, so I wouldn’t ever spend that kind of money), or get a friend to look up stuff on the computer for you. Enter Jerrod. He would later become the most important part of the plan. Step 2: The race Race day finally arrived. As I was trying to recruit people and when AJ asked me about what we would be doing, I really had very little idea what was going to happen. Conversations went something like this: “Hey, you want to do an urban adventure race with me?” “Urban? What does that entail?” “Well, I am not totally sure. I have looked at the website. There is text messaging involved. I imagine they will give us points and you gotta run to them. They say there are challenges. Then probably more running. All I really know is it probably takes lots of running.” Well, now that I read it, maybe people were afraid of the amount of running. While I generally don’t advocate for having fear, in hindsight I can recognize that there was an inordinate amount of running.
Anyway, I called Jerrod the morning of the race around 11:30. The race started at noon and I needed Jerrod to use Google to help decipher the clues and help me get from point to point. Jerrod was at Home Depot when I called, taking advantage of appliance tax incentives. He promised he would be in front of his computer though by noon. At 11:50 I called him again, a little worried. He told me he was on his way home, and would get there right after he stopped at Lowes to check some more prices. I pleaded that he hurry because I NEEDED him at the computer at noon. We were going to be helpless, unless we were able to solve clues on our own, which I didn’t see happening. Then Jerrod told me he was just kidding and he was pulling in the driveway. Jenn, his girlfriend, also said hi.
Clue 1:
Once the race started, we knew what we had gotten ourselves into. We were given 4 texted clues. After getting to each of the 4 locations, we would do a task and get 4 new clues for new locations with 4 new tasks. After 8 locations and 8 tasks, we would have to race back to Marshall Park.
Our first clue had something to do with “ScanFest” and a foreign flag with blue and white on it. Jerrod found out that S.C.A.N. (Society for Creative Anachronism) was having a convention at the Wachovia Atrium. So, we sprinted there to get our first challenge….