Most people that know me pretty well know that I LOVE "The Amazing Race." I am desperate to be on the show with Cory. Who wouldn't love the chance to take a break from your life, travel around the world doing crazy things, and have a chance to win $1 million doing it? Sign me up, please!
So when I heard about the 2nd annual (how did I not hear about this last year when I was in better shape?)
Omaha Scavenger Dash I immediately wanted to sign up. It is a little pricey so Cory and I debated it for a little awhile, but then I took the plunge and signed us up.
The race was this last Saturday at noon - only the hottest day so far this year and happened during the hottest part of the day. So we loaded up our backpack with bottles of water and headed down to the Old Mattress Factory Bar & Grill where the race started. When we arrived we saw all of these super athletic looking people with their fancy athletic apparel and fancy athletic water backpack things, and I wanted to turn around and go home. I thought for sure we'd finish in last place (if I could even finish at all) and embarrass ourselves. I immediately realized I needed to change my attitude if I wanted to have a chance at surviving this. After all, the website says we'll only be walking/running about 5 miles. Even though I haven't gone for an official run in almost a year I know I can handle this.
While we sat outside sweating before the race started a very athletic-looking couple approached our table and sat down. We began talking, and they seemed super nice. We talked about what our strategies were, and before long we began talking about teaming up with them. I told them they did not want to team up with us because I knew there was no way I'd be able to keep up the pace with them. They assured us that they wanted to work with us so we agreed to stick together. So Team Dashing Duo (Cory and I) and Team Marriage Challenge (Mike and Kristin) became one team.
At 11:59a.m. the race organizer gathered everyone together and announced our first clue, which would lead us to the rest of our clues. The first clue was: "Find your clues by finding the blue cube designed by R. Justin Stewart."
A stampede of people immediately headed towards the Qwest Center so we decided to follow the herd. As all of these athletes sprinted down Cass Street, I realized this was going to be a long day for me. I quickly fell behind a lot of the group, but my teammates encouraged me to keep going. At the south end of the Qwest Center was the blue cube and our envelope of clues waiting for us. We ripped open our envelope and found a place to sit and discuss our strategy. I immediately got on my phone and began calling our "Pit Crew" (thanks mom, Clef, and Shannon!) waiting at home. We quickly worked together to solve as many of the clues as possible so that we could make a plan for how to accomplish all of the tasks. We sat there for about 20 minutes and realized that most of the other teams had left so we knew we needed to get going. With half a plan in place we headed towards the Gene Leahy Mall to complete our first task. Here is a list of all of the clues in the order in which we completed the tasks:
1. Search the Gene Leahy mall for the kinetic bucket and get a picture of both teammates with it. You'll know it by the bent pipes.
-This one was super easy to find, and we accomplished this task very quickly.
Notice me on my phone with our
"Pit Crew" working on our next clue
2. Return to the finish line with a state commemorative quarter where the state starts with the letter "M" or picture one teammate with a stagecoach in the background.
-We weren't entirely sure how picky they'd be about the stagecoach portion of the clue so we decided to try to find a quarter instead. Cory and I had brought a few quarters in case we needed them for bus fare. We passed by a Starbucks in the Old Market and decided to head in there to check with the cashier. When we got inside we realized there was a First National Bank branch inside. The tellers quickly started opening rolls of quarters for us to find the right ones. We traded quarters with them and were quickly on our way.
3. Unscramble and head to FRAKT CONDUITS RECENT and get a picture of a teammate with the papier-mache pachyderm in the background.
-This one was difficult to figure out until we figured out that the first word was Kraft. I called Shannon, and she knew that there was a Kraft Furniture store near 16th & Leavenworth. She called them to ask if they had a papier-mache elephant. They confirmed that they did, but told her that we'd have to come find it ourselves.
Wow, I look fabulous! Haha
4. nrhp 78003403
-We figured this one out immediately when Cory called Clef and had him Google this. It is the Flatiron Hotel located at 1722 St. Mary's Ave. We still don't know what these letters/numbers mean, but we don't really care either. We just had to take a picture in front of the building.
5. In front of the downtown YMCA, recruit some extra team members and bring back a photograph of four people recreating the letters Y M C A with their outstretched arms... like you were doing the dance.
-We knew that the downton YMCA was located at 20th & Howard so we knew exactly where to go for this. Several teams had already been there so there were some little girls standing outside kind of waiting for people to come up and ask them to do the YMCA. There was also a YMCA staff member there taking the pictures for us.
6. The (Axl "_____" from Gun's & Roses) & ("_____" Royal, a fine whiskey) serves as the site of this challenge. Look for the Scavenger Dash volunteer who will have your challenge for you. They're probably on the patio.
-Our immediate thought was that this would be at The Rose Theatre, but I knew that seemed too easy. We used our "Pit Crew" to Google "Rose Crown Omaha" and found that there's a bar called the "Rose & Crown" located just across the street from the Children's Museum. While we were at the YMCA we could see the other teams over there so there was no problem finding it. The challenge was "You must cut a single 8.5x11 piece of paper in such a way that each of your two team members can pass through it without it breaking or ripping." This was really difficult at first. We finally just stopped and watched other teams and copied what they had done. We completed this challenge in about 15 or so minutes and moved on.
7. This park isn't named after Nebraska's largest land owner, but it shares his name. Find the Scavenger Dash volunteer in the park for your next challenge. He'll be wearing a white T-shirt with the Scavenger Dash logo on it.
-After someone at home did a quick Google search we realized we need to head to Turner Park near 30th & Dodge. I wanted to try to catch a bus, but the rest of my team wanted to jog there. I was already getting really tired by this point, but I agreed. The challenge was for one teammate to guide the other teammate blindfolded through a maze of cones without touching a cone or stepping outside of the course and only using words to guide them through. I tried guiding Cory through twice, and we struggled. We soon realized that it would be easier for me to go through the course because my feet are a lot smaller, and Cory kept bumping the cones with his toes. After spending about 20 minutes there and Cory almost getting in a fight with another team for them cheating, we finally finished the task and moved on.
8. John Montague invented it, "your mom wants you to eat at" the place that perfected it, we just want you to bring back a WIPE!
-We REALLY struggled with this clue. Cory knew that John Montague invented the sandwich. Our "Pit Crew" at home found that the reuben sandwich was invented at the Blackstone Hotel near 38th & Farnam. We still were not convinced that this was the right answer. Shannon said that it had to be Jimmy John's. By the time we realized it was Jimmy John's we were a long way from there. Then at Turner Park we were talking with some other teams that said the answer was the Blackstone Hotel. At this point, we really didn't know. Another team had gone to Jimmy John's and had picked up several napkins that said "WIPE!" on them so then we knew that had to be the answer. After witnessing numerous other teams cheating in numerous ways by this point, this other team offered to give us a couple of their napkins since they had grabbed extras, and we decided to take them. Soooo, technically we never actually did complete this task, but we brought the napkin back as instructed.
9. Omaha sure does like it's food; Where was Butter Brickle ice cream introduced to the world?
-Our immediate thought on this was Ted & Wally's. We headed there right after we left the Gene Leahy Mall way early on. After talking to an employee there, he instructed us to go to the building across the street, saying that butter brickle was introduced there. We took pictures in both locations, just in case. At the Turner Park challenge we were talking with some other teams that told us that the Blackstone Hotel near 38th & Farnam was actually the correct place for the butter brickle. We hiked up there and got a picture in front of the building.
10. Can you find Lynhurst Castle? No silly, we don't mean Lyndhurst Castle... that would be entirely too far away.
-After a quick Google search by our "Pit Crew" we knew this had to be Joslyn Castle near 39th & Davenport. We took a quick rest in the shade of the castle, took our pictures, and headed on our way. At this point I desperately wanted to find a bus to take us the rest of the way, but after talking to a resident of the neighborhood I quickly learned that this would be challenging, and we'd be better off just walking/running the rest of the way.
11. URNQ GB FG WBUAF CNEVFU BA GUR PERVTUGBA PNZCHF NAQ TRG N CVPGHER BS OBGU GRNZZNGRF JVGU GUR SBHAGNVA
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Letter above equals letter below, and vice versa.
-This was fairly easy to figure out. I can't remember what it says exactly, and I don't really feel like redoing it now, but the jist of it is that we had to take a picture in front of the fountain at St. John's Church on Creighton's campus. Kristin went to school at Creighton so she is very familiar with the campus. She led us through several shortcuts, and we actually passed several teams doing this. Going from Joslyn Castle to Creighton is the point when I thought I might not actually finish this thing. My teammates were amazing at keeping up my spirits and keeping me moving. I knew that this was the last clue that we had to complete so I just kept telling myself that we were almost done. We decided to take our picture in the middle of the fountain, which felt completely amazing at that point. It was the boost I needed to finish the race and cool me off a bit.
12. At the County Courthouse, find this monument presented to Omaha by it's very first sister city.
-The rules of the race state "You only have to do 11 of these, but feel free to go for 12 as an insurance policy against mistakes." We had decided at Joslyn Castle that we were 99% sure that we had completely all of the tasks correctly so we felt very comfortable skipping this one. It would have been way out of the way for us to complete it since we had missed doing it early on when we were somewhat in the area.
After leaving Creighton we had to head back to the Old Mattress Factory to finish the race. My head kept telling me to run part of the way back, but my body would not cooperate. I was completely exhausted, dripping with sweat, and probably dehydrated after running out of water for the second time. Kristin and Mike ran a little ahead of us (which I had been telling them to do since the beginning), while Cory and I only ran the last little bit. They greeted us with ice cold water at the finish line.
We had some nachos, water, and a nice cold margarita while waiting in the air conditioned bar for other teams to complete the race. They had a small awards ceremony and prize giveaways (we didn't win anything) after everyone had finished.
Food and drinks with Kristin & Mike
This was a super fun time (despite the heat and humidity), and I'm really proud of Cory and myself for doing this. The official results were posted yesterday, and I'm even more proud now. Cory and I finished 19th out of 57 teams, in a time of 03:04. The fastest team finished in 01:53 (holy fast!!) For racing against all of these "athletes" I am so extremely proud of us for finishing in the top 20. I think our strategy and the order in which we completed the tasks was really smart. Working together with Kristin and Mike was also a huge plus. We all helped each other tremendously, and we made awesome friends in the process. I haven't mapped out the entire thing, but I'm guessing we walked/ran a total of 8-10 miles throughout the race. I'm still a little surprised we completed it and did so well.
We did it!
So if you've made it this far in this extremely LONG post, thanks for reading. Watch out next year for The Dashing Duo to improve our time.
For now, we are busy packing and trying to figure out what things we will and won't need for the next 6 months. We are moving into my mom's basement while our house is being built. She was gracious enough to offer this to us, and we took her up on it. It will be a huge money saver for us and will be the most comfortable solution for the girls. We are renting a POD and storing most of our furniture in it for 5 months. This is proving to be extremely challenging. It is so hard to guess what any of us will need, especially since we will be in the middle of seasons changing.
