Mid-Season Race Recap

We are more than halfway through the clue-solving race season here in Phoenix so while the rest of the US waits for their seasons to start, I figured I'd give a recap of how things are going so far. The first five races of the season included: Scavenger Dash, Glow Rush, Great Urban Race, CitySolve Urban Race and the Urban Bike Adventure. Challenge Nation happened too, but I obviously didn't participate in that one! CityScape Adventures and Urban Dare are coming up in the next two weeks.

Scavenger Dash - January 26
How we did: FIRST PLACE in the race, tied for First Place in the costume contest. Someday we will get a dual first place without a tie!
What we wore: Bubblegum Machine costumes. The weather forecast was iffy for that day. We didn't plan on a costume since we didn't know what kind of weather to plan for. When we woke up that day, it was pouring rain and it looked like it would be pouring rain all day. We quickly brainstormed what kind of costume we could make with rain ponchos. Christy went to Target for red hats and red tights (we bought Jeggings! I never thought I'd own a pair!) and I went to Dollar Store and Party City for rain ponchos and balloons. We finished making our costumes with about 2 minutes to spare. They weren't the greatest Gumball Machine costumes in the world, but they were decent enough to earn some cheers and we were as dry as we could be during the race!
Race Recap: Like I mentioned, it was raining and it never stopped raining. Ever. The race took us 3 hours! 3 hours in non-stop pouring rain! Our maps were sogged into one unreadable wad of paper. Our phones were crashing. My feet were soaked since my ankle was not fully healed and I wasn't able to jump puddles, I just had to slog through them. But we still had a really great time!
Clues: Pretty good - a fun mix of puzzles and google look-ups. Bonus points for incorporating a clue about dog breeds! It's very rare that I get to show off my only topic of useless trivia and I loved it! A few people were put off by the Steele Indian School Park being called a "downtown" dog park but since it's the only dog park within racing distance we knew where to go. Some people had some major issues finding the specific part of an art installment "Ducks in A Row" but we only had minor issues. We took some pictures of the other parts of the installment at the light rail station but it just didn't feel right since none were specifically ducks. We finally realized we should search the entire light rail station (yes, even the FAR end!) and found what we were looking for.
What went right: One clue required a picture of our feet with a specific footprint plaque at a light rail stop. The footprint we needed was right outside our light rail car and we were able to get off, get the picture and get back on before the light rail took off again. Awesome! Also, our internet support was able to stay with us even after he went to his daughter's volleyball game so he continually helped us with bus times as we continually missed the original bus times or changed our plans/locations.
What went wrong: Nothing major but our costumes made some of the challenges a bit difficult, including a plank-ski challenge that would have been A LOT easier if we could have seen our feet. :)
Challenges: Pretty fun, as usual. Scavenger Dash consistently has the most fun challenges of the urban races. They even incorporated the weather in a challenge - one teammate held a cup with holes in it. The other teammate had another cup (without holes in it) and had to scoop up enough water from nearby puddles to fill the first cup before all the water leaked out of its holes.
Distance: Way too long! Our total mileage was over 15 miles and we ran almost 7 of them, which for my first real run on my ankle was way too much.  Apparently they had received feedback that their races are too short. Well, they certainly fixed that problem! :)
Prizes: 1st place - a free entry to a future race. 2nd place - a free entry to a future race. I don't mean to be a sore winner, but while a free race is awesome, I want more! (Especially since, as a huge fan of Scavenger Dash, I have already registered for all 3 races this year.) Other races give cash and gift cards or sponsor-donated stuff. Also, 1st place should get something more than 2nd. Yes, I'm whining. I admit it, I'm a sore winner.
Overall Grade: B+. You should definitely do this race when it comes to your town!

Glow Rush 5K - February16
How we did: Second Place in the race.
What we wore: No costumes this time. We wore our safety-green Storming the Castle t-shirts. The costume contest was going to be at the after-party and we had a casino night to go to so we didn't plan on staying for the contest. Our friends did win with their awesome Harlem Glow-Trotters costumes.
Race Recap: After putting on a really good initial race with their Phoenix Halloween Hunt, we were excited to do the second race put on by this organization. We won $500 at the first race so we were also looking forward to a decent prize if we won. Glow Rush 5K ran a bunch of Living Social deals and then even more deals and sent out a bunch of emails offering the deal price. With all that marketing they sold a TON of registrations!  It was right after New Years so they got the people with fitness as their resolution and they also got people who thought this was a "real" 5K with neon like the Neon Run. There were 1700 people there! For that many people, they did a pretty good job of organization and they gave away a lot of swag (t-shirt, cinch bag, lots of glow sticks).
Clues: All google searches. I knew 8 out of 10 without even looking them up.
What went right: I knew 8 out of 10 clues without looking them up. We ran as fast as my ankle and my sad state of cardio fitness could handle, there was no way we could have gone any faster.
What went wrong: It was so quick that I didn't even have time to map the destinations, I had to keep them all in my head. We passed one checkpoint (which had staffers handing out tickets or stamping clue sheets instead of picture-stops) because we thought the people gathered around were looking at a map. We're dumb sometimes. We had to backtrack a block after we realized our mistake.
Challenges: No challenges.
Distance: Way too short!! As I said, it was advertised as a 5K, which is just strange. You can't put a distance on a clue-solving race! Our total mileage was 2.5 and we finished in 31 minutes. 31 minutes! Good thing we had free entry from the Phoenix Halloween Hunt because 31 minutes isn't worth paying for.
Prizes: 1st place - One Alice Cooper Bobblehead. 2nd place - One Alice Cooper Bobblehead. Again, 1st and 2nd place should not get the same thing. And SERIOUSLY??!!!? ONE bobblehead as the prize for a TEAM event? How do you share a bobblehead (assuming that you even want a bobblehead)?? This is the lamest thing ever. At least give us a gift certificate for the host venue. Or  movie passes. Or 2 homemade certificates. Or something!
More Opinions: While I was initially impressed with the race directors from their first race, this one was really disappointing. When we arrived at the finish line, they weren't ready for us...and we weren't even first back! They should have realized after the first place team came through that more teams would be coming (duh). We had to ask them to check our clue sheets and tickets. We could have skipped half the clues and they wouldn't even have noticed. After the 3rd place team came in they said "Ok, all 3 teams are here, we can stop keeping track". Um, except that your website says there will be a Nationals and if you stop keeping track how will you know who qualified for Nationals? And your website says that times and results will be posted after the race. I told them they better take that off their website ASAP or they'd have some pretty pissed off racers (they took my advice). They didn't even give most of the finishing racers the courtesy of checking their clue sheets. Why bother assigning people to go to specific sites if no one cares if they even visit them? I would be very disappointed if I had finished out of the top 3 and didn't even know where I placed.
Overall Grade: D (they didn't get an F because they did a good job of managing 1700 people, which is a crazy-lot of people).  If you are just looking for a fun, silly night and you aren't particular about your races, this race could be a fun time out playing with your friends. If you are looking for a quality clue-solving race, this race isn't for you.

Great Urban Race - February 23
How we did: We didn't.
Recap: This is the race I look forward to the most every year and it's the race we have been doing the longest. After a complete mess last year, we were hoping that we would redeem ourselves and that the few missteps that GUR made in their planning would be rectified as well. Also, Nationals are in San Juan this year so we were already planning for that! The Friday night before the race, I got a call from a Chicago number. It was a GUR staffer telling me that they were unable to get permits and the race was cancelled. WHAT?! First of all, this is something I would expect from other race operators and newbies to the scene but not from the big-daddy of the clue-solving race circuit. I was so upset!
 More ranting: Last year I was mad because I fell for their "Buy early for the lowest prices!!!" email and paid $30 more than the Groupon they ran later. I feel that it is just bad business to screw your loyal racer base. It's even worse to cancel a race the night before! I'm somewhat suspicious about the permit thing since most races like this don't get permits, but someone did mention that they might have needed a permit at the venue for going over capacity or for hosting an event in the plaza around the venue. I guess it doesn't really matter since whatever the reason, I didn't get to race and I didn't get to qualify for Nationals. And I also didn't get a t-shirt for the first year in forever. :(
Follow up: They sent an email offering free entry to another GUR and asked that you reply by March 15. I have replied twice now and have not heard a single response from them. Now that is seriously bad business!! I thought the personal phone call about the cancellation was great and even defended them quite a bit on their facebook page but how can they not reply to their own request about rescheduling a new race?
Overall Grade: F-

CitySolve Urban Race - March 2
How we did: Third Place in the race and First Place in the costume contest.
What we wore: Christy unexpectedly went to Florida to visit her ailing grandfather so two days before the race I asked Irene to be my partner. The text conversation went like this,
Me - Christy went to FL, can you do CitySolve with me on Saturday?
Irene - I'll check with Brian to see if he can stay with the kids.
Irene - Ok, we got everything taken care of, I can race with you.
Me - Great! And btw, you have to be a zebra.
Luckily, Irene is a good sport and she embraced the zebra. She was a zebra and I was a giraffe, we wore party hats and pulled party popper streamers and blew party horns because we were PARTY ANIMALS! Yeah, so clever. :) It was Irene's awesome face painting skills that won the contest. I wish it had something to do with the 4 HOURS I spent painting giraffe spots on a shirt with the skill and finesse of 4 year old but the win belongs to Irene.
Race Recap: After last year's starting snafu, Jason had a lot of ground to make up. And he did. He came through with a near perfect race!
Clues: Mostly puzzles, which is fun but makes my strategy of instant movement impossible. The clues were also very specific about things you couldn't do or had to do which I appreciated! They were also all correct. Bonus points for including a clue with a picture of a Coyotes player! I can tell you the name and number of every player on the team. So happy they didn't choose a Sun, a Cardinal or a Diamondback!!
What went right: Uh... we won the costume contest. That's about it.
What went wrong: When I think of all the things that went wrong, I can't believe we finished 3rd! First of all, as soon as I solved that one of our destinations was Encanto Park, I called our clue solver and told him to stop solving clues and to get me time/location for the next bus to Encanto. He told me 12:25 at the Central Station. Cool. We got there at 12:20 and waited for the bus. And waited. It was important to get the bus to Encanto so we could save ourselves 1.5 miles of running. Running is always our weak point. So we kept waiting for the very late arriving bus. Finally, at 12:35 I called our clue solver to see what was going on. Turns out he gave us the time for the WEEKDAY bus, not the Saturday bus. Oh, was I mad!! We sat around getting nothing but one tic-tac-toe clue accomplished in 15 minutes!! The next bus was still 15 minutes away so we had to change course and do the close ones first. Gr. Then I missed a checkpoint that was mapped on page 2 of my maps so we had to go back and get it later. Then I yelled at Irene about a mural (sorry, Irene!). Then we found some people painting a wall and asked them to paint the words that we needed for the bonus clue, not realizing until later that every team would pass by this same wall and get the same exact picture for the same exact bonus time. And our big losing decision was choosing to wait the 10 scheduled minutes for the light rail after our last checkpoint. The light rail was then 5 minutes late and taking into account the time it took to take us to ride to our destination, we checked in 20+ minutes after we finished our last checkpoint. Had we sucked it up and run to the finish, we would have made it there in 13-14 minutes and won the race. We are lazy and we deserved to lose.
Challenges: Good. One was even educational and tied in the race charity! We had to throw a cornhole bag into the hole with our arm weighted with 2 six-pound weights. This was to show how ALS affects your body so that your motions don't seem to be your own. Pretty good idea for a challenge!
Distance: Perfect! Total distance was 8 miles of which we ran 4 1/2. Perfect!
Prizes: 1st place - $300, 2nd place - $150, 3rd place - $50. Very nice!!!  For the costume contest though, we got ONE JammyPack for our team of two. Last year we won the costume contest and still haven't gotten our prize so I guess one item is better than none. Jason said he would email the prize company and cc me so I can follow up with them; and with one reminder he did, so I'll have my prizes soon. :)
Overall Grade: A.  If you haven't done a CitySolve in a while, it might be time to come back.

The Urban Bike Adventure - March 10
How we did: First Place in the race. (I was expecting to get 4th since I got 1st in my first race, 2nd in my second race and 3rd in my third race so I was starting to see a pattern...)
What we wore: We wore red t-shirts. We had a team of 4; me, Pat, Brian and Irene. We should have worn a costume because no other team did and we would have won the costume contest.
Race Recap: I was not impressed with last year's race even though overall it wasn't that bad. I was just annoyed that the winning teams got dog tags (that's it) and the non-winning teams "won" (i.e. were assigned, literally) raffle prizes like restaurant gift certificates and racing jerseys, and because it was windy, and I'm a terrible biker, and I was on a mountain bike, and I was slow, and...a bunch of other whiny reasons that didn't have much to do with the race at all. I only signed up this year because they offered a very good return-racer discount. Then they moved the race from downtown Phoenix (my home turf) to Chandler (where I've been only once in my life). I was very pessimistic going into this one. However, it was pretty darn good! Great job, TUBA people!
Clues: Fairly easy but a nice combination of google clues and picture clues.
What went right: Just about everything. We couldn't have been more on our game.
What went wrong: First of all, we failed to read the part of the clue that said "Challenge open from 12:30 - 3:00" and we chose that as our first destination and got mad that we couldn't find the checkpoint at 12:24 when we got there. :) Second, Irene was pretty slow on her mountain bike compared to the rest of us on our road bikes, so Brian pushed her most of the way. He is awesome!
Challenges: Good! Last year there were no challenges so anything would have been appreciated. This time they had 3 physical challenges, all of which were fun.
Distance: I'm not sure how long a bike race should be, but this one was 15 miles and took about 2 hours. That seemed like a good distance.
Prizes: For first place we got a $30 gift certificate from Road ID and $20 to the host restaurant. Not a huge prize, but good enough for a very small race and better than last year. I don't know what 2nd place got.
Overall Grade: A.  If you haven't done this race before, you should check it out!

The End of an Era

For the past 10 years I have played soccer at the Castle Sports Club 4 (or more) times a week. For a while I was playing 3 leagues on Sunday, Monday night, Wednesday night and Thursday night. I was a premier member which meant I also had access to the gym where I worked out quite a bit. During that 10 years we also played roller hockey at the Castle. Pretty much, the Castle has been my home away from home for a really long time.

There has always been some frustrations with the Castle - refs who don't pay attention, not enough soccer balls, our players not showing up, other teams forfeiting, indoor games getting canceled due to rain, horrible conditions on the outdoor field, fights, etc, etc.  But for the most part, those frustrations were outweighed by the facts that I like playing soccer, I like my teams, I like that it is only 3 minutes from home, I like that it is comfortable.

Lately though, the frustrations have been getting to the point where I can't look past them anymore. Just as an example - a few weeks ago, the soccer director and the ref yelled at my team for whining when we asked if we could use a ball that wouldn't draw blood. 3 people were already bleeding from the peeling plastic parts of the ball cutting them when it hit them. We were such "whiners" for asking for a good ball, that the soccer director refused to give us the good ball because someone's toddler was sitting on it and that was more important than 2 paying teams getting to play. This kind of stupidity happens a lot and we usually just brush it off, but lately it's getting harder and harder to do so.

In addition to that, Jace and Christy stopped playing on Mondays and Thursdays (because of work and kid commitments) and despite bringing in a bunch of new people to replace them, no one stuck. We forfeited all the time and I HATE forfeits. And in addition to that, teams are dropping out like crazy. Leagues that used to have 8 teams are down to 4 teams. And usually, at least one of those teams forfeits each week.

It got to be too frustrating. My team withdrew from Mondays and Thursdays so now we play only on Sundays. We are considering quitting Sundays, too.  So sad - it's the end of an era!

This is the first season of the reduced soccer schedule and it is really sad. I miss seeing my soccer friends on a regular basis. I'm super lazy since I have so much free time and I have a lot more time to eat now, so I've been doing a lot of that! :)

To help combat the laziness and overeating, I joined an Ultimate Frisbee league. Yes, I'm about as good at throwing a frisbee as I am at flying or speaking chinese, but I joined anyway. As expected, I suck. I'm not exactly sure I like it. Games are 2 hours long and I don't seem to have the attention span for that. And being a sucky player, I'm pretty much just taking up space on the field. No one really throws it to me and I'm assigned to guard the sucky people on the other teams who also never get the frisbee, so I'm barely playing any defense either. Pretty much I'm just running up and down the field for two hours for no reason. Perhaps it will get better when I get better?

The Winning Mr. Winston

Meet Winston!

Winston is a 3 year old Chihuahua mix who just had FHO surgery. He will be recuperating at our house for the next four weeks. I am currently reading 1984 for book club so I named him after the main character. Big Brother is watching you, Winston!

We've only had him for 3 days, but he is already making himself quite at home!

I love an easy foster, and Winston is certainly that. He is housetrained, he gets along with the dogs and he doesn't bark much. He does do this hilarious "talking" thing when you are eating and not giving him any of your food. I've never seen begging quite like it. He doesn't bark at you but he is very vocal. I'll have to try to get it on video.

Yo Quiero Taco Bell:

After we finished eating our super-healthy Taco Bell lunch with Winston chirping at us the whole time, Pat let Winston up on his lap. Winston immediately put his front paws on the table and pulled the Taco Bell box all the way to the edge of the table so he could scavenge for crumbs. It was so cute. He doesn't know Pat very well yet, or he would have known there would be no crumbs left over!

Updated a few days later:  I took Winston over to meet the Bacon Bits. He loved all the kids but he gravitated towards the youngest one. We were all sitting in a circle on the floor and he was scared of their cat. When the cat would come around, he'd run over to Maggie, who is 9, and hide in her lap. It was very cute.

Winston is also scared of my cat. For the first few days, he accepted Al but was nervous about it. As he was around Al more, he got more scared of him and started trying to run him off. Twice when I was watching hockey sitting on the couch with Winston in my lap and Al next to me, Winston tried to attack Al. The first time it happened, Al spooked and ran away. The second time it happened, Al wasn't phased at all (I love this cat - he is so awesome!) and just stayed put. You could almost hear him thinking "Oh, please, little chihuahua. I am so above fighting, but if it came down to it, I would kick your ass. So just simmer down now."  Poor Winston was now scared and mad so he upped the attack. Kitty still did nothing so I removed Winston to chill in his crate for awhile. 

So, I guess we'll say good with children and bad with cats. :) 

Updated March 18:  Winston passed his vet exam two weeks early (he's a good healer!) and went up for adoption. Sadly, TWO weekends have passed and Winston is still at the shelter. He is such a people-oriented little guy, I bet that he's just wilting there. I'm afraid that people aren't getting to see his true happy nature. If you know of anyone in the market for a little dog to live in a cat-free home, send them to the Arizona Humane Society Campus for Compassion. Poor little Winston.

2013 Race Calendar

My 2013 race season started on January 26. I will be doing 14 races in 13 weeks. Hopefully, by the end of that time, I will be back in shape. I cannot believe how ridiculously out of shape I got during my ankle injury hiatus!

Here's the list of scheduled races:

January 26 - Scavenger Dash in Phoenix (After 3 hours of racing in non-stop rain, we finished FIRST and tied for the costume contest win!)
Feb 2/3 - no races, had to work on the weekend. Boo.
February 9 - Spartan Race (Our goal was to finish, and we did! We only had to do burpees at the spear throw.)
February 16 - Glow Rush Scavenger Hunt in Phoenix (We finished second in the shortest race ever - it only took us 31 minutes)
February 23 - Great Urban Race in Tempe
February 24 - Tough Mudder
March 2 - Retro Run 5K with Frankie and Georgie!
March 2 - CitySolve Urban Race in Phoenix
March 9 - Survivor Mud Run
March 10 - Urban Bike Adventure in Phoenix
March 16 - CityScape Adventure in Scottsdale
March 23 - Scavenger Ride in Phoenix. This is the same day as Urban Dare. Bummer.
March 23 - Neon Run
March 30 - nothing scheduled, going camping for a wedding
April 6 - Nothing scheduled - I'm open to suggestions if anyone is planning on signing up for something!
April 13 - Firefly Run. I've got to start working on a costume so I can defend my title!
April 20 - Cahoots Prison Break

What's missing? Challenge Nation - NO WAY! Urban Beer Hunt - not worth repeating, Toro Loco Challenge - I'm all signed up and the company has disappeared, my money with them. Bastards.

During the summer I'll do a few adventure races, hopefully, and Part 2 of the 2013 race season will start in September. Part 2 already includes a triathlon, Gilmore Adventure Race and Rugged Maniac.

Sweden

We had a crazy, record-breaking cold January. Temperatures below freezing for multiple nights in a row, which is quite unusual in Phoenix! On one of these ridiculously cold days, I saw a loose dog near the park by my house while I was driving home from work. It was a pit bull mix and I could tell she was wearing a collar.

As soon as I saw her, I slowed down. She watched me. I turned the car around to park. She watched me. I got out of the car. She watched me. I opened the back door and asked if she wanted to go for a ride. She watched me. I got out a leash and some treats. She watched me. I crossed the street, walking toward her. She watched me. I got closer. She backed away, still watching me. I got out my treats and threw one towards her. She ate it, still watching me. She was very wary but also interested in befriending me.

After about 15 minutes freezing my ass off and going through almost a full bag of treats, I was able to grab her collar and slip the leash on her. As soon as the leash was on, she was immediately trusting of me like we had been friends forever. We walked around the neighborhood going door-to-door asking the neighbors if they knew her. No one knew her but I was told that she had been loose in the area for two days. This means that she was out overnight with the temperatures below freezing!! Poor little girl! No wonder she was so willing to let me catch her!

I took her to the park and asked the families there if they knew her. No luck. I took her to the EAC to have them scan for a chip. No luck. So I took her home. It took quite a bit of maneuvering to get my dogs in and out and fed, and her in and out and fed without them meeting. She seemed friendly but Frankie is sometimes sketchy and Mo doesn't always like big dogs so I didn't want to introduce them without Pat being there to hold one of the leashes. Also, it was dark out now and she was a black dog so I wouldn't really be able to see her body language when she was being introduced. So, I tied her up to the boat for a bit and I left her in the car for a bit while I moved everyone around. She was completely patient though it all. Every time I came back to her, she wagged and wiggled like crazy!

Finally I brought her into the house and to the guest room. She plopped right up onto the bed and stretched out. She almost immediately fell asleep. She must have been completely worn out from being out in the cold for all that time!

I did everything I could to find her owners. She was so well-behaved and she had on a brand new sparkly pink collar so she had to belong to someone! I searched all the websites for lost dog posts. I posted on Craigslist and PetHarbor. I posted her on my facebook wall and on a bunch of other facebook pages. I posted signs all over the neighborhood on my way to work the next day. It was 28 degrees out! My fingers were about to fall off! I emailed my neighbors. So many people pitched in to help spread the word. One of my neighbor friends emailed our Neighborhood Watch Captain and he sent her picture out to the whole area. People forwarded that email and people forwarded that. I knew it was working when I was a recipient of one of the emails! The facebook picture was shared 657 times! I posted more signs at the shelters. I posted new ads on Craigslist. And after a week...still nothing! :(

Over that week, my stray pit bull mix proved to be one of the most well-behaved, most friendly dogs ever! She liked my dogs. She ignored the cat. We had the Chocolate Chihuahua at the same time and she completely ignored the Little Shit's aggressive demeanor. She was a bit afraid of Pat at first, and other men who visited, but never showed any signs of fear-aggression and she warmed up quickly. She loved to cuddle and loved hugs. She never chewed on anything other than the bones we gave her. She was house trained. We called her Sweetie, which didn't seem like a "real" name so I changed it to Sweden. A dog named Sweden should have blond hair and blue eyes, right? Ha, not this one!  Tail wagging:

She didn't know any commands when I found her, but she learned sit in a matter of 10 minutes. She quickly learned she had to sit/stay before I would dole out her dinner. She was a smart cookie!

She was the exact same size as Mo, but weighed 10 pounds more. Yet, she still thought she fit in this dog bed:

With all the emails and all the facebook photo shares going around, I had five people contact me to say they were interested in her! So awesome! I did three family visits. One family didn't work out because they were looking for a dog to wrestle and play with their black lab. Sweden and the lab got along just fine but Sweden wasn't interested in playing. She is much more interested in hanging out with her people than playing with dogs. Another guy didn't work out because his rescue pit/border collie mix (who looked a lot like Sweden!) did not like her at all. She was scared of him and hid behind me. In the end, Sweden went to a family in Glendale who used to have a Rottie (he died of old age) and felt they were ready for another dog. They have no other pets and the mom fell in love with Sweden at first sight!

Sweden's name is now Lilly. She was a wonderful house guest and I hope she has a long and happy life with her new family!!