Urban Dare, San Francisco, Sept. 11, 2010

Taken from their web site, Urban Dare is the race where smarts can beat speed. It’s part trivia, part photo hunt, part mental and physical challenges, and all fun. Think of it as a 1-day Amazing Race.

Teams of 2 solve a set of 12 clues to find checkpoints where they must take photos or perform dares in a race to the finish. You may call smart friends or use your smart phones for help solving clues. It is up to you to figure out the best order to complete your checkpoints.

You may walk, run or use public transportation to get to checkpoints. Sometimes the smart move is to run and other times a bus or the subway may be the way to go. You decide.

I signed up to do the Urban Dare in San Francisco with my good friend Amy. We only signed up a week ahead of the race so we didn't have enough time to realize we might be in over our heads.

Fresh faces at the start.

We checked in at the median in front of the Ferry Building with 100+ other people. The man on the bull horn explained the rules and said come get your clues! I pushed my way to the front and excitedly brought the sheet of questions back to my teammate. She looked them over, quickly noticed only the last 5 questions made our photocopy and asked, "Is this part of the challenge? We have to figure out the first five answers without the benefit of the questions?" Ha! You can't fool us - I got us another copy.

Our strategy was to answer all the questions locate the places on a map and try to figure out the most efficient way to seek them out. Here are the clues in the order we found them.  And a link to the GPS report from my Garmin.

1. He won the national league batting championship in 1929 and 1932.  Get your picture in front of his restaurant.

Answer: Lefty O'Doul's at 333 Geary. Thanks to our research team, we had the address, I put that into my GPS and off we went. We found two nice women who took this slightly askew photo for us.

2. DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Go to the square with the memorial honoring Dewey's victory in Manila Bay for your next dare, and get your picture with the Barbary Coast Trail marker sponsored by the Cotchett family.

Answer: Union Square.  The was the sight of our first dare/challenge - a three legged walk around a small section of Union Square.  Done and done.  Then we had to find a specific trail marker.  That was our only big mistake of the race.  We found plenty of markers, but we some how walked right by this one sponsored by the Cotchett family.

3. Charles Dickens first novel centered on this club.  Get your picture with the hotel that goes by this name.

Answer: Picwick Hotel on 5th at Mission.  It should be mentioned here that we would still be sitting in front of the Ferry building staring at a sheet of paper with not one answer on it if not for our crack support team.  Thank you to all of you who were available by phone to look up the answers!!!

4. Get your picture with a 3-headed Buddha.

Answer: Civic Center Plaza.  This is the only one I actually knew.  Funny side note: The SAME WOMEN who photographed us in front of Lefty O'Doul's took this picture.

We also had to keep in mind a PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of someone not in the race doing a cartwheel.  So while at the Buddha, we tried to coax a young boy to do a cartwheel for us.  His dad really tried, and even did one for his son as an example - which I photographed.  We thanked the boy for "trying" and off we went.

5. Go to Hard Bop for your next dare.
Answer: At Filmore Plaza there is a sculpture in tribute to Hard Bop, a form of jazz.  For this dare we had to stand 5 feet away from a row of buckets and try to bounce a tennis ball into one of them.  Amy saved us here.  I bounced an entire bucket of tennis balls all around that plaza.

6. Get your picture with the Tonantsin Renace mural.

Answer:  This mural is near 16th and Sanchez.  Very beautiful!

7.  Gerry and Cookie Fleck take Winky to victory in this film.  Get your picture in front of the shop that goes by the name of this movie title.

Answer: Best in Show (you know you loved that mocumentary!)  This pet boutique can be found at 545 Castro.  We had to walk through a puppy adoption fair on our way there and back... dangerous.

8. Go to the replica of the bell Miguel Hidalgo rang on Sept. 15, giving El Grito - the cry to unite and take over their country from the reign of Emperor Maximilian, for your next dare.  You'll find it at Mission Dolores Park.

Answer:  OK, well they gave us the answer, but we still had to find the bell IN the park.  On the grass to the side of the bell we had to complete two dares/challenges.  The first was a wheelbarrow run out 10 yards and back.  Amy, the Rock Star, put her hands in the mud, I grabbed her ankles and out (and back) we went.  The second challenge was to search through a grouping of garden stakes for all the letters in the word "Singapore".  Each letter had a corresponding number which we added all together to get our final number.  If we added correctly, we could move on.  Took us only one try!

2nd PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of a group of 4 people not in the race posed as if they were shooting a bow and arrow.

Thank you drunk group of people who would only be in the picture if they didn't have to stand up or open their eyes.

9. Get your picture with the plaque commemorating where the first slot machine was invented.

Answer: 406 Market (at Battery) you'll find this plaque.  We now know that slot machine was named the "Liberty Bell" was invented by Charles Fey and currently is on display in Reno, NV.   And BTW, what was with the guy who didn't want to stop to take our picture here?  He asked, "You mean you don't want any money from me?"  WTF?  Did we look THAT bad?

10. It repealed the 18th Amendment.  Get your picture in front of the bar that goes by this name.

Answer:  The 21st Amendment Brewery at 563 2nd Street.  The was the last stop before the finish.  Had it not been, we would have stayed to sample their products.

Finish - Go to Katy O'Briens for the finish!

Not as fresh as at the start but still smiling!

The crowd of people in powder blue t-shirts cheered as we ran in the door.  We checked in and showed all of our photos to prove we found everything and found them together.  I'm not sure we looked as fresh as we did at the start, but we had SO MUCH FUN.  We would definitely do it again.  It took us around 4 hours.  It was a warm, beautiful day in San Francisco!

One final "shout out" to Kate O'Briens (579 Howard @ 2nd) - BEST club sandwich and beer I have ever had in my life.  The glass of ice water was the best ever too.  Maybe it had something to do with me being starving and exhausted, but Amy thought they were the best ever too. :)