But it was a lot of fun!www.urbandare.com
Urban Dare
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Mr.ToadWildRider
- Flight to the Moon Flight Director
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Urban Dare
Hey, just wondering if anyone else has ever tried The Urban Dare? We just did it and missed first by 4 minutes But it was a lot of fun!
www.urbandare.com
But it was a lot of fun!www.urbandare.com
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MmeLeota
- Pack Mules Wrangler
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- Location: The land of cheese and beer...
Re: Urban Dare
Looks pretty cool...but not coming my area. Bummer you missed by 4 minutes. But at least you had fun!
But at least you had fun!
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kcarts
- Flight to the Moon Flight Director
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- Location: Boston
Re: Urban Dare
I take it you did it in Boston....Mr.ToadWildRider wrote:Hey, just wondering if anyone else has ever tried The Urban Dare? We just did it and missed first by 4 minutes
http://www.urbandare.com
What did you have to find/do?
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NaCler
- Country Bear Jamboree Greeter
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Re: Urban Dare
It looks like it would be a lot of fun. We love The Amazing Race, so we would probably love doing this. You don't still have the pictures, do you? What were the Dares you had to do?Mr.ToadWildRider wrote:Hey, just wondering if anyone else has ever tried The Urban Dare? We just did it and missed first by 4 minutes
http://www.urbandare.com
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Amy
- Submarine Voyage Captain
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Re: Urban Dare
Yeah, I'd love to hear more about it too! The Amazing Race is one of my favorites but I could never convince anyone to try out for it with meNaCler wrote:It looks like it would be a lot of fun. We love The Amazing Race, so we would probably love doing this. You don't still have the pictures, do you? What were the Dares you had to do?Mr.ToadWildRider wrote:Hey, just wondering if anyone else has ever tried The Urban Dare? We just did it and missed first by 4 minutes
I looked at the site but think I would be at a disadvantage not knowing the cities very well...-
Mr.ToadWildRider
- Flight to the Moon Flight Director
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Re: Urban Dare
Grrr I wrote a whole thing about this and then I clicked on my link for the official time and instead of opening a new tab, brought me to it and lost the whole message.
Challenges: The challenges were easy and relatively uninteresting but a fun addition to the race. We had to do a human wheelbarrow around some cones, run a three-legged race, pick up a piece of bubble gum in a pile of whipped cream with just our mouths and blow a bubble with it, and find numbers associated with letters hidden throughout a small plaza and then add the sum of the letters from a randomly assigned word (our word was Parsiminous and we had to find a P an A an R etc. in the park and P might have been 8 while A may have been 34 etc. then add em up). There was also a challenge to get strangers not competing in the race to re-enact "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" and the famous WWII photo of the sailor kissing the woman for pictures, with the latter actually being a trivia question "re-enact famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt).
Trivia: The race started with everyone getting a sheet with 11 required checkpoints and 1 option 10-minute time reduction checkpoint. All 12 had a trivia component, and 11 of the 12 were trivia questions that would lead to a specific site in the city but no directions on where to find it. The 12th check was the aforementioned 2 pictures of strangers. The trivia was extremely difficult and every team was essentially required to rely on calling people to help look up info or using smart phones to do it themselves. Example: "In 1925 he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and became its president." The answer is A. Philip Randolph (who? exactly...) and his statue was in a train station (one that I've frequented but never noticed the statue). I should note, I've essentially been a lifelong Bostonian and I essentially had to rely on calling friends to Google answers for us to 10 of the 12 questions.
The Course: There was no set course. You got your trivia and could go to any checkpoint in any order you wanted. The problem is if you followed the path by answer i.e. Q1, Q2, Q3 etc. you'd have been back and forth over the city six times. It was explained part of the challenge was also to determine the best order to go to check points. The course we ultimately took was entirely on foot, though public transportation (and only public transportation- no cabs, cars, bikes, rollerskates, etc. It was either the bus/trains or foot) and ended up being approximately 5.5 miles from start to finish. It was one big circle and we soon realized if we were to try to use a bus or train we'd probably have lost time when compared to simply jogging/running between points. This was probably the biggest factor in deciding our fate as we saw other teams heading in directions that did not make sense to the grand scheme of things at various times. As noted above, I'm a lifelong Bostonian and I only knew where about 1/2 the places were by name, the remaining 1/2 we had to rely on Google, such as where the Randolph statue was.
The Finish: My girlfriend and I took from start to finish 1 hour 46 minutes to complete the course. We also completed the 10-minute bonus check so our official time was 1 hour 36 minutes (the check point only took about an extra minute or two out of our way down the home stretch so well worth it). That time includes figuring out the answers to the trivia, running the 5.5 miles, getting pictures of complete strangers posing, completing the challenges at the 4 different stops, and taking pictures of ourselves at each point. For our troubles we got a trophy and free admission to the national competition (travel expenses on us as I understand it). We are really proud of ourselves and had a blast doing it!
Challenges: The challenges were easy and relatively uninteresting but a fun addition to the race. We had to do a human wheelbarrow around some cones, run a three-legged race, pick up a piece of bubble gum in a pile of whipped cream with just our mouths and blow a bubble with it, and find numbers associated with letters hidden throughout a small plaza and then add the sum of the letters from a randomly assigned word (our word was Parsiminous and we had to find a P an A an R etc. in the park and P might have been 8 while A may have been 34 etc. then add em up). There was also a challenge to get strangers not competing in the race to re-enact "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" and the famous WWII photo of the sailor kissing the woman for pictures, with the latter actually being a trivia question "re-enact famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt).
Trivia: The race started with everyone getting a sheet with 11 required checkpoints and 1 option 10-minute time reduction checkpoint. All 12 had a trivia component, and 11 of the 12 were trivia questions that would lead to a specific site in the city but no directions on where to find it. The 12th check was the aforementioned 2 pictures of strangers. The trivia was extremely difficult and every team was essentially required to rely on calling people to help look up info or using smart phones to do it themselves. Example: "In 1925 he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and became its president." The answer is A. Philip Randolph (who? exactly...) and his statue was in a train station (one that I've frequented but never noticed the statue). I should note, I've essentially been a lifelong Bostonian and I essentially had to rely on calling friends to Google answers for us to 10 of the 12 questions.
The Course: There was no set course. You got your trivia and could go to any checkpoint in any order you wanted. The problem is if you followed the path by answer i.e. Q1, Q2, Q3 etc. you'd have been back and forth over the city six times. It was explained part of the challenge was also to determine the best order to go to check points. The course we ultimately took was entirely on foot, though public transportation (and only public transportation- no cabs, cars, bikes, rollerskates, etc. It was either the bus/trains or foot) and ended up being approximately 5.5 miles from start to finish. It was one big circle and we soon realized if we were to try to use a bus or train we'd probably have lost time when compared to simply jogging/running between points. This was probably the biggest factor in deciding our fate as we saw other teams heading in directions that did not make sense to the grand scheme of things at various times. As noted above, I'm a lifelong Bostonian and I only knew where about 1/2 the places were by name, the remaining 1/2 we had to rely on Google, such as where the Randolph statue was.
The Finish: My girlfriend and I took from start to finish 1 hour 46 minutes to complete the course. We also completed the 10-minute bonus check so our official time was 1 hour 36 minutes (the check point only took about an extra minute or two out of our way down the home stretch so well worth it). That time includes figuring out the answers to the trivia, running the 5.5 miles, getting pictures of complete strangers posing, completing the challenges at the 4 different stops, and taking pictures of ourselves at each point. For our troubles we got a trophy and free admission to the national competition (travel expenses on us as I understand it). We are really proud of ourselves and had a blast doing it!
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Amy
- Submarine Voyage Captain
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Re: Urban Dare
Sounds like you had an awesome time. Makes me think that maybe I wouldn't have a huge disadvantage being unfamiliar with the city. Although you sort of knew whether it was smarter to run or take a bus. Congrats on such a good finish. What did the people that came in first win? Are you going to go to the national competition ~ where is that held?
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Mr.ToadWildRider
- Flight to the Moon Flight Director
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Re: Urban Dare
Thanks! First place received $300 cash to my understanding, a trophy, and free admission to nationals as a "qualifier." My understanding is that this cash prize is new and in the past first place teams received travel expenses to the nationals.
The nationals will either be in Chicago or Memphis in June 2012 supposedly, ha! We'll see... I'd like to! From what I've read there are generally way fewer teams and the prize is $5,000 cash.
The nationals will either be in Chicago or Memphis in June 2012 supposedly, ha! We'll see... I'd like to! From what I've read there are generally way fewer teams and the prize is $5,000 cash.
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Amy
- Submarine Voyage Captain
- Posts: 18542
- Joined: Dec Wed 12, 2007 1:41 pm
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Re: Urban Dare
Definitely worth trying if you are able to make it!!Mr.ToadWildRider wrote:Thanks! First place received $300 cash to my understanding, a trophy, and free admission to nationals as a "qualifier." My understanding is that this cash prize is new and in the past first place teams received travel expenses to the nationals.
The nationals will either be in Chicago or Memphis in June 2012 supposedly, ha! We'll see... I'd like to! From what I've read there are generally way fewer teams and the prize is $5,000 cash.