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This website details the exploits of our Austin "mob" as they compete in various "Urban Clue Solving Races".
In these miniature versions of The Amazing Race, two-person teams receive clues to checkpoints around the city, and run around trying to find them.
The clues can be quite difficult, but you're allowed to use cell phones to communicate with a support crew, who can look up stuff on the internet to assist you.
Teams may travel by foot or public transportation only.
Here's all the races of this type with websites that I'm aware of:
Our Future Race PlansJuly 18, 2009 - Urban Dare - Denver, CO (Marcy and John) September 19, 2009 - Urban Dare - San Antonio (Spencer and Tom) October 3, 2009 - Great Urban Race - Dallas, TX (maybe) October 10, 2009 - High Trek Adventure - San Antonio, TX (maybe) November 7, 2009 - Great Urban Race National Championships - New Orleans, LA November 14, 2009 - High Trek Adventure National Championships - Las Vegas, NV November 21, 2009 - Urban Dare - Houston (Richard and Chris) February 26, 2010 - Urban Dare Super Dare - Miami, Cococay Island, & Nassau
Our Past Race Experiences
Urban Dare Dallas - May 2nd, 2009An hour after the first race of the day, we switched our clue solvers over to this second race. Here, we had better luck, as we didn't mess up any of the clues, and we got our team to cross the line in first. Yay!Our team finished (out of ~80 total teams):
Great Urban Race Washington, DC - May 2nd, 2009In our first of two races of the day, we managed to get Gail and Sandy across the line in a respectable enough position. But we messed up solving a clue for them, so they received a half hour penalty. D'oh!Our team finished (out of 331 total teams):
High Trek Adventure Austin - April 11th, 2009We'd already gotten two of our teams qualified for the High Trek Adventure championships during the Dallas and Houston races. But the more, the merrier, so when HTA came to our home town in Austin we managed to qualify some additional friends of ours.Our teams finished (out of 41 total teams):
Marcy and John's High Trek Adventure Austin report
Great Urban Race Austin - April 4th, 2009We were so happy that the Great Urban Race came to our home town early this season, as it allowed us to try and qualify for the championships now instead of at the last minute. And that's just what we did... we entered 8 teams, and managed to place them all in the top 25. See you in New Orleans in November!Our teams finished (out of 216 total teams):
Kip and Dave's Great Urban Race Austin report
Urban Dare Austin - March 21st, 2009Our teams took the top two places at the second Urban Dare in Austin. So tough were the clues for this race, that the next team (that wasn't blessed with our always amazing clue-solving crew) didn't finish until over an hour later.Our teams finished (out of 56 total teams):
High Trek Adventure Houston - March 14th, 2009We're now two-for-two for our High Trek Adventure races. Looking forward to HTA's visit to our home town of Austin next month!Our teams finished (out of 38 total teams):
High Trek Adventure Dallas - February 21st, 2009Our first experience with the High Trek Adventure series... and we won it! By a half-hour margin! This race company puts on a great race, so we're looking forward to doing more of them.Our team finished (out of 50 total teams):
Great Urban Race Las Vegas (National Championships) - November 8th, 2008Back to Vegas, to compete in the championships for big money! It's like 2002 all over again...In the Preliminary Race, our teams finished (out of 83 total teams):
So we managed to qualify five out of our six teams into the "Elite Eight", to race again in the finals! In the Final Elight Eight race, our teams finished (out of 8 total teams):
Which means that Marcy and John won the championships, and the $10,000! Wow, it really is just like 2002 all over again! What a lot of fun! We can't wait to do the Great Urban Race series again next year!
Marcy and John's Vegas prescouting photos
Great Urban Race Austin - October 5th, 2008We finally get the chance to do the Great Urban Race in our home town! We entered 8 teams, and managed to place them all in the top ten.Our teams finished (out of 101 total teams):
Marcy and John's Great Urban Race Austin report
Great Urban Race Denver - July 26th, 2008Our second experience with the Great Urban Race... and we won again! Quite impressive, especially since we've never lived or raced in Denver before!Our teams finished (out of 187 total teams):
Marcy and John finish line photo Denver prescouting pictures
AAFAME Adventure Quest Austin - May 31st, 2008We hadn't heard about this race in our hometown for its first year, but we were glad to discover it this year. It focused more on the fun special tests than clue solving, and it was a total blast!Our teams finished (out of 51 total teams):
Great Urban Race Dallas - April 5th, 2008Our first experience with the Great Urban Race... and we won it! It was a pretty epic race... fun, challenging, and very well designed.Our teams finished (out of 132 total teams):
Urban Dare Austin - March 22nd, 2008We managed to win again at the second Urban Dare in Austin. We would have taken second place, as well, but Spencer and Tom had to leave the finish line and head back to complete a dare that they'd accidentally skipped. (Oops!)Our teams finished (out of 80 total teams):
Video of Spencer and Tom doing the final dare
Urban Dare Miami Champions Race - January 12th, 2008Two of our teams traveled to Miami for the Urban Dare Champions race. Marcy and John crossed the finish line first, but the next team had a five minute bonus for getting the scavenger hunt human pyramid photo. So we wound up having to settle for second place by just two minutes. Congrats to the Swedish Vikings... and we had a great time!Our teams finished (out of 18 total teams):
Photos from the Miami race
Urban Challenge Dallas - December 1st, 2007Some fans of the original series put on an Urban Challenge race in Dallas with the original creators permission. Our very first race of this type was in Dallas back in 2002, so it was exciting for us to return to our origin.Our teams finished (out of 16 total teams):
Photos from the Dallas race Urban Challenge Dallas 2007 results (pdf)
Race Fantastique Cozumel, Mexico - September 28th, 2007During our Carribean Cruise, we entered something called the Race Fantastique. It was like a mini Amazing Race through the city of Cozumel.Our team finished (out of 5 total teams):
Urban Dare Boston - April 28th, 2007Rod has crewed for our Austin folks for many races, so we returned the favor by crewing for his team in Boston.Our team finished (out of 65 total teams):
Urban Dare Austin - March 24th, 2007This was the first time the Urban Dare came to Austin, and also the first time we entered it. It had similar rules to Urban Challenge and Austin Found, except that you had to perform various "dares" at some of the checkpoints.Our teams finished (out of ~30 total teams):
Marcy and John's Urban Dare Austin report
Austin Found - October 8th, 2006For the second Austin Found race, they added a new rule that prohibited teams from collaborating with each other in any way, so, we entered just one team. Even though we had to use the 45 minute penalty of the "stump station" to bypass checkpoint 11, we still managed to cross the finish line in first place overall. To celebrate, we went to the elusive checkpoint 11 (Dona Emilia's) for lunch, and cheered the other teams on.Our team finished (out of 10 finishing teams):
The Amazing Vermont Race - September 30th, 2006While visiting our parents in Vermont, we stumbled across an ad for something called The Amazing Vermont Race. Despite being on vacation, and having no time to prepare for it in any meaningful way, of course we had to enter it.Our team finished (out of 5 total teams):
Austin Found - October 1st, 2005After Urban Challenge stopped putting on races, a new organization called Austin Found sprung up to fill the void (in Austin, at least). For their inagural race, all our teams finished before any of the other teams, and the next closest team outside of our group finished over an hour behind us.Our teams finished:
Urban Challenge Miami (National Championships) - November 20th, 2004Five of our Austin teams made the annual pilgramidge to the championships. For the first time ever, our mob got two teams into the Magnificent Seven! While we didn't win the final race (that honor went to three-time Mag Seven-ers Oozing Monkeys), we had a wonderful time!Our teams finished in the semifinals (out of ~100 total teams):
Urban Challenge Miami 2004 Finals page
Urban Challenge Austin - October 2nd, 2004Back to competing on our home turf! Five of our teams managed to finish in the top ten to qualify for the Miami championships.Our teams finished (out of 56 finishing teams):
Urban Challenge Austin 2004 page
Urban Challenge Boston - June 19th, 2004We decided to stray from the comfort of Texas to see if we could qualify in a foreign city. We probably shouldn't have tried to do it in Boston, where the MIT Endeca mob reigns supreme. Despite being huge underdogs, with our two teams struggling in an unfamiliar city to chase the Endeca juggernauts, we almost qualified anyway. Well, can't win them all!Our teams finished (out of 80 finishing teams):
Urban Challenge New Orleans (National Championships) - November 15th, 2003Marcy and John returned to defend their title, along with the help of 3 of our other Austin teams. History seemed to be repeating itself, as once again Marcy and John (barely) made it into the Magnificent Seven, to compete in the evening race for the cash. In the finals race, Fluffy Bunny had an amazing come from behind win to beat Marcy and John to the finish line. It was just like last year... except this year, all of Fluffy's pictures were good, so they won the $50,000! Congrats to the Fluffy Bunnies, and congrats to Marcy and John for placing second!Our teams finished in the semifinals (out of 225 total teams):
The clues from the semi-finals The clues from the finals Our support crew's chat transcript (covers both the semis and the finals) Urban Challenge New Orleans 2003 page
Urban Challenge Austin - September 20th, 2003In 2003 Urban Challenge came to our home town. We entered 5 teams, and 4 of them managed to finish in the top ten to qualify for the 2003 finals!Our teams finished (out of 57 finishing teams):
Our support crew's chat transcript Photos from the Austin race Urban Challenge Austin 2003 page
Urban Challenge Las Vegas (National Championships) - November 2nd, 2002Our 4 teams didn't expect to have much success in the championships, as we'd obviously be competing against the best teams from over a dozen other cities. Still, the sport was new, so maybe nobody had really figured it out yet, so perhaps we had a chance.In the morning semi-final heat of 112 teams, our team of Marcy and John managed to place 6th. Not too shabby! Only the top seven teams got to go on to the finals, so they just managed to advance. All the rest of us could do was continue to cheer them on! In the final evening heat, Marcy and John pulled out all the stops, and through a combination of speed, smarts, a great support crew, and just a wee bit of luck, they somehow managed to win the whole thing! That's right, they won the $50,000 and became the national champions! Which works out well, as now they have a free invite to compete in the future championships, which is pretty handy when you're moving to France! Our teams finished in the semifinals (out of over 100 total teams):
The clues from the semi-finals Our support crew's chat transcript for the semi-finals The clues from the finals Our support crew's chat transcript for the finals Photos from the Vegas races Urban Challenge Vegas 2002 page
Urban Challenge Dallas - September 28th, 2002In our very first Urban Challenge experience, we entered 4 teams from Austin, and all worked together through our five person support crew. None of us had ever lived in Dallas, but we figured that if we kept our wits about us, and got a little bit lucky, we might just be able to have one of our teams qualify for Vegas.The results rather exceeded our expectations. Our teams all placed in the top ten, so we ALL qualified for Vegas! What a great way to start out in the new sport of Urban Challege racing! Our teams finished (out of ~75 total teams):
Our support crew's chat transcript Photos from the Dallas race Urban Challenge Dallas 2002 page |