CitySolve Urban Race

Outside the Chase Bank tower, the sculpture Personage and Birds by Joan Miró was one of our final checkpoints.

Yesterday afternoon the rain clouds blanketing the city took an intermission just long enough to let the lovely Laurie and I race CitySolve Houston under dry skies. And after the gusty soaking we took in 2010, it was a relief to be able to keep the umbrellas stowed away this time around.

♫♪ "Red Solo Cup
you're more
than just plastic.
You're more
than amazing
you're more
than fantastic." ♫♪

CitySolve is a scavenger hunt that asks racers to solve pop culture trivia or other puzzles to derive their photo checkpoints. For example, one of yesterday's clues referencing Ashton Kutcher's relationship troubles was pointing us to take a picture of ourselves in front of Demi's Dog House in Neartown.

At high noon all teams assembled at Little Woodrow's for this battle of wits to the death . . . or about four hours, whichever came first. After a kickstarter question led us under the freeway to Discovery Green, we picked up our full clue sheets and sat down to plan our attack. At 12:35, we had finished our phone-tapping and paper-scribbling and set out for the Main Street Square METRORail station.

I was wearing my Garmin Forerunner 205 and after boarding, the spring bars for the wrist strap popped loose. Rather than try to fix it aboard a shifting train, I thought it best to stow it away in my backpack. Even hidden away there, the GPS receiver would go on to record our entire journey. So that Couldn't-Have-Worked-If-I-Was-On-A-Bus alibi by marathon cheater Rob Sloan is still very much busted!

In hindsight, there were a few places where more careful reading of the clues would have made our wanderings more efficient. Our biggest goof added an extra half-mile to our race by forcing us to double back south into Midtown to complete a cup-stacking challenge at Maple Leaf Pub, which must be the only sports bar in the city of Houston to have hockey on every screen.

CurrentlyVince Field-Tested-and-Approved Pro-Tip:
CitySolve is much easier if your phone
isn't turn-of-the-century tech.

By the time we plopped our butts down on the sofas back at Little Woodrow's at nearly four o'clock, we were far from contending for the cash prizes, but we had experienced eight miles through city neighborhoods in a way that you simply don't get while cocooned in an automobile. Better yet, we logged our nine checkpoints, so unlike our soggy mess two years ago, we finished the assignment and avoided DNF shame. And as the new season of The Amazing Race begins on CBS tonight, I'll certainly have a little more empathy for the contestants scrambling to keep their directions straight!

Our journey!