Race Report - Great Milwaukee Race

Last Saturday was the Great Milwaukee Race held in downtown Milwaukee. I participated on a team along with my friends Mike & Paul. We were team "Mothball, Pinto, and Flounder. Why Not?" (If you don't know the name reference, watch Animal House). Funny enough, a friend told me they saw Mark Metcalf down at the race. He was the actor who played Niedermeyer in the movie Animal House and lives in the area. Wonder if he saw our team name?

I am going to only tell you what I thought of the race and how we did overall and not get into our strategy. I know a lot of the racers read my race report from last year and I don't want to give away any strategies we may have (strategy is a big part of this race). Actually, they didn't work out too well this year anyways. Last year we took 5th place out of 50 teams and this year we took 14th. We were so bummed!

Overall, this race is a very fun and exciting race to be a part of. You never really know what place you are in because there is no set course so you keep racing all the way to the end. Not all teams race, some just participate for fun and to see the city a little.

Here are the basics. At the beginning of the race, each team is given a folder with 10 clues, a crude map of the city, a passport, and a sheet explaining some bonuses you can earn. You then solve the clues and go to each destination that the clues says to go to. At each destination, there is a challenge to take part in. Once your team completes the challenge, you earn a sticker for your "Passport" that indicates you have completed that challenge. You are only allowed to walk, run, or use city buses to get around though city buses would only slow you down. If you run the most efficient route possible, you can do the entire race in 7 miles. If you screw up a clue or go a wrong direction, the race could be any longer distance. Challenge destinations are open for 4 hours.

The race started and ended at a bar called AJ Bombers and that is where awards were handed out to the top 10 teams plus a few other awards, one being Best Team Name. We did not win that, a team called "The Knights of the Mars Cheese Castle" won that. If you are from the Milwaukee area, that is pretty funny since there is a Mars Cheese Castle just off the Interstate just south of Milwaukee.

The clues this year were far more difficult than last year and some you actually needed some "Milwaukee Knowledge" to complete. Smart Phones or using the Internet was completely allowed and encourage. You could call friends too, they just couldn't give you a ride. Here is a couple of the clues from this year:

"Clue #7 Just to make sure no teams decide to cheat and use vehicles to take them around, we include this location. It's been known to swallow vehicles" This clues references an incident from last summer during a high rain storm that caused some flooding and actually created a sink hole in the middle of the city and took an SUV down in it. It was actually on the National News too.

"Clue #6 Complete the following equation to get the address of this establishment on North Farwell Avenue: 5,060 minus 3,216 plus 4,724 divided by 8 multiplied by 3 minus 507 plus 2,244 divided by 3 plus 566 = _____ North Farwell Avenue" Not exactly a tough clue, but you still needed to do all the math. Good thing most phones these days have calculators on them. It definitely saved time.

Some of the other clues were far more obscure and definitely needed Internet search help unless you are a complete Milwaukee History geek, which I am not.

Once you arrive at each destination, you have to do a challenge before you earn your sticker. Here are some of the challenges we had to do. There was a putting mat that you had to put the gold ball into a matchbox car and make the car go into the hole. There was a full size game of Jacks where once teammate bounced a large rubber ball and the other picked up "jacks" that were about 10 inches large each. One challenge had us throwing bags into the holes of a corn holing game (big game played at tailgating parties in Wisconsin). One challenge has us walking around a dried up ice rink with a large marshmallow at the end of a plastic spoon held in our mouths. Another had us looking over a blurry picture of Veterans to find a specific blurry veteran. This was held a the War Memorial Building. The challenge I liked the best was where we had to walk up a long ramp looking in the trees around the ramp for a very small sign tacked to a tree. We then had to say the secret phrase to a volunteer at the top of the ramp. the challenge I disliked the most was when we had to go into the Wisconsin Athletic Club (A sponsor of the race) and do lunge walking for an entire lap around their indoor track. This really did a number on my knee that has some bad tendinitis.

There was also things your team could do to take time off your final score. I am not a fan of these Bonuses as it kind of takes you away from the racing aspect to this event. I can see why they like to have them, just not a fan. Unfortunately, they did not tell us how much each bonus was worth ahead of time so you could not easily determine if they were worth while. In my opinion, they were worth WAY too much time off. But here is what you could do to earn time off. Take a photo of your team next to 5 separate statues that are not a part of your clue list. Get a photo of 5 strangers (who are not a part of this race) to form a human pyramid. Get a photo of 5 strangers (who are not a part of this race) joining your entire team in a kick like. Find a monument (pictured on the clue sheet) and take a picture of your team next to it. It is on the route you will take to complete the race. Funny thing about this one was that when I heard where this monument was, we didn't even go past it on the route our team took. there was also a hidden Easter Egg at each challenge that held a time off ticket in it.

It took our team a total of 2 hours to complete the entire race and with time off, we were somewhere near 1:45.

This is one heck of a fun race to do though. It is similar to The Amazing Race on TV but more condensed and with all clues right away. After your team is done, there is the bar to hang out in and have a bite to eat waiting for the final results to come it. You then get to see the teams you saw along the course and talk all about how everyone did and the routes they took. We had a blast doing this race again this year and will definitely be doing it again next year, hopefully with better results. The only drawback I encountered was at the first challenge. When we arrived, there were about 7 teams already there so we had to wait about 10 minutes to take the challenge. I know, I know, why didn't we just get there faster. But it did suck having to wait. We didn't have to wait at any other challenge.

Great job Great Milwaukee Race.

Keep on Running!!!

Exactly 1 Hour

I have been going on easy runs all week, Monday was a little over 5 miles and today was 5 miles. But on Tuesday, I ran 7 miles with Paul. My daughter and his son are in a Track & Field 'camp' that is 2 days per week for an hour and 15 minutes. This is a good time for us to go running. So yesterday, we ran 7 miles around the trails near the high school where the camp was. As I finished 7 miles, my clock said 1 hour, 0 minutes and 0 seconds. Not exactly a fast pace or a slow pace but it was just weird it was exactly 1 hour. So I ran 7 MPH.

This Saturday is the Great Milwaukee Race. I will be competing with Paul and Mike on my team. We are hoping to do well again this year but there is not much you can do to prepare for this race. It is not just a running race, it is sort of like the Amazing Race from TV. At the start of the race, we will receive 10 clues to different locations around the downtown Milwaukee area. Once we figure out the clue, we need to run to the location and to a challenge before we go to the next location. Teams can do the clues in any order they want to so that makes it fun. Last year, you could see teams running all over the downtown area in all directions. We will need to run a minimum of 7 miles, but that is if we run the most efficient route possible. Could be 8 miles, 9 miles, more? Depends on if we figure out the clues correctly too.

This is a really fun race to do and I am looking forward to it. I heard the clues will be harder this year. I hope not too hard.

Dodging The Tornado

It was hot and muggy yesterday. Mondays are my volleyball night and now have also become my longer, mid week run night. This time, the volleyball match began at 7:30 so I got there early and started running at ~5:50. I was going for a 9 mile run and it was quite humid out, so I took it easy. The run went well but my stomach didn't feel all that great. Felt sort of like I needed to stop but to . . . but I didn't. Turns out I went 9.3 miles and averaged 8:51. It felt much slower so I am pleased with the pace.

Volleyball was another humid endurance. the skeeters were out in force so I am glad Terry brought along the repellent though I think I sweated it of rather quickly. I put a new shirt of my the match and it was soaked halfway through the first game. We ended up losing the first 2 games very closely and then sort of got crushed in the third game. I wanted to stay afterwards and have a beer with the guys but lightning was everywhere to the west and closing in fast so I drove home hoping to beat it.

At home, the sky was an awesome show of lightning. It was just about always lit up there was so much lightning. It was a rather cool display of mother natures art. It was until i heard that a tornado warning was in effect and that it was headed right for my town. I quickly got he girls and headed for the basement with computer in hand to see what was going one. It was nasty out there with the very high winds and rain. The power went out about 9:30 and I lost the Internet since I use DSL. At about 10:00 or so, it had passed us so I put the girls to bed and headed outside to see what happened. One neighbor lost half of his tree and there was garbage everywhere. Unfortunately, a tornado did hit in 2 areas. One was in the town of Eagle which is about 16 miles directly west of me. the other hit only 1 mile north of me knocking down lots of trees and damaging the post office and fire station. Eagle was hit much harder with 20 or so home completely destroyed and another 100 or so heavily damaged.

While God was showing us His power, He was also smiling down on Wisconsin. With all those homes destroyed and trees down, only 1 person was injured and no one was killed. Even with it hitting after some would have gone to bed. We were very lucky! Please do say a prayer, if you would, for the town of Eagle as they try to recover from the damage.

Today was another hot and humid day. I went running after work and it was in the upper 80's. I decided to finally get some hill reps in so I headed over the Mountain Rd. where we usually go. I got in 5 reps with each one faster than the previous one. The first 2 felt tight but I loosened up and really tired myself out. the 2 mile cool down was more like run some, walk a bit, run some, walk a bit . . . That part sucked but it was a good workout.

Tomorrow, my oldest starts her first day of Soccer, or as I am thinking it may turn out to be "herdball". You know, look for the herd of kids all around the ball. Maybe they will teach them good, I never played soccer so what do I know.

Here are a few pictures Paul took during the Great Milwaukee Race with his camera phone:

To get 10 minutes off our official time, we had to find AJ Bombers Tavern and get a picture of out whole team in the "Big Chair".

Another bonus was to have a team picture taken near a food cart. The popcorn wagon did the trick.

One of the spots we had to find was close to the "Bronze Fonz" as it is called here in Milwaukee. That is a life size bronze statue of Aurthur Fonzerelli, aka "The Fonz" from the TV show Happy Days which fictionally took place in Milwaukee. Judging on how it looks, I think he had already "jumped the shark".

Race Report - The Great Milwaukee Race

Today was The Great Milwaukee Race in downtown Milwaukee. This is a unique race, more of an urban challenge which took us all through the main downtown area of Milwaukee. We were required to find 11 different spots via clues and then complete a challenge at that spot before going on to the next challenge spot. All in all, this was a very fun race and challenge and I know they will do it again.

My team consisted of my friends Mike and Paul who run with me often. We were the green team but then again, so were about 15 other teams. There were a total of 60 teams participating with teams of between 2 to 4 people. Before the race began, the race director went over the rules and then we got our packets of clues and off we went. They supplied us with map of downtown (I already had one), a card to get stamped after each challenge, clues, and a Bonus Clues sheet where we could find certain things to have time "taken off" our final time. The map I brought was more detailed than the one supplied which ended up helping us a lot.

We read the clues and knew 9 of them and marked them on the map before we took off. We wanted to try to run the shortest possible distance while getting to all the spots. We ended up starting off in a direction most teams did not go. Only a yellow team was close to us and they were close to us most of the race. We were on the phone asking for help on the clues we did not know (this was OK by rule) and marked them off on the map.

The first challenge was at a park where we did a small word search. The remaining letters we did not use spelled out a clue for bonus time off (get any city bus schedule). We left and went to our next spot and also found a bus schedule. We ended up being the first team to this spot which was at MacAurther Square near the courthouse. Mike did this challenge which required him to run up and down some steps 10 times. Then we were off to the to the Wisconsin Walk of Fame right outside the US Cellular Arena. There we had to find the plaque for the famous coach from Wisconsin with one of the most prestigious NCAA career as a coach. Of course this was Al McGuire. Mike found it before Paul and I did and the off to Pere Marquette park where Paul and I did a 3 legged race.

Off to AJ Bombers bar for a quick picture in front for some bonus time and then to the River Walk to find the Red Phone Booth were a clue was hidden inside. We relayed the clue to the judge and then we made the first mistake of the race. I decided to try to go to the fire station we needed to find and we ran 3 block in that direction (finding a food vendor cart for another time bonus) but realized it was too far in the wrong direction so we back tracked to Cathedral Square for our next challenge. Paul did this one where he had to to a sack race around a few parts of the park before we could go on. We ran to Juneau Park next where we had our first 2 small injuries. Paul and I did a "wheel barrow" race. I carried Paul's legs first and the half way we switched for a bit and then switched back. As I was leaning over to pick up Paul's legs, he kicked one leg up right into my chest really hard. Almost knocked the wind out of me and hurt like hell for a bit. Also, Paul's back was hurting after this challenge.

We headed off to Veterans Park. It wasn't too far there but you had to go down a steep hill. We decided to take a short cut through some trees down the hill but since it rained last night and yesterday, it was muddy and slippery as I found out as I fell and tumbled through the brush and trees. We made it down and did the next challenge which was finding the Medal of Honor recipients at the Veterans Memorial. We then hoofed it to the bridged to Lake Shore Park where we had to count the spokes on the bridge. Mike counted one section, then counted how many sections and we did the math.

Here is where we made the second and biggest error. This spot was on the lake east of the Summerfest grounds. Instead of running through the park to the next challenge which was located just north of the Marcus Amphitheater, we ran completely around the Summerfest Grounds adding (we think) about 5 minutes. this added about 0.6 miles to our route. the good thing is we found some people to make us a 6 person pyramid to get us more bonus time. At this spot, we had to throw bean bags into wood holes before going to out last spot, the Fire Station which ended up being right on our way to the finish. Here all we had to do was guess how many pieces of bubble gum in a jar. We didn't know that this could have given us more bonus time, we guessed too high.

The race ended at the Milwaukee Ale House where once we arrived, we had to find 30 different 3+ letter words with in "The Great Milwaukee Race". After we turned that is and showed pictures of all our bonus items, we were done. Tired, but done. There were already some teams there before we arrived which surprised Mike a lot. He thought we kicked butt. All in all, we ran a little over 8 miles to complete all challenges and get to the finish line.

We drank some beer and had some food while we waiting for the results. The top 5 teams received prizes and turns out we ended in 5th place! We were awarded some gift certificates for AJ Bombers Pub (hey, I know where that is). It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to do the entire race so with the bonus time taken off, we did really good. Mike and Paul had a really good time (except Paul and his back). this was a very unique and really fun race. I would love to do it again and next year I will either run or or volunteer for it.

Paul took some pictures of the bonus clues we needed to find so I will post a few of those when he shares them with me.

I know most of you who do not live near Milwaukee won't know any of these places I said we went to. Just imagine your closest city and running through the downtown area looking for statues, parks and monuments. I just hope I am not too sore tomorrow morning.

The Great Milwaukee Race

I just signed up for a unique race that takes place in Milwaukee this June. It does involve running but that is not all of it. It is called The Great Milwaukee Race. It is the brainchild of a friend of mine who is part owner of InStep Running and Walking Center who is also the Race Director of the InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon.

This race is a like a distant cousin of the Amazing Race on CBS but on a small scale and lasting only 3 hours or so. Here is what it is. You create a team of 2 to 4 people who do the race together. You are required to solve 10 clues to different locations around the downtown Milwaukee area and then get to them either on foot or by public transportation (buses). Once at the clues location, the team must complete a challenge which could be mental or physical and range from deciphering codes, word searched, 3-legged race, wheel barrow race, etc. There is no set course to run and no set order to go to the clues so that is part of the challenge. The organizers think it will take between 2 to 4 hours to complete and total distance should be between 6 to 8 miles. The team finishes the race at a local bar for food and fun. Each team member gets a tshirt that we are required to wear during the race. There were many colors to choose from for the team, we chose Green.

My team will include my friends Mike and Paul. It sounds like an interesting race so I am excited to see what it will be like. The race is on Saturday, June 19th and I will definitely post all about it. If it is like the Icebreaker Indoor Marathon in quality, it will be an awesome event.