The Urban Stampede

This morning, Kevin and I took part in The Urban Stampede here in town! It was super fun (and I totally felt like I was on The Amazing Race), but it was a LOT more intense than we were expecting! I could have sworn I read we'd be walking/jogging 2 1/2 to 3 miles (of the 10 total) and taking public transportation the rest of the way, but I bet we walked around 8 miles. It was rough towards the end (and I'm totally wiped out now), but we still had a very fun time. (And thanks to Sharon and Scott for babysitting Lewis--it sounds like they had a very fun time at the zoo).

Bring it, Stampede!

 Bopper and Mark, from last season's The Amazing Race!

 They were very cool guys--we talked smack with them about Kentucky/Louisville/Indiana basketball. They were racing at 1pm (we left at 11am), so they were just mingling and handing out autographed pictures. Kevin's autographed pic says 'Go Big Blue' (he's the big Louisville fan, whose color is RED).

We also saw Mary of David and Mary (from Kentucky, also from The Amazing Race)--they were responsible for helping organize the race and gather their reality show friends to come. The list of who was supposed to be there was pretty long, but they might have been participating in the race or might be at the concert this evening--we didn't see hardly any. You could pay like $100 more to race with a reality star, but we obviously didn't go that route. :) We did see Chris Daughtery (from Survivor: Vanuatu, not the American Idol guy)--he actually won his season! The one with Twila? Anyone remember that? I had to Google him. I exchanged 'hi's with him.

The challenges were fun--there were 10 stops: sketch a picture blindly based on a verbal description by our teammate at Union Station, walk together on 2x4s with rope loops around a circle at Churchill Downs, let down a rope from the 2nd floor at 4th Street Live down to the 1st floor to get our next clue, hammer 10 nails straight into a small marked off area at Slugger Field, build a house of cards with really lightweight wood (on a windy day) as tall as a Louisville Slugger bat at Louisville Extreme Park, fill a large bucket with water by using only a little bucket that had holes in it at a fountain, spin a hula hoop on an arm for 3 minutes each (so 6 minutes total) without dropping it at Joe's Crab Shack, assemble a (really hard at first until the little kid volunteers told us the one we'd chosen was the most difficult of all) puzzle under the 2nd Street Bridge, roll a tire using 2 pieces of PVC pipe at the Belvedere, and a final memory puzzle at the Belvedere.

So we were all over the city--the only bus we took was from 4th and Broadway out to Churchill Downs for one task and then back. The rest was all walking! Making it worse for my feet, I had to do the bucket of water challenge and my shoes and socks got soaked with another hour to go. Oh well--it was really fun!

 Kevin hammering nails

Our first beautiful house of cards (taller than a baseball bat)

Kevin nailed it on the first try, but the whole thing blew over before the judge could come over to check it. It took us about 10 minutes to build another successful one--very frustrating, but fun.

They also had Photo Ops which were pictures we had to take at designated landmarks along the way on each leg in order to be admitted to each challenge--the pictures get progressively worse, and Kevin's facial expressions get funnier, the more pooped we were feeling. 

 With King Louis XVI

 On a TARC bus

 Tebowing in front of The Louisville Palace (theater)

 With the White Castle sign (feeling and looking rough)

 With Pee Wee Reese

 With a chicken sculpture

 In front of the bike rental shop

 In front of Joe's Crab Shack

And with the Belle of Louisville--almost done!!

(We also ended up taking a lot of self portraits as the teams got spaced out towards the end.)

Super fun day--I think I'll look into doing more adventure races. Maybe more like a 5k instead of a 10 miler, though. :)