“Your list of clues can be found in the park just a block left of here… now GO!” the director yelled. Mild pause, the calm before a storm as it dawned on the crowd the race had begun.
600 people ran!
The 1st Tampa Bay Hunger Games had officially begun! The last person living would be granted a parking spot along Bayshore during the next Gasparilla parade.
Nahhhh, I’m kidding. Urban Dare – the local person’s answer to the hit TV reality show “The Amazing Race” – at Tampa Bay had officially begun.
Prior to the race, I had explored Downtown Tampa to map scenery and photograph landmarks. I even prepared online by listing tourist spots along with its current exhibits… none were used. My only preparation that helped Rhea and me were the maps of Downtown Tampa.
“Take your picture in front of the Café named after the state of Maine’s official soft drink.” What?! Scores of the teams were plopped all over the field scanning through their smartphones. Meanwhile, I barked the clues to my brother and sister over the phone as they swept the internet. (Maine’s official soft drink is a Moxie… Moxie Cafe) Map in hand, we marked each clue down and plotted the quickest route.
Dressed as an anime cat and panda (Urban Dare encouraged costumes… hence Rhea and I were team “Anime Chicks”) we brisk-walked (we refused to run) through clues and dares. We tore through the scavenger hunt, most of which involved us throwing up cute-sy peace signs in front of a location. We completed some totally non-challenging dares (3-legged race around a park, wheelbarrow around some cones), but we still found time to grab a snack and explore some interesting stores along the way.
Team Anime Chicks finished #167 out of 300 teams. It took us 2 hours and 50 minutes to take 11 pictures of locations and perform 3 dares. (By comparison, the winning team completed in 1 hour 10 mins) Rhea and I are still ecstatic for a team that never ran, looked cute the whole time, and beat the other Philippine team. We want to do it again!
Click on my pictures to see the results of our Tampa Urban Dare
HIIIIII everyone! It’s Pyra!
Looking back at Urban Dare… I realized it DEFINITELY WAS NOT “where brains beat out speed” (as their website suggests) The only time I used my brain power was in deciphering the original clues… after that all the challenges would’ve been comfortable within an elementary P.E. class’s setting.
I would love to do Urban Dare again (right now I’m contemplating trying out Challenge Nation which is similar) but I wish the format will change so participants get more out of the experience.