In Great Urban Race, the adventure comes first
Three hours into the race, it was the butt scooter that nearly did Scott Ramsay in.
“Burniiing!” he hollered to his teammate Fatima Santos. “I’m cramping up! We gotta keep moving. Let’s go!”
As the couple rushed from a West Hollywood park toward the finish line in Pershing Square, it was obvious they would not take first or probably even 50th place in Saturday’s fourth annual Great Urban Race. But no matter. For many of the 700 or so racers who signed up, it was less about the finish line than the wacky adventures on the way.
A combination scavenger hunt, brain teaser, obstacle course and footrace, the event unfolded like a masquerade party with a to-do list. Senior citizens raced against grade-school kids and bartenders against professors, dressed variously as bumblebees, mad scientists, disco dancers and ninjas.
With names such as Lunch Ladies, Sock It to Me and Dangling Lumpkins, the teams of two, armed with 12 clues, dashed from parks to donation centers to museums, bars and statues. They hunted for men in ties, toothbrushes, socks. They built human pyramids, scooped dog food and propelled themselves forward on the flat, four-wheel contraptions known as butt scooters. Many carried global positioning system devices, computers and phone numbers; their smartest relatives and friends stood by at home ready to help solve puzzles and find locations.
Few actually showed up with a strategy.
“I think we’re going to drink a lot and we might cheat,” joked David Brundrett, a Culver City communications engineer flaunting a neon-green wig.
The game, played annually in more than 20 cities nationwide, requires participants to complete a five- to six-mile course on foot or by public transportation. Donations are made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the first 25 teams to finish go on to compete for a $10,000 prize in the national championship.
It was clear who was aiming for the loot. Some ran around distressed and agitated, pushing to make it past the next obstacle. Others remained calm. “Oh, look, there’s the Orpheum Theatre,” squealed Katrina Richmond, 34, to her three friends. “That’s where they used to film ‘American Idol.’ ”
As part of the challenge, the two teams persuaded a stranger to let his feet be photographed. They got another stranger to let them hold his dog’s paw. Then one of the girls twisted her ankle.
“Oh no!” Richmond yelled as contestants raced past them. “Don’t move.”
Two hours later, the foursome managed to make it to the park in West Hollywood, where they came face to face with the butt scooters.
esmeralda.bermudez
@latimes.com
