To the Race! (part 8)
Aug. 25th, 2017 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccA very delayed report, I forgot I hadn't written this one. kirstenfleur and I competed in another mini-Race in March this year.
A slightly stressful start as I was frantically coming down from Whittlesea and massively underestimated how long getting off at the King St exit would take. I didn't actually intend to come off at the King St Exit, unfortunately I missed the Montague St turn off by being in the wrong lane (dammit.) Still I got there with literally minutes to go before the start whilekirstenfleur waited anxiously.
Then we had the usual guff and photos (we hid at the back, again) before the race finally started at about 1pm.
This year there were four Collect stages (go find information or objects), four Challenge stages (go and do an activity) and three Pursuit stages (go and clip your card at this location), all of which had to be completed within the 3 hour time frame.
We scanned the clue sheet rapidly and headed off towards the first Collect stage, the clue for which read:
The largest venue in the Melbourne Arts Complex used for orchestra and concerts. Find the poster bills on the right hand of the entrance. What show is being advertised on the poster 8th from the left?
We came up with two answers for this, as it wasn't clear whether they meant the left of the posters or the door or what. Either way we had "Faster" and the "Beach View California" shows.
From there we headed to a Challenge:
The team must make their way to Crown Entertainment Complex and find a place where the sound of falling pins can be heard. Once there, find the official near the basketball machines for a challenge that will bring out the team's inner child.
Easy enough, we started walking/running along the Yarra towards Crown, then realised there was a Collect stage en route:
Find the Big Red Lips sculpture and take a photo of the team with their lips in the same pose.
Big Red Lips is actually a mosiac chair, so we got our duck pout selfie, uploaded it as directed to facebook and kept going to Crown. Finding the bowling alley took a little bit of time, but we still managed to get there about 10 minutes before the challenge opened so we had a drink.
Finally we found the official and were directed to shoot basketballs into hoops, and then do another game where you roll a ball up a slope to get into different holes to collect points. If we were above a certain score we could go, below we needed to do a second challenge. We were 10 points below the score - not entirely surprisingly, neither of us are that good at shooting. The second challenge was colouring something in I think - honestly I can't remember, but we did it very quickly and headed off on the loop that we'd worked out. We caught a 109 tram heading towards the city and checked the clue sheet again.
And then realised that we'd stuffed up. The first Challenge opening hours went from 1-2.30pm, and it would be last on our list if we went in the direction we'd worked out. Given it was already past 2pm that was not going to work. Yes, we managed to be the only team doing the circuit in the opposite direction from what the planners wanted. I have to admit that kind of annoys me - it means that all the challenges etc are flat out because everyone is there at the same times. At least give people the option to go in both directions!
Anyway. We quickly reworked our plans and instead of jumping off the tram at the top of Collins and Spencer Streets we stayed on until the tram reached the corner of Spring and Collins St, then crossed the road to find the next Pursuit location:
Located on Spring St, this small reserve contains the Stanford Fountain, Gordon of Khartoum memorial and the Adam Lindsay Gordon memorial. Teams must make their way to this location to complete the task. (Attached to a green post.)
I knew where the Adam Lindsay Gordon memorial was, and after some quick searching we found the appropriate post and clipped our cards. Up Spring St to Challenge 1 we ran, sprinting across the park to the official.
The Team must make their way to this small triangular park which features the Coles Fountains and provides pleasant views of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Old Synagogue, Old Baptist Church and the Eastern Hill Fire Station. Once there, find the official for a challenge that will test the team's problem solving skills and/or sample whatever is on today's menu.
The first challenge was a whole series of rebus puzzles, the ones where you have something like:
MAN
----
BOARD
and the answer is "man overboard". We were the only ones there (5 minutes before the challenge closed, surprise!) and finished it rapidly. Then he sprang the second part on us.
"One of you also has to eat these."
"What is it?"
kirstenfleur grabbed it, threw it in and swallowed. "Give me water!!"
"OK.. what was it?"
"Bugs. Dead ones this year..."
"Why did I just do that?" askedkirstenfleur
"No idea, but you did it really well and seemed enthusiastic so I let you!"
2.30 and we had half the Challenges, a Pursuit and half the Collect stages done. On to the next place!
Down Lonsdale St we headed, collecting another Pursuit station along the way:
'Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what'cha gonna do? What'cha gonna do when they come for you?' The team must make their way to Bad Boys, somewhere on the East side of the CBD? (attached to chair outside)
This was a burger restaurant at 57 Lonsdale St - the clue writers had been a bit tricky here because the chair and the entrance to the restaurant actually involved going off Lonsdale St and down Punch Lane to where there was a little courtyard. We found the clipper, clipped the card and continued towards Challenge 2:
The team must make its way to the outdoor area of this retail precinct along Lonsdale St which was once the site of the historic Queen Victoria Women's Hospital. Find the official outside for a challenge that will test the team's arithmetic.
Into the busy outside area to find the official - who gave us a shopping list with varying numbers of items from different shops in the basement food court. We had to calculate how much the total would be. Into the basement we went. There are a lot of shops there, but we went through it all pretty quickly, doing rough calculations along the way.
"OK, we need three 'golden slurpees' from this place. $9.95 each, so $30... $29.85. Next!"
Out we came again, then realised we'd missed a shop and headed quickly back down to find it. Luckily I'd seen it along the way so we had the final items priced quickly. Then we did a final tally and confirmed via the calculator on the phone. Back upstairs to the official who confirmed it was correct.
"That was quick! You're one of the quickest teams we've had do that today!"
Well if there's one thing we're apparently good at, it's food courts. Heh.
Next up was a Collect stage described as:
The team must find the location of the picture below along the Swanston St pavement between Bourke and Lonsdale Sts. Once there the team must write down how many love hearts are in this artwork.
The picture was of a small plaque, which was part of a larger design near Little Bourke St. There were two love hearts in there (unless some were severely misshapen) so we wrote that down and kept going back down Lonsdale St again towards the last Pursuit stage:
Located on Lonsdale St is a German named store - it is often referred to as the 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. The team must make their way into the entrance of the shop.
kirstenfleur had googled this and come up with "Brain Biffel, 1/287 Lonsdale St" This turned out to be the entrance to Melbourne Central shopping centre. We found Brain Biffel, but the assistants had no idea what we were doing so we decided to google again. Googling "Cabinet of Curiosities" gave us a totally different address, 439 Lonsdale St, and the shop name "Wunderkammer". Yep, that'd be it. So down the hill we jogged again, found the shop, found the entrance, clipped our card, checked our watches as the times were getting a bit close to finishing times, and headed off as quickly as possible to Challenge 3:
The international coding system will help the team work out the next location:
..-. .-.. .- --. ... - .- ..-. ..-. / --. .- .-. -.. . -. ...
Find the official at this location for a double challenge where teams must work together testing their communication, coordination and puzzle solving skills.
This was Flagstaff Gardens, and it was about 3.20 - the challenge closed at 3.30. One good thing about being the last or close to last team to arrive at a challenge is when they do double challenges like this one they let you just do it by yourselves. Normally this would have been a two team three legged race (so six legged race?) around a circuit three times, but as there was no one to do it with it was just us. So round and around we went - it is surprisingly difficult to keep the motion going with a three legged race. Finished that part and then there was a puzzle which had four shapes in four colours - make the puzzle so no shape or colour repeated. This took us a couple of minutes, but once you had the initial centre set it was pretty quick to finish. We finished pretty much dead on 3.30pm and still needed our last Collect stage and to get back by 4pm. Off we headed to the Collect:
The Upper West Side is one of Melbourne's unique new laneways. What was once Melbourne's first power station, this newly developed site boasts high profile retail and restaurant collaborations along with one of a kind walks. Make your way to this New York-inspired precinct and find the wall lined with colourful bicycles. What is the colour of the frame of the bicycle on the far right side of the wall?
This site is so newly developed and high profile I'd never heard of it, but I did know where Melbourne's first power station was, on the corner of Little Bourke and Spencer Sts. Down Lonsdale St we jogged to "Watertank Way" (heh) and in to the Upper West Side Precinct. The bike frame was "very bright orangey-red with orange wheels."
OK, I suck at knowing how to describe colours.
Time was getting tight now and we needed to be back at the start/finish line at Beer DeLuxe at Fed Square. So we headed to Bourke St, caught a tram back to Swanston and then ran down Swanston to Flinders, across the street and arrived back dead on 4pm according to my watch.
Then it took them five minutes to take our forms, dammit.
As a result we were penalised 30 minutes for coming in after the finish time (4.02pm FFS), which put us in 30th place (out of 49) rather than equal 19th. Not bitter. Honest.
Mind you, if we'd realised a bit quicker that they had set it up to run only in a clockwise direction we'd have finished it a lot quicker - the original course I had was basically the same loop but in the other direction. Also Melbourne Central vs Wunderkammer. Oh well. Next year!
kirstenfleur and I competed in another mini-Race in March this year. A slightly stressful start as I was frantically coming down from Whittlesea and massively underestimated how long getting off at the King St exit would take. I didn't actually intend to come off at the King St Exit, unfortunately I missed the Montague St turn off by being in the wrong lane (dammit.) Still I got there with literally minutes to go before the start while
kirstenfleur waited anxiously.Then we had the usual guff and photos (we hid at the back, again) before the race finally started at about 1pm.
This year there were four Collect stages (go find information or objects), four Challenge stages (go and do an activity) and three Pursuit stages (go and clip your card at this location), all of which had to be completed within the 3 hour time frame.
We scanned the clue sheet rapidly and headed off towards the first Collect stage, the clue for which read:
The largest venue in the Melbourne Arts Complex used for orchestra and concerts. Find the poster bills on the right hand of the entrance. What show is being advertised on the poster 8th from the left?
We came up with two answers for this, as it wasn't clear whether they meant the left of the posters or the door or what. Either way we had "Faster" and the "Beach View California" shows.
From there we headed to a Challenge:
The team must make their way to Crown Entertainment Complex and find a place where the sound of falling pins can be heard. Once there, find the official near the basketball machines for a challenge that will bring out the team's inner child.
Easy enough, we started walking/running along the Yarra towards Crown, then realised there was a Collect stage en route:
Find the Big Red Lips sculpture and take a photo of the team with their lips in the same pose.
Big Red Lips is actually a mosiac chair, so we got our duck pout selfie, uploaded it as directed to facebook and kept going to Crown. Finding the bowling alley took a little bit of time, but we still managed to get there about 10 minutes before the challenge opened so we had a drink.
Finally we found the official and were directed to shoot basketballs into hoops, and then do another game where you roll a ball up a slope to get into different holes to collect points. If we were above a certain score we could go, below we needed to do a second challenge. We were 10 points below the score - not entirely surprisingly, neither of us are that good at shooting. The second challenge was colouring something in I think - honestly I can't remember, but we did it very quickly and headed off on the loop that we'd worked out. We caught a 109 tram heading towards the city and checked the clue sheet again.
And then realised that we'd stuffed up. The first Challenge opening hours went from 1-2.30pm, and it would be last on our list if we went in the direction we'd worked out. Given it was already past 2pm that was not going to work. Yes, we managed to be the only team doing the circuit in the opposite direction from what the planners wanted. I have to admit that kind of annoys me - it means that all the challenges etc are flat out because everyone is there at the same times. At least give people the option to go in both directions!
Anyway. We quickly reworked our plans and instead of jumping off the tram at the top of Collins and Spencer Streets we stayed on until the tram reached the corner of Spring and Collins St, then crossed the road to find the next Pursuit location:
Located on Spring St, this small reserve contains the Stanford Fountain, Gordon of Khartoum memorial and the Adam Lindsay Gordon memorial. Teams must make their way to this location to complete the task. (Attached to a green post.)
I knew where the Adam Lindsay Gordon memorial was, and after some quick searching we found the appropriate post and clipped our cards. Up Spring St to Challenge 1 we ran, sprinting across the park to the official.
The Team must make their way to this small triangular park which features the Coles Fountains and provides pleasant views of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Old Synagogue, Old Baptist Church and the Eastern Hill Fire Station. Once there, find the official for a challenge that will test the team's problem solving skills and/or sample whatever is on today's menu.
The first challenge was a whole series of rebus puzzles, the ones where you have something like:
MAN
----
BOARD
and the answer is "man overboard". We were the only ones there (5 minutes before the challenge closed, surprise!) and finished it rapidly. Then he sprang the second part on us.
"One of you also has to eat these."
"What is it?"
kirstenfleur grabbed it, threw it in and swallowed. "Give me water!!""OK.. what was it?"
"Bugs. Dead ones this year..."
"Why did I just do that?" asked
kirstenfleur"No idea, but you did it really well and seemed enthusiastic so I let you!"
2.30 and we had half the Challenges, a Pursuit and half the Collect stages done. On to the next place!
Down Lonsdale St we headed, collecting another Pursuit station along the way:
'Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what'cha gonna do? What'cha gonna do when they come for you?' The team must make their way to Bad Boys, somewhere on the East side of the CBD? (attached to chair outside)
This was a burger restaurant at 57 Lonsdale St - the clue writers had been a bit tricky here because the chair and the entrance to the restaurant actually involved going off Lonsdale St and down Punch Lane to where there was a little courtyard. We found the clipper, clipped the card and continued towards Challenge 2:
The team must make its way to the outdoor area of this retail precinct along Lonsdale St which was once the site of the historic Queen Victoria Women's Hospital. Find the official outside for a challenge that will test the team's arithmetic.
Into the busy outside area to find the official - who gave us a shopping list with varying numbers of items from different shops in the basement food court. We had to calculate how much the total would be. Into the basement we went. There are a lot of shops there, but we went through it all pretty quickly, doing rough calculations along the way.
"OK, we need three 'golden slurpees' from this place. $9.95 each, so $30... $29.85. Next!"
Out we came again, then realised we'd missed a shop and headed quickly back down to find it. Luckily I'd seen it along the way so we had the final items priced quickly. Then we did a final tally and confirmed via the calculator on the phone. Back upstairs to the official who confirmed it was correct.
"That was quick! You're one of the quickest teams we've had do that today!"
Well if there's one thing we're apparently good at, it's food courts. Heh.
Next up was a Collect stage described as:
The team must find the location of the picture below along the Swanston St pavement between Bourke and Lonsdale Sts. Once there the team must write down how many love hearts are in this artwork.
The picture was of a small plaque, which was part of a larger design near Little Bourke St. There were two love hearts in there (unless some were severely misshapen) so we wrote that down and kept going back down Lonsdale St again towards the last Pursuit stage:
Located on Lonsdale St is a German named store - it is often referred to as the 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. The team must make their way into the entrance of the shop.
kirstenfleur had googled this and come up with "Brain Biffel, 1/287 Lonsdale St" This turned out to be the entrance to Melbourne Central shopping centre. We found Brain Biffel, but the assistants had no idea what we were doing so we decided to google again. Googling "Cabinet of Curiosities" gave us a totally different address, 439 Lonsdale St, and the shop name "Wunderkammer". Yep, that'd be it. So down the hill we jogged again, found the shop, found the entrance, clipped our card, checked our watches as the times were getting a bit close to finishing times, and headed off as quickly as possible to Challenge 3:The international coding system will help the team work out the next location:
..-. .-.. .- --. ... - .- ..-. ..-. / --. .- .-. -.. . -. ...
Find the official at this location for a double challenge where teams must work together testing their communication, coordination and puzzle solving skills.
This was Flagstaff Gardens, and it was about 3.20 - the challenge closed at 3.30. One good thing about being the last or close to last team to arrive at a challenge is when they do double challenges like this one they let you just do it by yourselves. Normally this would have been a two team three legged race (so six legged race?) around a circuit three times, but as there was no one to do it with it was just us. So round and around we went - it is surprisingly difficult to keep the motion going with a three legged race. Finished that part and then there was a puzzle which had four shapes in four colours - make the puzzle so no shape or colour repeated. This took us a couple of minutes, but once you had the initial centre set it was pretty quick to finish. We finished pretty much dead on 3.30pm and still needed our last Collect stage and to get back by 4pm. Off we headed to the Collect:
The Upper West Side is one of Melbourne's unique new laneways. What was once Melbourne's first power station, this newly developed site boasts high profile retail and restaurant collaborations along with one of a kind walks. Make your way to this New York-inspired precinct and find the wall lined with colourful bicycles. What is the colour of the frame of the bicycle on the far right side of the wall?
This site is so newly developed and high profile I'd never heard of it, but I did know where Melbourne's first power station was, on the corner of Little Bourke and Spencer Sts. Down Lonsdale St we jogged to "Watertank Way" (heh) and in to the Upper West Side Precinct. The bike frame was "very bright orangey-red with orange wheels."
OK, I suck at knowing how to describe colours.
Time was getting tight now and we needed to be back at the start/finish line at Beer DeLuxe at Fed Square. So we headed to Bourke St, caught a tram back to Swanston and then ran down Swanston to Flinders, across the street and arrived back dead on 4pm according to my watch.
Then it took them five minutes to take our forms, dammit.
As a result we were penalised 30 minutes for coming in after the finish time (4.02pm FFS), which put us in 30th place (out of 49) rather than equal 19th. Not bitter. Honest.
Mind you, if we'd realised a bit quicker that they had set it up to run only in a clockwise direction we'd have finished it a lot quicker - the original course I had was basically the same loop but in the other direction. Also Melbourne Central vs Wunderkammer. Oh well. Next year!
