Great Race

Have you ever seen the tv show The Amazing Race? Well, my friend Victoria's school held one around Boston as part of a food drive. The entrance fee was 20 food items each.

Just some highlights of the rules:
1) You will be visiting many places throughout the day. Most locations will have a staff member who you can identify in a colored event t-shirt. They will give you your next clue. Other locations you will be required to take pictures of you and your partner at those locations.
2) You may only use the items we give you during the morning Saturday. You may not use roller blades, skateboards, bicycles, vehicles of any kind. You may only use your feet and the T. You will each receive a T pass for the day that will get you on all buses, subways, etc. You may NOT use taxis, police cars, friends cars, etc. to maneuver the city. Any violation will result in disqualification.
3) You may NOT use cell phones, wallets, GPS, personal maps, etc. on the course. If you pick up a free map along the way, that is perfectly legal. Don't even bring those with you so you don't have to worry about them getting lost/stolen.
4) PAY ATTENTION - You will be given a notepad and pen to take with you on the course. At the end of the event, you will take a "test" to see what you remembered throughout the day. For each question you get wrong, a 5-minute penalty will be added to your time!
What do I need to do now? STUDY STUDY STUDY This event is a test of your Boston knowledge, your capability of deciphering clues (some are easy, some are hard), and your maneuverability of public transportation. Once the first clue is read, you are then on your own. You may have to ask locals for some assitance in deciphering clues. So study up your Boston trivia, street maps, etc., get a good night's sleep on Friday, and we will see you Saturday morning.
Victoria and I took the last bit of advice to heart and got together Friday night to study... maps, history, Boston trivia cards... we were in it to win it!
Just a little play by play we made note of that day:
7:04 a.m. Charlotte made Victoria get out of bed
7:21 a.m. Drove to Victoria's house and Stop & Shop for food
8:05 a.m. Arrived at Latin School and "stretched" and studied a little more:
8:32 a.m. Realized math is not an early morning activity (we only had 30 food items, not 40... oops!) Victoria ran to get 10 more
9:05 a.m. Registered, wearing our official shirts... contemplating the best time to turn in the boys with a map
9:15 a.m. The map is confiscated (good work, Victoria!)
9:40 a.m. Waiting... and waiting... Is it going to start soon?
10:05 a.m. The first clue is read in the parking lot and mad running begins
10:24 a.m. On orange line from Ruggles on the way to the next clue... Victoria is ready to block the competition

10:35 a.m. Waiting for the red train to Harvard, headed to Mt. Auburn Cemetary. Lots of red shirts waiting... darn it, we thought we'd lost 'em
10:52 a.m. Re-enacted Japanese mob scare in Harvard Station
11:15 a.m. Victoria climbs the tower in Mt. Auburn. 2nd place!
11:39 a.m. We leave Mt. Auburn in 1st place... taking bus to the Esplanade.
11:49 a.m. Happened to have the same bus driver that took us to Mt. Auburn... he thought he'd gotten rid of us
11:50 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. HELL (sidenote - we stopped taking notes at this point because we were sprinting from site to site... until my legs gave out... i seriously couldn't walk for several minutes from the cramping)
3:15 p.m. Riding another bus... legs so happy to be sitting... to JFK's birthplace
4:03 p.m. Finished the race!! by bowling a strike and sinking all the pool balls (Victoria and I had luckily played pool the week before so we were in practice)

We ended in the top 15 for time... combined with the test mentioned in the rules, we placed 14th. We were pretty happy with this, since there were 109 teams registered and only 40 completed the race. Go team Jello Salad (a little nod to Utah)!

We were completely and utterly exhausted when we finished. The course ended up being 27 miles... this was probably the only marathon-length race I'll ever do. :) We went all over the city and I discovered a few places I'd never heard of and want to go back to explore... instead of just stopping and sprinting to the next spot. Really a fun day!