The 2015 Portland Challenge started (and finished) at the infamous Kells Irish Pub on Saturday afternoon. A scavenger hunt race on sunny day with temperatures close to 70 degrees in May! What’s not to like about that? My team and I donned our red shirts with Street Smart emblazoned across the back and arrived at Kells to check in. Plenty of teams were already there with everything from matching shirts to crazy costumes to everyday street clothes. The pre-race people watching was great! The energy was high and everyone was looking forward to the adventure.
The only negative about starting at Kells, was the restroom availability. With only the (2 stall) restrooms in Kells for our pre-race use, the women’s line was ridiculously long. As my female teammate and I waited, we watched the men walk in and out with no wait. When the timing was right, my teammate dove into the men’s room while I guarded the door. Unfortunately, I was unable to take advantage of the men’s room lull, and had to wait it out a bit longer. But, I did manage to get into the restroom before start time.
Start time for the Portland Challenge is nothing like your typical race. One person from each team joined a huge circle to wait for the dispersing of the clue envelopes. Once everyone had an envelope in hand, the countdown began. At “Go!” everyone rushed off to find the rest of their team and begin reading through the 12 clues. Initially the clues were a bit overwhelming. My team and I spent about 15-20 minutes reading, Googling, and figuring out where to go. We felt like we got a slow start, but we eventually found our groove and began hustling around Portland. The directive was to correctly complete 11 out of the 12 clues.
Some clues took us to specific locations like the Salmon Street Springs Fountain, world’s smallest park, or even finding a replica of the Liberty Bell. Others were less specific and we just had to find them along the way, like posing with a street musician or finding an out of state license plate with specific letters on it.
One of the hardest tasks was finding a person from one of the “colonial states” who had a driver’s license on them to prove their residency. As we ran between various locations, we would ask people where they were from. I’m sure they were baffled as we were disappointed in their answers, as they ranged from Portland to Moscow, Russia. But, when one of our clues led us to a location across the street from Voodoo Doughnuts, we were sure that the long line would be filled with tourists. We made our way down the line until we found someone from Virginia. She was a great sport and let us take our photo with her (and her driver’s license.)
Our clues led us to locations that were quite close together. Overall, we probably didn’t even squeak out a 5K, but it did take us about an hour and 15 minutes. Surprisingly, that was pretty quick for this event. With almost 2 hours left until the awards ceremony, we decided to head off and get a bite to eat somewhere a little less crowded. Unfortunately, the final results have yet to be posted online so team Street Smart is still wondering how we finished. With the top 50 teams qualifying for the National Challenge Championship, we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
The Portland Challenge was definitely a fun afternoon with friends. I would highly recommend this as a change to your regular racing schedule. It is a true team event with everyone contributing in their own way. Team Street Smart has done a handful of these events together and we’ve all settled into our roles and have a great time along the way. Perhaps we’ll see you out there next year!