Pittsburgh Urban Race Extreme (PURE) - May 22^nd, 2004

Team Not Dead Yet

Flash…… Boom! The thunder followed the lightning very closely. The rain was coming down in buckets. It was 3 am and we were going to start the Pittsburgh Urban Race Extreme in a few hours. I crawled out of bed at five and started taking care of the last minute things that needed to be done before we headed down the blvd to the starting line/TA in between Pittsburgh’s two stadiums.

The rain had quit and it looked to be clearing up some as we headed out. The excitement was there as usual at the start of a race and we were ready to go. We had headed out the night before in another thunder boomer to do pre-registration, but after riding around for a while we had found Doug the RD and he told us the pre-registration was cancelled since 70 MPH winds had blown over his tent just a little while ago. He also let on that the kayak portion was cancelled due to the high water of the rivers thanks to all the rain that had fallen in the last 48 hours or so. He assured us not to worry, as he had added on 15 miles of biking to make up for it.

We got to the parking lot, gathered our gear and checked in. We went through gear check with Toby as we got everything together and started meeting some of the other racers. It was cloudy, but the day still promised to be hot and humid with plenty of sunshine to bake you to the pavement later on.

At 8 am the race started with a run to PNC Park to find Roberto Clemente’s birth year. Even though it was a short run, I should have dropped my pack because we were coming right back to get our maps and clues, but I kept it on, hoping to get all the torture I could get from this race, the longest the Team Not Dead Yet has done to date.

Stupid mistake number two. When someone shows uncertainty, just ignore it and go with your gut. We ran a little extra because I saw some and went with it.

We got back got our package and sat at the table and decided to plot all we could then to maybe save time later. This was mistake number 3 in my book. Some of the CPs were later cut out of the race so we plotted some unnecessarily. We should have just plotted a couple of CPs and headed out. I also plotted all of them carefully, even though I could guess at a couple of them by the clues.

Finally we headed out on our bikes to the first CP. It was a nice ride down the river trail to Herr Island AKA Washington’s Crossing. We got on the island and headed north to the CP. We found the clue easy and then made the plan to get over the Allegheny then over some hills to cross the Mon to the next CP. It all went ok, but there was a bit of a climb over Schenley Heights. We made our way over the Birmingham Bridge and found the TA. As we were pulling in another team came in right behind us. We figured they must have really made a mistake since we thought we had the anchor of the race all to ourselves as we leisurely plotted our CPs. They confirmed that they had messed up and they had spotted us and followed us here. I had warned them that following me probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do because even though I claim Pittsburgh as my home town, I haven’t lived here for over twenty years and my knowledge of the city can fit inside my map case.

We transitioned to trekking and headed down the path towards the Hot Metal St Bridge. After hesitating at the bridge, we crossed ignoring the "no pedestrian traffic" sign. After crossing the bridge we saw the bike path up a wall and over a fence. What did we do? We climbed the wall and hopped the fence. We easily found CP3 and also saw that we really didn’t have to climb the wall and hop the fence after all, but it was much more fun. I mean this is an adventure race after all.

We found an easy (somewhat) route to the next CP, which we knew was rappelling. On the way there we came across about six racers that were doing the sprint version of the race. They were a little lost and looking for the CP we had just left. I gave them good directions to the CP (always out there trying to help other racers as we fall further behind, but hey, that’s what I’m out there for) and headed to the Panther Hollow Bridge.

As we got there, there was a team on the ropes and another getting ready. We geared up and got ready to go down. Lisa went first and Toby was real good on the instruction. We had only rappelled once before (10 times down a 30 ft cliff) and this was a little more overwhelming, but a real thrill.

We both got down no problem and got ready for the next event. We were handed a map and told this was the orienteering portion of the race. We had 4 controls to find. They said that all the racers were still in the bush and we thought that we might be able to make up some time there.

We headed into the hollow confident in our orienteering ability, as we have done a few events with the Quantico Orienteering Club. We found where the first "flag" should be very quickly. The clue was that the control was next to the grass couch. We found the grass couch, but no orienteering flag. You know those little orange and white things that are at all orienteering meets. That would have a number on it and maybe a punch you can put on your clue sheet to prove you were there. No flag. However right in the middle of the creek next to the grass couch was a volleyball. The word Spiker pointed right at us. We talked about it for a while and looked around some more and decide that the controls were words. And this word, Spiker is the clue for this control. We kind of kicked ourselves for not getting better instructions before we headed out, because we assumed it a regular orienteering event. But onwards we went. We headed up to the road and followed that to the next control. The clue was cool and we found the password in the third pipe. At this time we saw what the passwords looked like and started second guessing ourselves about the first one, but we continued nevertheless. We got to the third control where Scott was waiting to put us through a challenge. We had to Frisbee golf down to two "holes" and back. That done we went down the road and into the woods to our last control. Hello cliff. After looking around a while I found a way down the cliff as Lisa stayed at the top within shouting distance. I got quite muddy and was thinking there was no way I was going to get back up, when I saw the clue. Next to it was what looked like a possible way back up the cliff and I was able to make it, getting more muddy and worn out.

We headed back to the bottom of the bridge and checked in. Of course Spiker was wrong, but after explaining some things to the officials, they let us go. We had passed a few people in the woods and were no longer in last place.

We headed out to the next CP, which was across the river in Homestead where the old smoke stacks from a steel mill still stood. We helped another race official get his bearings as we went and headed towards the river.

We jogged and power hiked towards the bridge and crossed over into Homestead. We could see our objective and made it there and took a little rest. No one else was seen in this time. This was CP6. We had been told that CP7 was taken out and we were to proceed back to the bikes at CP8 after this. We started going west looking for the rail trail that would take us back.

We found the trail (sort of) and continued on. Now this was the time that my 100 oz bladder decided to run out. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, at least as much as you can be in the cityscape and the temperature was getting up there.

As we continued along, I found myself lagging further and further behind Lisa, who appeared to have gotten her second wind. She actually had to hold my hand and pull me along to keep me going. For the first time in our racing life, I was having feet problems. Every time I would run, the balls of my feet would start to scream. I made a goal to get back to the bikes where I would change my socks and put some duct tape on.

Well we made it back and found out that a solo and another team was behind us. We got on our bikes and headed down the trail, crossed over the 10^th St. Bridge, through the city and then over the 6^th St. Bridge. We tried to come back on the river trail, and found it under anywhere from 1 inch to several inches of river water. The Allegheny had risen some since we were last there and we had an eerie time riding on that invisible path.

We got back to TA and did some replenishment and more plotting. We were told that more CPs were being eliminated due to the high water on the path. There were a couple of teams in the TA and they left shortly before us.

Our next CP was in Riverview Park. We had to head up Federal St., which is a bitch of a hill. We walked most of it, but got to the top and Riverview Park. We got to CP10 no problem and started looking for CP11 at Snider’s Point. I was using a park map that was in the packet to try to find the right single track to the point. I found out that map sucked. Later in hind site I saw the black and white contour maps that were given to us showed a road like trail going to Snider’s Point, but I had thought it was a contour or something. Curse you black and white maps.

Eventually we found the CP password and actually got to see a deer in the clearing at the point. We continued up the park road and back down the hill that took so long to go up an hour ago. It seemed we got down in two minutes. We got back to the TA and did more replenishment and preparation for the final leg of the race.

Next was a CP16 since 13 through 15 were cancelled. It was at the base of the Mon Incline below Mt. Washington. We got over there no problem doing the 6^th St. Bridge and Smithfield St. Bridge and got the password. We took the incline up to the top and discovered you needed exact change to pay for the ride. The operator said bring it back when you come back and we went to the overlook and while I got the clue, Lisa went and asked the tourists if they could break a 20. We got back, paid what we owed and took the incline back to the bottom.

We went back over the Smithfield St. Bridge and headed for the Block House in Point State Park. We could smell the finish line and knew that we would be able to finish and we continued on.

We got the clue at the Block House and headed for the Next CP, which was a church on Grant St. We got that no problem and headed for the 16^th St Bridge to get to Penn Brewery.

The brewery was a welcome site and we got congratulations from the race officials that we had gotten this far. We were last and I’m sure the officials wanted to pack up and go, but the photographers were waiting there for us and they didn’t take off until we had our obligatory picture taken under the Brewery sign. We also had to have our obligatory pint of beer before finishing the race and it went down smooth.

We headed out back to the TA where Doug was waiting for us to finish. We had some pizza and packed up our gear and headed home, a nice sense of accomplishment flowing through us.

Yes, we came in last, but we finished. It was so cool to hear one race official shout out to us as we transitioned that we "weren’t dead yet". It gave us the inspiration we needed to prove her right.

I highly recommend everyone to try one of American Adventure Sports’ races. This was a good, challenging race that had plenty of good sights and fun challenges. Doug, Toby, Erica and all the crew of AAS were very friendly, encouraging and helpful before, during and after the race. Lisa and I had a hell of a time.

See you on the course. Just look over your shoulder…

Joe and Lisa Harold
Team Not Dead Yet