Kodak Urban Max – Sydney (Race Report – 25th November ’06)
Bright sunny weather, with a forecast of 28 degrees, on the scale of one to 10, this day was a perfect 10 for adventure racing throughout Sydney. The day started off with at a meeting point at Darling Harbour, this being our first adventure race we thought that we would come prepared. North, South, East, West of Darling Harbour we had all possible public transport routes mapped out and organised ready to commence. Low and behold our dismay, when we boarded a Whale Watching boat and were dropped off at Circular Quay for our first stop. Our pre-race planning just went out of the window.
First stop was to the steps of the Opera House to get our clue sheet and map. Charging off to the point, wanting to be one of the first to grab a clue sheet and map it was quickly established that in our team we had one super ultra fit member and another that was not so fit. So while Anne charged up the Opera House steps, I trailed behind taking 2 steps at a time climbing to the top. Once we got our clue sheets, we sat down and started working out the clues.
The sheet was full of cryptic clues, find the boat with the Aboriginal name of Hawkesbury River, the Mayor of Glebe, “He shoots, he scores” something about a King???” Locate this photo? What the….? Out came the mobile phones, with our phone a friend option in place. We had pre-warned 3 people that they would be getting an early wake up call on Saturday morning and to be ready with the internet connection.
First call – “I’m on my way to work”, second call “I’m not at home right now”, ARGH!! third call “I just got up, not logged in… Tell me your clues anyway”. Andrew, our lifeline with his vast knowledge on the history of Sydney was able to help us identify some of the clues on the sheet without the help of the internet!
We marked the places on our map, and we were off. Second stop King George V recreation centre at the Rocks. While we were running to the recreation centre we were stopped by a number of curious onlookers, “What are you doing?” “We’re doing something like the Amazing Race in Sydney, and we’re raising money for Mission Australia would you like to make a donation?” One of the tasks that we had to complete was to raise $10 of Mission Australia.
We reached the recreation centre and our first task was to sink 2 basket ball shots from the free throw line and kick a soccer ball into the goal. Lucky my netball skills came in handy and Anne successfully kicked a goal on her first attempt, then we were racing back down George Street to catch a bus into the CBD and running across Pyrmont bridge to catch a Tram to go to the Fish Market.
At the fish market, we had to locate a boat call “Deerubbun”, while running through the fish markets we received a lot of encouragement from the public. “Go Girls!! Keep Running”. After asking several “locals” we finally located the boat, boarded, took a photo, handed out a pamphlet, collected more money for Mission Australia, and we were off again.
We boarded the tram to Glebe, with the tram conductor asking us what we were doing as he has had a lot of people board his tram this morning wearing red bibs. While we recounted our adventures so far, we showed the passengers on the tram our photo from the fish market and collected more donations for Mission Australia. By this stage Anne and I had decided that we were going to try and be the team that would raise the most money!
At Glebe we found Foley Park War Memorial and clipped off our check sheet and boarded a bus back into the city. By this stage, I was huffing and puffing and Anne started her first of many “You can do this Chris” talks. Off to Mission Australia’s head quarters for another photo, then on foot we went to Paddy’s market where we picked up our puzzle pieces of a Bicycle Man, and then we continued watching other teams run while we walked to the Travel expo at Darling Harbour. Here we completed our task of operating a Motorola Blue Tooth head set (they are really cool btw!) and picked up our mystery clue “Boost at Bathurst”.
We were off running again to the Boost Juice Store on Bathurst street where we gulped down a cool, fruity drink which we identified had flavours of blue berries, strawberries and apple juice in it. Our next stop was Climb Fit at St. Leonards. We boarded a train to St. Leonards, while on the train we put our bicycle man together, and tried to work out where climb fit was. One of the passengers on the train came up to us and said “I actually work not far from the climbing centre, it’s on Frederick Street which is just here on the map” . Woo hoo!! We got off at St. Leonards and witnessed a wave of red bibs get off at the same time and the race was on again! We reached Climb Fit where I nominated Anne to do the task of rock climbing, while I shouted encouragements from below. Once this was completed, we were back on a train from St. Leonards to North Sydney. Locate North Sydney’s oldest pub… Anne turns to me and says “Yeah, I was there last week getting drunk” – Rag and Famish Hotel here we come!! We did the North Sydney check point in 14 minutes, with Anne pointing out to me that if we aren’t back within 15 minutes we would have to wait 30 minutes for the next train back into the city. At this stage, I was quite happy to sit at the train platform and wait 30 minutes for the train if that meant my legs could get a rest. Anne started her “Come on Chris, you can do it” talk again and I was off.
On the train back into the city, we boarded the train with a couple of other teams who were off to the same location as us, Harry’s at Woolloomooloo. The train ride back into the city allowed us to catch up with other teams and ask them how they were going. It was quite interesting to see teams not wanting to disclose their tactics for this leg of the race or maybe that was just us 
. We had already SMS’d a friend who told us the fastest way for Harry’s was to catch the train to Kings Cross Station and to run down hills to the pie and hotdog joint. All teams got off at Town hall station, and we lost them in the crush of Saturday commuters. The trains to Kings Cross was an 8 minute wait, by this time Anne had all the bus time tables out and we were checking bus routes to see if there was a faster route. Alas, no luck we waiting for the train to Kings Cross.
While on the train to Kings Cross, if you could actually see light bulbs on heads you would have seen Anne’s bulb light up… “That picture is where Andrew and I ran the Yacht in a ground” – Steyne Park at Double Bay.
We got our photos taken a Harry’s, stocked up on water and run back up the hill to Kings Cross to catch a bus to Double Bay. We made our way to Steyne Park and clipped our cards, chatted to another team who was doing the race for the first time and now we had to go to our final check point – Federation Pavilion at Centennial Park.
This was the hardest part of the whole race, walking up hills through Double Bay, praying that the Mission Australia bus will drive past us, and hoping that if Anne said again “You can do this Chris”, I wasn’t going to get on the ground and start throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old. After walking from Double Bay to Centennial Park, through Centennial Park to Federation Pavilion, checking off our tags, we continued walking towards Anzac Parade to our finishing point Sydney University. While crossing the road at Anzac Pde, a bus heading into the city drove by. We decided that we had enough of walking hopped on the bus to the city, and caught another bus down Parramatta Rd to Sydney University.
So after 3 photo shoots, 8 bottles of Mount Franklin, a rock climb, a bottle of red bull, 1 bicycle man, 2 trams, 3 trains, 4 buses, $30 in donations and many kilometres on foot, we completed 13 check points in just less than 6 hours. This race, being our first adventure race Anne and I, we did not have a lot of expectations. However, just being able to complete it in the time limit that we were given was definitely a great achievement for us. We enjoyed this race immensely, the opportunity to meet new people, to chat and laugh along the way, giving our bodies a workout and a fantastic sense of accomplishment at the end.
A big thank you to Henry and the team at Maximum Adventures for organising such a fantastic race, we definitely look forward to competing in the races to come!
Author: Christine Yee (Bin 389)