The Great Urban Race is coming to downtown Tampa on March 24th. It's not a pure adventure race as the adventure race genre typically includes mud, cargo nets, water, and any variety of other obstacles. Those races aren't for everyone, although I love them. This is more like a one-day Amazing Race. These races usually take from two to four hour, and they are more about fun than competition. They do favor runners, though. In my experience it seems that the winners are usually marathon runners.
The race starts at noon at Splitsville at Channelside; check-in starts at 11:00.
What it's like: An urban adventure race usually requires two-person teams to solve puzzles, answer riddles, perform physical challenges (pretty easy ones from my experience), and more. It's more like a scavenger hunt than a typical road race. Each team must solve clues to determine where to go, and there are generally 10 to 12 checkpoints that each team must visit. At each checkpoint the team either performs as physical challenge, works some kind of puzzle, or simply gets their picture in front of some landmark that will prove they were at the right place. 
In last year's GUR:
At one checkpoint, we were instructed to make a paper airplane and then had two chances to land it in a designated area. If you couldn't do it, there was a penalty, but I can't remember what it was. We had to do the penalty.
At another checkpoint one team member was required to ride a segway around a baseball diamone.
At another checkpoint we were sent to the restaurant Hamburger Mary's where one team member had to eat a deep fried Twinkie. Sounds awful, I guess, but it was actualloy delicious.
At the Spaghetti Warehouse, we were to push a meatball from one end of a long table to the other end with our nose.
We were to solve a clue that lead us to a motorcycle shop where there were massive motorcycles parked outside. Various parts of the motorcycles were marked with numbers. The puzzle was that we had to identify each part of the motorcycle. Of course, Wendy and I don't know too much about motorcycles, but we sent a photo with her smart phone, and her friend, a motorcycle owner, identified the parts.
Once we found this sculpture, we were required to get a photo of both team members in the air. Yes, those are tutu's we were wearing. Notice the Run Tampa colors.
Some people think you need to have an extensive knowledge of the city because some of the questions have to do with history of the area, historic sites, landmarks, etc., but the fact is that most of the questions are so obscure that solving them will require Internet access. Most teams have a third member - or more - at home somewhere (anywhere in the world) on the Internet.
Imagine running while reading clues to someone over the phone. Yeah, that's part of it. Of course, you often have to walk or even sit down to plot your route on a map. There is no set route. We have found that it's best to spend time, if needed, at the start of the race to plot our general route, but this is virtually impossible until you have some clues solved; however, in some races some of the destinations are clearly stated. Each race is different.
Two member teams are usually required to dress alike and costumes are encouraged. Some teams just walk, so it's not imperative that everyone be a runner, although it's usually a team of runners that wins. Being first really is not the point here; it's much more about having fun.
I believe the Urban Challenge was the first company to put on urban adventure races. That was my first experience, which was about 6 years ago. That company is now defunct, but with the popularity of TV show the Amazing Race, many others have sprung up, and all seem to be very similar. Here is a list of the ones I've discovered: City Scramble, Urban Dare, City Solve, Scavenger Dash, Metro Dash, Great Urban Race.
The Great Urban Race is this Saturday, March 5th, and the City Scramble is the next weekend.
Some examples of my past urban race questions:
One time we had to go to a bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans that had the same name as an old Atari video game. So, we called my son, who was at his computer in California, and he googled Atari video games.
Another time the Tampa race was on the same day as the Gasparilla Art Festival (as it will be tomorrow), and we had to locate a particular artist and get a photo with a particular work of art.
A couple of times as a physical challenge we've had to kick a soccer ball through a goal.
Another physical challenge was doing 50 pushups. Girl pushups were accepted, by the way.
My all time favorite question: For this question the clue sheet had a list of about a dozen words from which all the o's had been removed. We had to add the missing o's to the consonants to make words. Then we were instructed to count the number of o's and add that number into a simple equation which then gave us the street address of the next checkpoint. That was in the national championship Urban Challenge in New Orleans. All the clues were extra tough that day. We had hooked up with another team from Salt Lake City. They were dressed as crayfish. I recall sitting on a street corner in New Orleans, comparing notes because there total number of o's didn't math ours. Once we agreed on the answer, we hopped on the streetcar and headed for the checkpoint.
Several other teams were on the streetcar, and I remember reading out the next clues and having a dozen strangers on the crowded streetcar helping us figure out the next answer.
Teams are allowed to work together, and smart phones and GPS devices are allowed. Teams must walk, run, or take public transportation (bus or trolley), to get to the checkpoints.
