Urban Max Adventure Series – Sydney

22 November 2008

Race Report: Team Morros

By: Fiona Morrison

This was our fourth year competing in Urban Max, and no doubt like a stacks of others, we are totally addicted to it! We were pleased to see the sun out first thing in the morning, however, by the time we arrived for registration, the winds had changed and the dark clouds were looking pretty threatening.

Having read the race reports from the Melbourne Urban Max, we were sure we had the upper hand and that the clue sheets would be located somewhere out the back or outside of Paddington Town Hall. However, after a fairly elaborate start method that had nothing to do with running outside, we started scanning the clue sheet, phoned a friend and flicked through the compact Sydney street directory we had brought with us. With 8 out of 14 clues crossed off, we decided to get going to Rose Bay Park.

Halfway there we contemplated jumping on a bus, but decided to push through and run the rest of the way. About half way we got the phone call from my brother with hopefully the rest of the answers, only to be greeted with “I’m struggling! As soon as I hung up from you my broadband crashed.  I’m still trying to get it working!”. Well we just took it on the chin and kept on running. After a short drizzle and some crazy winds, the sun had come back out and by the time we arrived at the checkpoint, it was actually perfect kayaking weather!

We then caught the bus to Kings Cross with about 15 other teams, and sprinted towards the Beef and Bourbon Bar, looking for the OzHarvest van, with a quick stop into a convenience store for two canned food items. Off to the NSW Art Gallery, we bailed up a kind gent who looked like he knew the place backwards.  He pointed out where to find all the answers and we got the four questions done fairly quickly. We then dashed through the Domain to Circular Quay to find the location of where the photo we had with our clue sheet had been taken. Looking for an info board railing here killed us. We wasted 20 mins frantically searching before asking another team:

“Have you found this one?! Where is it??!!”

“Up there, take the lift, Cahill Expressway, after Tim Cahill!”

Not having ever lived in Sydney and thinking soccer is god’s gift to fairies really hurt us there.

Once we had that one, we rushed on to the base of the Harbour Bridge where we hit the end of a very long line of teams waiting to use a MP3 player to identify movies from a soundtrack. We scored with this activity because I’m a bit of a music buff and Jay struggled to write down the answers quick enough as I rattled them off.  We managed to knock this one over in less than a minute, and raced off for Cadmans cottage. Another dash to Wynyard Park for some yummy Be Natural trail bars then on to some fun at Fitness First. On route to Kingpin Bowl at Harbourside, we managed to find a Kodak Express store to get our printed photo done, from the SD card out of the camera we had brought along with us.

We eventually made a spare, then headed for Central Station. ‘Flags of the world’ was certainly not our forte but luckily the friendly staff at YHA Railway Square helped us complete our quiz in minimal time.

Arriving at Redfern Park, there were more quiz questions to be answered, this time in the form of a crossword, and with the assistance of a Sydney Lonely Planet guide. We didn’t have a book when we got there as there weren’t enough to go around so was somehow managing to rattle of the answers from his phone via google. After about 5 minutes we managed to get a book and quickly finished off the rest of the crossword. We took a footbridge over the Eastern Distributor to get to Moore Park, and could see other teams skating down Mt Steele. Jay willingly took this challenge, for which I was most grateful. He claims his board was busted and every time he leant left it went right. He crashed 3 or 4 times on the way down and considering he skate and snow boards I think may have had a case. Heading back to Paddington Town Hall to wrap things up with some karaoke, we checked in 4hrs 43mins, exhausted but happy we had given our all.