great urban race

the great urban race is ridiculously awesome.

any of you who have ever seen the amazing race and loved watching those pairs battling it out to the finish line....you.must.sign.up.now!!!!  we did the houston race yesterday with 4 friends and had the greatest time.  we got 12 clues...then had to find (and travel by public transportation to) 11 places and complete hilarious tasks to get credit.  my husband ate a serrano pepper...and this cookie above...we did the wheelbarrow race and made origami figures...we took pictures with lots of strangers...and generally laughed our asses off.  many of the participants wore costumes--you have to wear matching outfits with your partner--the funniest of which was the banana and the gorilla.  (that poor woman ran approx. 5 miles around h-town in that monkey suit!?!)

all in all, it was 3 1/2 hours of non-stop fun...and i even found a few places in houston i never knew existed.  the nouveau antique art bar....how did i not know about this? (mural above)  i highly recommend anyone who lives in a race city (there are about 25 now...) give it a whirl.  this was the first time in houston, so they expected about 400 participants....and we had 950 people show up!?!?  love it.