A swarm of people in powder-blue T-shirts have taken over Charlestown’s City Square Park, ducking behind bushes, eyeing one another suspiciously, and shouting out “S!” or “Z!” like alphabet assassins. They’re on the hunt for letters printed on small white squares that are taped to various park fixtures. “I’ve been looking for ‘E’ forever,” complains Cambridge lawyer Julie Rising. Moments later, she’s bargaining with a bearded man — she’ll give him the location of “I” if he tells her where “R” is.
The letter hunters are taking part in the second annual Urban Dare, a scavenger hunt for the athletic overachiever. They use a list of 12 historic trivia questions to point them to locations throughout the city, where they’ll snap camera-phone photos and carry out dares. Oh yes, and run. There’s lots of running. This was apparently obvious to all but me — I realized that the Web site (urbandare.com) was serious about the race thing when I encountered 65 teams of two, all clad in running shoes, at the check-in point on Boston Common. Half an hour later, I’m covered in sweat as I dart across Congress Street, trying to scribble words in my crumpled notebook, keep up with Rising and her teammate, Amy Kloempken (also a lawyer), and avoid getting hit by a car.
At this point my goal shifts from “write about Urban Dare” to “survive Urban Dare.” In a flash we’re at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where the parched participants devour gooey cookies (a dare) and rush to climb all 294 of the Bunker Hill Monument’s stone steps before anyone can say, “Hope I don’t throw up.” Later, after Rising and Kloempken have persuaded a group of lounging ladies on Newbury Street to give Vulcan handshakes and pose for a photo, I think that they might be my heroes. Still, their Blackberrys prove to be the true MVPs. The duo spend most of the three hours it takes them to complete the race either shouting clues at Kloempken’s boyfriend, who’s aiding them from his computer, or running and Googling simultaneously — an impressive feat. “I’m so out of juice,” Rising says before we sprint into the Sweetwater Café, the ending point, where beers and one last task — a jigsaw puzzle — await.
