David Olds and Damian Garcia
Team Fluffy Bunny — David Olds & Damian Garcia — took the $50,000 at the 2003 Nationals in New Orleans. Freakishly dedicated to running and Urban Challenge, they're always a delight to see at Urban Challenge races. Interview by Brian Flatgard.
Where's the name Team Fluffy Bunny come from?
Olds: I raced for a while on a team that had a bunch of guys who hammered each workout as if it were a race. A few of us were not interested in joining them as they ran themselves into the ground, so we created our own group, running behind "Team Hammerhead," as we dubbed them. Our approach to training was quite a bit fluffier, more sensible, and we needed our own group name for the two-team, play-by-play commentary that we amused ourselves with during 12-mile runs. Thus was Fluffy Bunny born. We figured that a bunny was pretty much the opposite of a hammerhead shark, so it seemed like a perfect fit for us. Although Tyson, a charter member of the Bunnies with a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology, has since explained to me that a bunny is not technically the opposite of a shark. But by then the name had stuck, and Bunnies we were.
How did you two meet?
Olds: I was Damian's cross-country coach when he was in high school. He came out for one practice as a 9th grader and took a detour to his house, mid run, and never came back. Then, for some reason he foolishly came out for track that spring, and, given that the track is an enclosed space, he was unable to pull of the sneak home move a second time. Once he realized that escape was impossible, he quickly became a very talented track and cross country runner. That was over 10 years ago, and we've run together pretty regularly since then.
Garcia: Dave was my Coach in high school. I did well in the presidential fitness test mile run and though I would go out for X-country. I ran with the team for one day my freshman year, then quit (all that running hurt the next day). After the soccer season I though that track would be easier and less painful because of the shorter distances. I was wrong, but for some reason I fell in love with it and Dave was my Coach for all 4 years. And every summer and every vacation I would come back to LA and run with the bunnies.
What skills have you found particularly helpful in doing Urban Challenge?
Olds: The ability to simultaneously run, talk on the phone, read a map, avoid being hit by cars or buses, and scream at one another without hurting anyone's feelings has been the combination of skills that we have found very useful. That and the ability to catch up to a bus that has a three block lead on us.
Truthfully, the ability to communicate clearly with a well-chosen support crew has been the most helpful to us, and it is something that we have worked pretty hard on from race to race, trying to refine our system.
Garcia: Well the obvious answer is our running ability. It has helped us a lot, but I wouldn’t credit that with being the only reason we’ve faired well. I feel that our ability to effectively communicate with our support crew and with each other has allowed us to perform as well as we have. In the heat of the race, it is so easy to get flustered and mis-communicate one clue, one sentence or even one word and if that happens, the race is over. Our ability to relax when tensions grow thick and communicate clearly with each other has really help us to quickly solve clues and get where we need to go.
How do you train for Urban Challenge?
Garcia: I don’t think we train specifically for the UC. We’re almost always “training” but not necessarily for anything in particular. Come Nov. though, we’ll probably take it easier a few days before the final, knowing that if we do well, we have to do two UCs back to back.
Olds: We run a lot: between 50-100 miles per week depending on the season. I also spend a lot of time checking out the race results from other UC cities and stealing ideas from the folks on the Urbanchallengers Yahoo site. My wife suggested that I include the seemingly endless hours I spend poring over city maps, guidebooks, and websites in preparation for each race, but she is quite prone to exaggeration.
What person would you most like to have dinner with?
Olds: I was really trying to think of something clever for this one, but I am going to have to go with Lance Armstrong. After his performance today in the Alpe d'Huez time trial, I am even more of a fan and would love to meet him. He is such a complete athlete and competitor. Oh, and I suppose that he could bring Sheryl Crow along too if he really wanted.
Garcia: Tuff question, I would have to say my dad. He died when I was very young, so I would love to talk to him.
How do you like Duane Street?
Garcia: I will not grace this question with a response, as any memory of Duane St. should be eradicated from my mind and the sick, twisted animal responsible for its inclusion into the race should be given no quarter and put down with prejudice.
Olds: Duane St. in LA is my new favorite street. I am particularly fond of the Reinhold Messner Plateau and the Hillary Step portions of this particular street that you so thoughtfully included in the middle of the LA race this year.
In retrospect, Damian and I should probably have spent more time at Camp 4 before attempting the summit. The additional time to acclimatize would have made for a much safer climb for all. Hindsight is almost always 20/20, especially if you get that new Laser Surgery for Hindsight they've just come out with. I think it was developed in Canada. Although our summit bid was successful, we were truly saddened to lose two of our best sherpas during the climb, and we will have to reevaluate future summit attempts in light of this tragedy.
Seriously, that is one steep hill. I don't usually walk much during a UC event, but I was happy to walk up most of Duane St. I think that I was actually faster walking than I was running on the hill. On the plus side, it made that last climb up to Yamashiro's seem like a gentle rise.
You were oh-so-close to winning the 2002 championships, then nabbed the 2003 championships. Opine, in brief or at length, on your championship experiences:
Garcia: Since I’m already late on getting this to you I will be brief, and hope that Dave goes into detail. Let’s see now, I have to say that in 2002, that was one of the toughest defeats (in any sort of competition that I’ve done) I’ve ever been dealt. I think the reason for that is two fold. For one, that was a very tough race. Dave and I ran almost 30 miles that day, counting both the semis and the finals, and we lost. To put out so much and give everything you have and to come up short is one of the hardest things in the world for me to cope with, for anybody to have to cope with I would imagine. But what really put the hurt on was how we lost. It wasn’t just a missed clue, or a navigational error, it was, to a large degree, a subjective call. I do understand the call that was made….sort of, but at the same time, I felt that we really did everything right, even extra (running to the Star Trek Experience and back to Tropicana when we didn’t have to). Now, I contrast the way I felt right after we lost in Vegas, to the way I felt when we won in the Big Easy, and it’s almost indescribable. But again it was the way we won that added a little something to it. After the 8th checkpoint, we were sure we had lost, although we hammered through the last 4 clues in and around Bourbon St. we were pretty resigned to the fact that the championship had eluded us again. So when we walk into the ballroom for the last time (and I stress the word walk, there was no sense of panic in our step at all) and our friend Tyson has this crazy look of shock on his face barely able to speak and tell us that we’re the first in and we have to sprint to the finish yet still cross first, it was almost impossible to believe. You add to that the hour we had to wait until the whole radian and degrees thing got figured out and I can honestly tell you I have never gone through such a range of emotions in my life in such a short time span. Nor had I ever gone from being sober to drunk so quickly as I did at the cat’s meow… (if anyone asks, the best part of winning an urban challenge event is how gracious everyone is afterwards, and how their favorite way of showing their graciousness is by buying you a beer… Dave and I like that part). Anyway, this damn race has put me through the washing machine in terms of emotions, I’ve up, down, and every other which way and no matter how I land I can’t wait to do it again.
Olds: Both nationals races have been a blast. I mean, two Urban Challenge races in one day. What's not to like?
We had no idea what to expect in Vegas but had hopes of making it to the finals if we had a good race. Winning seemed like such an impossibility that the real impact of our narrow miss in the finals didn't really hit me until halfway through the six hour drive home the next day, which, as you might imagine, made for a rather agonizing three hours. The pain has diminished somewhat over time, and someday Damian and I hope to fully recover from the final decision rendered on our tremendously clever interpretation of "Make it so."
In New Orleans we really felt like we would likely make it to the finals, as long as we didn't screw up. We had cleverly spent a lot of time during the regular season races screwing up, so we felt like we had gotten that pretty much out of our systems. We came to New Orleans confident and excited. It was great to reconnect with most of The Magnificent 7 from Vegas, and it was interesting that four teams were repeat finalists in New Orleans.
The finals were surreal. Coming into the Blue Room mid race to find our Skip and our Checkpoint person was a great race twist. It hadn't dawned on me how many people were part of this event until we had to find two of them in that crowded room. While it was great to get some idea of where we stood during the race, we were shocked at how far behind we were, and we left the room resigned to finishing out of the money. Although we forged on, we were close to violating the Cardinal Rule of Urban Challenge: always play as if you are winning.
Running through the French Quarter on a Saturday night is something everyone should do once in his/her life. It was a madhouse, and, with the pressure off to try and win (because we thought that we were so far behind) I really enjoyed it. The people out there were just nuts, and it was so vibrant and noisy: a real contrast to the first four checkpoints in the cemetery.
Despite feeling like we had no chance to win, we were flying through the final checkpoints hoping to close the gap on the leaders, maybe catch a few teams and keep intact our streak of never crossing an Urban Challenge finish line worse than 3rd. I remember saying to Damian near the end, "It's a shame that this finishing loop wasn't longer because we are cruising and could have really made up some time on people."
When we walked (yes walked) through the Fairmont lobby and up the steps into the Blue Room, we figured that we had probably caught a couple of teams. Disappointed that we hadn't won, we were none-the-less interested to find out who had. Our friend Tyson was at the top of the steps, and he looked at us with the strangest expression on his face. It was a "what are you guys doing back here; did you forget something?" look. And we stared back with a "What do you mean? What place are we?" look. His response was a silent, single index finger pointing skyward, and I believe that our harmonious response was an immediate "No f'ing way!" followed by a crazed scramble to check through our photos for accuracy.
Before the semis we had decided to review our photos before crossing the finish line, in the hope of avoiding any stupid mistakes, something with which we were altogether too familiar. We had also discussed protocol for what to do if another team arrived while we were reviewing the photos. The consensus was clear: stop reviewing and cross the line first!
So, of course, as we were reviewing our photos, the Beard's arrived, and the mad sprint for the finish ensued. Let me tell you, there is nothing like sprinting for a finish line through a crowded cocktail party. You really need to try it sometime. The margin of victory was two seconds, but it was closer than it sounds.
Then it was simply sit back and enjoy the agonizing 90-minute wait to determine whether all of our pictures were correct. As time passed, our dread grew. Although we had confirmed most of our answers with the Beards and the Graham brothers and were pretty confident of our answers, we had been through this wait before, and experience told us that the waiting was not a good thing.
Then Kevin came to talk to me. "Out in the lobby." This was bad. It was déjà vu all over again. Damian couldn't even watch let alone participate in the conversation. "Oh God!" I thought. "Not again." It turned out that our answer and Kevin's didn't match on one of the first four Checkpoints in the cemetery. It was a Trigonometry problem involving the cosine of a 65-degree angle. Oddly enough, however, all three teams currently across the line had come up with the same wrong answer, and Kevin was baffled. Something was fishy. We had even had two different groups solve the problem independently, which made at least four groups with the same wrong answer. So what is the cosine of 65 degrees anyway? There is really only one answer. Why were Kevin's and ours different?
After another agonizing wait, a scientific calculator was produced, and, to our astonishment, Kevin's answer appeared on the screen after the requisite buttons had been pushed. How could this be? We had the best math minds in the country in agreement us. Our support team was the best in the business. Charlie and Justin's crew were certified geniuses. How could they all possibly be wrong? This could not be happening. Then someone in the crowd raised the question as to whether the calculator was set to degrees or radians, and something of a hush came over the crowd assembled in the Fairmont lobby. "Hmmm," I thought, having little to no idea what he was talking about. "Maybe this was the answer." "Yeah, check that degree radian thingy," I remember thinking and perhaps saying. The thingy was checked, adjusted, and more buttons were pushed. And, voila! Our answer appeared magically on the screen, and the celebration could officially begin.
We were overwhelmed by the support that we got from the other teams during and after the drama. We can't wait to reconnect with many of those teams in Miami.
Although both the Vegas and New Orleans races were thrilling, almost once in a lifetime moments, I am personally looking forward to a very boring finish to the Miami finals in November.
What's your most memorable interaction with an innocent bystander during an Urban Challenge race?
Olds: There are really no innocent bystanders when it comes to Urban Challenge. Everyone is either an ally or an enemy. We have had a particularly difficult time on buses in the various cities we've raced. It can be painful to sit and wait for a line of 10 passengers to fumble for exact change while the Urban Challenge clock is ticking.
In LA last year we got on two different buses that stopped to pick up and unload passengers in wheelchairs. Both buses were the type that has a hydraulic ramp that folds out (slowly) to allow the wheelchairs to get on and off. This, needless to say, takes a great deal of time; time that, in the heat of the race, seems eternal.
After the first wheelchair pick up and drop off, we joked that perhaps our competitors were stationing friends in wheelchairs along the route to slow us down. When we stopped to pick up the second wheelchair-bound passenger our suspicions grew. Then the ramp did not meet up properly with the sidewalk when it was first opened, so the driver had to (slowly) close it again and then (slowly and carefully) reposition the bus before (slowly) opening it again. Then the passenger trying to board got stuck between the bus bench and a street sign and was unable maneuver out of his predicament. It was at this point that we realized that our fears of a "slow down" conspiracy were likely true, and we bolted from the bus, willing to run any extra distance necessary. To this day I am hesitant to use buses for transportation during an Urban Challenge event.
Garcia: Mine was just recently actually. In our LA race, I was sprinting towards the finish line… and I mean sprinting, when I saw up ahead two small children, a boy, maybe 4 years old and a girl, maybe 6 or 7. They were on the sidewalk ahead of me maybe 45-50m, when the little girl turned around and saw me. She was on the right side of the sidewalk and jumped onto the grass when she saw me coming and I though, “ok, one down, now this next one is going to be tricky.” I know exactly what this kid was gonna do, he heard us coming, and began to turn around. Now this is where my cat like instincts took hold. As almost any 4-year-old kid would do, when they think danger is approaching, they make a B-line towards mom or dad. Only in this instance, mom was at the car so for little “Johnny” (not sure of his real name but we’ll call him Johnny) to get to mama, he was going to have to dart right across my path which he did when I was 5 ft. from him… I jumped in the air, almost over him, had to contort my body so that I didn’t smack right into him, which would have been very bad as I was going pretty dang fast at the time, land and continue on my way. I felt as though Bruce-Lee himself took hold of my body, I had total and utter control of my body to a degree few humans have ever experienced. It was all in slow motion, like in the first SpiderMan when Peter Parker got into that first fight at school against Flash. All turned out well, he made it to mom, I made it to the finish line. The only thing that had me concerned was whether Dave’s heart was going to be able to take the stress of watching me almost take out little Johnny.
What, if any, other types of events do you compete in?
Olds: Our main non-UC competition revolves primarily around eating contests. Damian is a big fan of Takeru Kobayashi (the world eating champ. Did you see that he just broke his hotdog record again? 53 1/2 in 12 minutes; simply unbelievable). I was recently sucked into the vortex of a "can you eat 30 Diddy Reese chocolate chip cookies in 30 minutes?" contest. The answer is no. And it would be fine if I never saw another chocolate chip again in my life. And, for those of you who think that it sounds pretty easy, trust me; you don't want to try it.
Damian is also quite prolific and accurate with a potato cannon, and he also honestly believes that he could beat up a bear in hand to hand combat, although I think he gets to use some sort of club, and there might be a tree involved. We have yet to organize a test of that last contest.
Actually we are both pretty serious runners, training and racing with the larger Fluffy Bunny group. We tend to focus on 5k and 10k road races as well as cross-country in the fall. If training goes well, I might be visiting Team Oozing Monkey in Minnesota this October for the Twin Cities Marathon.
Garcia: Lots of road races, cross country races etc… I am also into the world of competitive eating, Takuru Kobayashi is one of my heroes. Now understand, I’m more of a coordinator than an actual contestant. I admit that I really can’t eat that much compared to some of my friends, but man I can organize an event. Ask Dave about the Cookie eating contest, he’s 2nd all time with 25 Deedee Riese cookies in under a half hour. That’s an amazing feat.
You raced the second ever Urban Challenge, and have been racing non-stop ever since. How has your strategy evolved?
Garcia: We’ve made a few changes through out the years, the biggest being the way our clues are solved.
Olds: Initially we tried to solve the clues and find the checkpoints, which we have since realized is a waste of time. Now we just follow Jeff and Jake and take the same pictures as them, except for checkpoint 12, where we do the opposite of whatever they do. This has proven to be a very solid strategy, and it has been the secret of our UC success.
Explain the highs and withdrawals of your Urban Challenge addiction. Have you sought help for this problem?
Garcia: Well, when we’re in season, we’re always talking about new strategies, talking about where we think routes might go, how to more quickly get our clues to our support crew etc. It’s non-stop and the excitement level is always very high especially because of the abundance of races near us. SD, LA, SF, and Vegas are all very realistic opportunities for us to race. But when we’re out of season, our withdrawl is seen almost immediately. God help anyone that goes on a run with us, if they are not familiar with the UC then they are inundated with stories. For the next month our running conversation always leads back to the UC. We also seem to always be looking for possible clues, which does come in handy. Let me just say now that I picked the Blarney Stone to be a clue during for the finals when I was visiting my brother at Tulane Law School for Mardi Graise of the previous year.
Olds: Addiction is the right word for this; I can see that now. The weeks following an Urban Challenge race are dark indeed: aimless and disorienting. The signs above every shop I pass seem to mock me with their checkpoint potential. Each bus that rumbles by on the street beckons with the promise of an express trip to my next destination. Public art, once beautiful to me, now seems like merely a possible means to an end, provided that I read the accompanying plaque carefully. I wander disconsolate through the travel section of bookstores gazing distractedly at maps of Miami, wistfully at New Orleans guidebooks, morosely at postcards of Las Vegas.
With support from my fellow Bunnies (who have certainly grown tired of the daily Urban Challenge dialogue), I have begun to come to grips with my Urban Challenge problem and have begun to work through my considerable issues. My experiences at nationals have helped immensely. Meeting people from all over the country who are all somewhat Urban Challenge addicted has made me feel like less of a freak. Seeing people who have found a way to do Urban Challenge well and, at the same time, live reasonably normal lives has given me hope for myself down the road. It will be a long and difficult battle, but it is one I feel that I can win, especially with good ground support.
Most comical Urban Challenge moment?
Olds: I don't think that there is anything funny about Urban Challenge. You'll have to talk to Damian for this.
Garcia: Watching Kevin have a discussion with John Ritter to make sure John Ritter’s dad did indeed direct something… that was classic. Only in LA.
Favorite Arctic/Antarctic explorer?
Olds: Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole. It was almost a sprint finish between him and the Brit, Robert Scott and was quite possibly the first real adventure race.
Garcia: Sir James Ross Clark of course.
What kind of trivia do you answer most correctly?
Olds: I seem to do best on the San Diego questions, not about San Diego, but in San Diego. We always seem to get out in the first group there, whereas in LA this year we were 5th group and lucky to get that. Actually we usually do pretty well with the trivia. I'm pretty good with the literature questions, and I am becoming quite proficient at questions involving the ratio of hogsheads to other units of measure. Damian is in charge of the Reality TV questions, anything to do with Melrose Place or 90210, and all trivia related to obscure fighting and wrestling competitions.
Garcia: For trivia questions, anything of or relating to alcohol is our specialty. Funny enough, much of what I’ve learned has come from UC celebrations.
You have new racing duds. So y'all are sponsored by Nike?
Olds: Yeah, Nike was looking for a team of competitive runners to sponsor in the LA area. They wanted a group that is pretty high profile on the local road racing scene, and we tend to do pretty well in those events and are always willing to make something of a spectacle of ourselves, so Nike saw it as a good match. They really liked the "Fluffy Bunny" name, which is probably the real reason for their willingness to sponsor us.
Garcia: Indeed we are. It’s pretty cool actually. FBTC has been a local race team for a number of years now and we usually do pretty well, putting at least 3 in top five places of local 5 and 10K road races. Apparently Nike is making a big push to get at the sub elite level of runners, the everyday runner who works 40+ hours a week but still gets out there and puts in 50, 60, 70 miles a week. FBTC has been doing that for years and doing relatively well, so they approached us and asked if we would like to get some gear from them and in return, we will represent them at all the races (including the UC) we do every year. Most all of us wore Nike anyway so it’s been a great partnership. They have been great in supporting us and providing us with VERY nice gear, note the Yellow race shirts we wore in LA.
"Team Fluffy Bunny" anagrams to "Lube My Tuff Fanny." Have your guys tried to get sponsored by BodyGlide?
Olds: Wow Brian, you have a truly twisted gift for anagrams. Our Bunny teammates Tyson and Nathan Sacco, (formerly team DST--Double Sacco Threat) raced the LA Urban Challenge as Bluefin Snuffy, also an anagram of Fluffy Bunnies.
Olds: We have all been enjoying the dozens of free samples of BodyGlide from our LA goodie bag, although we are a bit confused by the fact that BodyGlide is now SPF 25. It has made us wonder exactly how and where the BodyGlide people expect their product to be used. Maybe we should give them a call to clear this up, as well as to discuss some sort of sponsorship, although I don't think that we would be willing to change the team name at this time.
That would be a negatory. But that could be a name for a third FBTC team. We’ve have the original Team Fluffy Bunny, and in LA Team Bluefin Snuffy made their debut, so there is a possibility that in SD, Team “Lube My Tuff Fanny” may make an appearance.
What's the question you wished we asked you instead of that last one. Please be kind enough to answer it.
Olds: Are you sure that you want to give me a chance to write more? Let's see, you might want to ask about whatever happened to that "Make it so" plaque from that bench in Las Vegas. You'll have to talk to Damian about that. I had nothing to do with it.
Garcia:
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