Jeff Atkinson and Jake Courtney
Jeff and Jake, perhaps the best team to never win a national championship,
are charter members of the Magnificent Seven. At both national championships,
they went down to elimination despite "first across the
line" finishes. Read more about the Pink Flamingos. Interview by Kevin
McCarthy, Race Creator.
- Jeff Atkinson, 41, Owner: Olympian Fitness – athletic consulting,
boot camp, personal training. Track and XC coach at Palos Verdes HS
- Jake Courtney, 41, Lawyer, Girardi &Keese
How did you two meet?
We met in the 2nd grade, Jake’s mom
was our catechism teacher, great friends since 9th grade when we ran XC together.
Co-captains of the team as seniors…
Tell us the story of Las Vegas.
Probably the most thrilling competition event of our lives in terms of pure pleasure,
energy, and fun (more fun than the Olympic Games!) Big bucks on the line, running
all over the city with everyone on the streets laughing, heckling, and cheering
these nutballs in silly clothes. Feeling like James Bond/Indiana Jones solving
the clues, making strategic guesses, running our asses off, cackling when we’d
find something quickly, freaking out when our camera ran out of batteries halfway
through the final, and commanding the attention of a double length bus at rush
hour with 100 people on board to get everyone to listen to a clue and figure
out what an H-60 is (one of the bus riders DID give us the crucial bit of info
that it was a helicopter.) We were rock stars surrounded by Vegas’ finest.
The game is a rush. It’s fair, competitive, ever-changing, and precise.
It helped that we had a dozen friends and family drinking all day and chasing
us all over the city and laughing at the absurd notion that a clever scavenger
hunt could really yield fifty f@#king thousand dollars…
And so it came down to this: we were last out of the blocks with a poor showing in the final trivia contest but made up the 15 minute deficit in the first 4 clues by “thinking out of the box” i.e. jumping over fences to reach streets, so that the top five teams all arrived at clue 5 off the bus at the same time. Lost in the dark, scrambling around with the others, we made the decisive strategic move to skip the clue without having found the skip man. Now we knew we were in the lead with some substantial running to go. 6 clues and the skip man later, we were one stop away from glory. And we had no IDEA where the last stop was. Stuck on #12, Jake made the call that the final clue HAD to be near the finish line 3 miles away back downtown. Another leap of faith, but a logical one. When you are going for the CASH you gotta take some risks. The aforementioned bus ride gave us enough to go on to find the “Blackhawk” railcar downtown. That’s when things got interesting.
We were tired. Two rounds in one day, 12 miles in the morning, about 8 that evening.
Knew we had the LEAD but didn’t know what clue other teams had skipped.
We started scouring the railcar for the “little lady’s bedroom”.
Our friends arrived just ahead of us. Some random guy on the street said others
had been there minutes before - they hadn’t, he had seen our friends
- yet panic ensued. Seven people sat there, 5 blocks away from 50 LARGE, unable
to figure out who the hell Phoebe Butler was and why the f@#k she had a railcar.
So we made the classic blunder of all UC races and OVERTHOUGHT the clue. We
figured she was the concubine, wife, first cousin or something of Buffalo Bill
Cody and hence would have slept in ol’ Bill’s room. Our internet
guy said something about a relationship between the two, but we didn’t
wait for the confirmation. Sounded good, snapped picture of Cody’s plaque,
dropped everything, and ran like Ben Johnson from a drug test for our rightful
bag o’ loot.
Good thing we ran, because we were ONLY 18 MINUTES (eighteen, one eight, one third of an HOUR) AHEAD of the next team, the Fluffy (“disqualify me now, Scotty!”) Bunnies, and FORTY FIVE MINUTES ahead of the brilliant Texas Hold ‘em Beards, who have never seen a wild west show and don’t give a rat’s ass about Annie Oakley’s real name, or whether she had her own room on that freaking railcar, or even whether she philandered her way across the country and slept where she damn well pleased, BECAUSE THEY SKIPPED the final clue like the right minded folk they are and waltzed across the finish to the tune of 50,000 silver dollars cascading out of the “Jake and Jeff ‘Let’s rush the final clue!’ slot machine”…
Turns out Buffalo Bill Cody’s railcar bedroom and plaque is 15 FEET from Phoebe “Annie Oakley” Butler’s bedroom and plaque. Oops. We’ll never make that mistake again…
Tell us the story of New Orleans.
Second verse, same as the first. First across the finish. 21 MINUTES AHEAD. 12th clue blunder. Oops. We’ll never make that mistake again, again…
Who’s Vince? How does he figure in?
Jake’s brother in law. Your average 1600 SAT, Cal grad, rib eating, non-running, bank of trivia, and internet savant, who flies solo on race day. We’ve tried using a few more people but we roll best with just the three of us.
What role do your wives play on race day?
Tricia, Jake’s wife, also non-runner, but non-rib eater (see Vince above) looks for the skip person. Alison, Jeff’s wife, runner, shadows other teams and pisses them off because she can run 18 flat for 5K. Both capable of spending and unspending 100,000 in two days.
What’s your best moment in UC?
The 30 second countdown before the trivia. Seriously. A great thrill and terror for everyone, like your first day of school.
How will your strategy change this year?
One word: Verification
Who’s the pretty one?
Vince.
You have raced in at least six UC cities. Which one’s your favorite and why?
LA 2003. You never forget your first time.
Vodka or Gin?
Jack, Mr. Daniels to you…
Who will win the $50,000 this year? Why will they win?
The team that solves clue #12.
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