Catherine and Terrence Lee
Straight out of The Twin Cities of Minnesota, Team Oozing Monkeys, Terrence
and Catherine Lee are one of two married teams to have qualified for Urban
Challenge Magnificent 7 status. We first met this simian duo during our
summer ’02 race in their hometown and we’ve been cheering them
on ever since. They’ve actually qualified for Mag 7 status in both
the ’02 and ’03 finals and I guess you could say they’re
pretty serious competitors. However, as the following interview demonstrates
and in true Urban Challenge fashion, they’re
not afraid to mix a little monkey with their business. Interview by Geoff
Yaw, National Race Director.
Any special benefit to racing with your spouse?
For one thing, it makes it a little less awkward to squeeze together for those checkpoint photos. Sometimes you really have to press together pretty damn close! Also, if you win, the victory celebrations are a little more fun, if you catch our drift. Finally, if we ever do win that $50,000 we won’t have to split it. Cathy will just spend it all.
Oozing Monkeys: Is your team name merely a product of free association or is
there a story there somewhere?
It just came to us one day, as if in a vision.
You guys hold the distinction of having the fastest finish
time in Urban Challenge regular season history. Tell us a little about the train
bridge incident during your historic ‘03
twin cities race.
We were running back from Checkpoint
9 when we saw some railroad
tracks. On the map it looked like running them would save quite a bit of time
in getting to Checkpoint 10, so we thought what the hell. The tracks definitely
went straight towards where we wanted to go, but as we kept running, we noticed
that getting out of the railroad tracks might become a problem. We ended up
having to climb out of the area by going up a retaining wall, through the basement
of a building that was being constructed, and over a tall chain-link fence.
After we hopped the fence someone started yelling at us, but we were too busy
taking our checkpoint picture.
(Webmaster note: This bridge spanned the Mississippi river, very high and very long.)
Beer or Wine?
Terry doesn’t drink, so Cathy makes up for that. Beer is
good, wine is her favorite.
Of the three cities in which you’ve raced (Minneapolis, Las Vegas
and New Orleans), which would you describe as your favorite and why?
We love racing in the Twin Cities because even though we both grew up here, the races have taken us to areas we have never been before. They have really given us a chance to learn a lot more about where we live.
Any major arguments during a race?
Not usually, although we had a big blow up in this year’s New Orleans semi-finals. We had done better on trivia than we had expected, but were completely stumped on our first checkpoint (the
Jabberwocky one). Thirty to forty minutes had gone by and we had made no progress. Cathy wanted to use the skip, but Terry was worried that we might not find the skip (we had a history of missing the skip person) and would be DQ’d. The “discussion” got pretty heated and a lot of f-bombs were flying. The ultimate lesson was that Cathy was correct and it was a risk we needed to take. J We skipped the checkpoint and later made it through to the finals. Terry profusely apologized sometime after we learned we had made the Magnificent 7 again.
What’s your most memorable interaction with an innocent bystander
during an Urban Challenge race?
During the New Orleans semis, we were waiting for the St. Charles streetcar to take us back downtown, when we realized that we’d lost our transit passes. All we had was a $20 bill. Ugh! Cathy ended up begging two girls at the streetcar stop for money to ride the trolley. We can’t say what she had to do to get it, but needless to say, we rode that streetcar back into town!
Trivial Pursuit or Pictionary?
Terry is awesome at Trivial Pursuit; Cathy is more of a Pictionary kind of girl. Still, we are fortunate that success at Urban Challenge is not dependent on drawing ability.
What, if any, other types of events do you compete in?
Both of us run and do triathlons, and we’ve been involved in some other adventure races over the past 4 years. We have the most fun by far, however, Urban Challenge-ing.
Do you do any type of training specifically for Urban Challenge?
Most of the training we do for the other sports carries over into Urban Challenge. We definitely spend time studying for the races, though -- looking at the transit system, studying maps and landmarks, watching lots of cable TV, etc. We’re both useless at work the week before an UC race.
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