San Francisco Chronicle
(Original article online)

The clues brothers dash through city to win contest

Cicero A. Estrella, Chronicle Staff Writer

Need to find Ross Alley in San Francisco? Brothers Justin and Charles Graham point to Chinatown.

Which architectural landmark was partly inspired by a 19th century painting of a royal tomb? The brothers say it is the Palace of Fine Arts.

Knowing the ins and outs of San Francisco -- from must-see destinations printed on every tourist brochure to obscure gems in out-of-the-way corners -- has benefited the Grahams with their weekend-warrior hobby of treasure hunts.

Give them a clue to a destination in the city, and they will find it. More than likely, they have been there before.

The Grahams recently won the San Francisco leg of the Urban Challenge, an "adventure race" that tests participants' knowledge of their city through a combination road race and treasure hunt, with a general trivia round thrown in for good measure. The brothers say they have won three or four other San Francisco treasure hunts in the past five years.

"Each treasure hunt has its own quirks," Justin Graham, 30, said. "Some are weighted toward foot speed; some are weighted toward the mental challenge. We both love the mental challenge, and we both like the physical aspect of it because we're both runners."

"Our two hobbies are running marathons and treasure hunts," added Charles Graham, 27. "Urban Challenge was particularly exciting for that reason."

Each logs 30 to 70 miles a week with the Hash House Harriers, "a drinking club with a running problem." The brothers take advantage of the club's tendency to stray from the beaten path. They take mental notes while they run through "every alley, over hills, over dales," and then put that information to use during treasure hunts.

"Instead of running through the main streets, we go down alleyways because they're more fun," said Charles, co-founder and chief technology officer of Hipbone, a San Carlos Internet-applications company. "We've already seen the landmarks. There are so many interesting little hidden treasures in the city -- plaques, little tidbits you would never know about if you never stopped to look."

The brothers were born in Chicago and moved with their family to Hillsborough in 1984. Each ran for the San Mateo High cross-country team. They developed their interest for trivia competition when Justin participated during his senior year in a weekendlong trivia contest at Carlmont High in Belmont.

They later found out about treasure hunts while attending Harvard University.

Justin, a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases at Stanford Hospital, received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry in 1992 from Harvard and moved to the city to attend UC San Francisco. Charles followed the move to San Francisco in 1996 after completing his studies in computer science, history of science and economics.

They have since been pounding the streets of San Francisco, Justin as a Cole Valley resident and Charles in the Sunset District.

Urban Challenge, they estimate, was the 25th treasure hunt for which they have partnered. The race was the third of 21 being held throughout the country.

The brainchild of Arizona businessman Kevin McCarthy, the race requires teams of two to decipher clues to locate 12 "checkpoint" sites throughout the city. The teams must have their pictures taken in front of each checkpoint.

The top 10 finishers of each race advance to the national championship in November at Las Vegas, where they will compete for a $50,000 prize. Each city's winning team receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas, and second-place finishers get free hotel accommodations.

McCarthy, owner of a cabinet manufacturing company in Phoenix, conceived the game for his daughter Kate's 12th birthday party in Tucson in October. It worked out so well that he decided the rest of the country was ready for it.

One aspect of the race is that public transportation is encouraged. (Taxis, bicycles, in-line skates are against the rules.)

The Grahams were dressed in running shoes, shorts and numbered running bibs pinned to their shirts. They were armed with a Muni transit map and bus passes, and their cell phones were in constant use as pals from as far away as Boston worked the Web to help them with the clues.

The other 57 teams were doing the same, but the Grahams were easy to spot -- they were the ones constantly squabbling.

That is nothing new to the brothers, who have no other siblings. They believe their inability to agree helps while treasure hunting because they are able to shoot holes in each other's logic.

"If we were on opposing teams, we would kill each other," said Justin. "We already kill each other being on the same team, but (we stay partners) because we're afraid to give the other bragging rights." They agree, however, on at least one point: They are logical to a fault, as evidenced by their slow start in the Urban Challenge.

The race started at 8:30 a.m. with a trivia challenge at Jillian's restaurant at the Metreon Center. Scantron forms and No. 2 pencils were used to answer 30 multiple-choice questions such as Marie Antoinette's last words ("Monsieur, I beg your pardon"), the state originally known as Franklin (Tennessee) and the first person to do a moon walk (Neil Armstrong, not Michael Jackson).

The trivia round determined a staggered start. The 10 teams with the best scores, which included the Grahams, were let loose onto Fifth Street first, followed five minutes later by the next 10 and so on. The checkpoints had to be visited in order, but each team started with a different checkpoint. The Grahams, for example, started with checkpoints 11 and 12 and then went to No. 1.

Their first task was to find a cafe that "shares its name, but not its spelling, with the capital of Iraq."

They reasoned the Baghdad Cafe at the Castro, but wait.

Their research on the Phoenix race from two weeks earlier showed that most of the checkpoints were about a half-mile apart. The Castro was four times that far. Besides, their next checkpoint would lead them back to downtown, so it made little sense to trek to the Castro, then back.

They racked their brains over perhaps another Baghdad Cafe within the SoMa vacinity. Five wasted minutes later, they finally jumped on an outbound F- Market street car for the Castro.

The next checkpoint was "a circular metal object emblazoned with a sailing ship . . . located within 200 yards of the cable car turnaround at Market." A previous treasure hunt had led them to the turnaround at California Street, so they assumed it was the same one.

Wrong. The checkpoint was the night depository at the Bank of America on Powell Street. More precious minutes lost.

"We got wrapped up in our own intricacies. When we're in agreement, that's when we get in trouble," Charles said.

The rest of the race was just as frenetic. They covered 10 miles of the 15- mile course by foot, although that was not the plan.

The Grahams could not get in sync with Muni's schedule. Many times they sprinted to bus stops only to find the bus four blocks ahead of them. So they ran to many checkpoints, only to have buses arrive simultaneously.

That was when their experience with marathons -- Justin has run 12, Charles two -- came into play. At one point, the brothers could have taken a cable car from the North Beach Playground and Pool to the corner of Lombard and Hyde. They chose to run.

"We've outrun cable cars before," Justin said.

Their final checkpoint was True Stylin', a salon in the Haight. From there they took an N-Judah back to race headquarters. Since each team started with a different checkpoint, they were clueless as to how they were faring.

They went on full sprint from the Powell Street station back to Jillian's. They arrived with a time of 3 hours, 30 minutes, 44 seconds, eight minutes ahead of runners-up Hugh Magen and Sonia Taylor, both of San Francisco.

Now it is on to Las Vegas, where for the first time the Grahams might actually gain financially from their hobby. The "treasure" part of treasure hunt has so far meant no more than gift certificates to them.

But that is not the reason the brothers race. They do it for fun, for pride.

It allows them to learn more about their city and meet people.

One of their favorite aspects of the Urban Challenge was it allowed interaction with others. They enjoyed persuading strangers and sometimes even competitors to snap their photos.

"Apparently, this one woman we asked had never used a camera before," Justin said. "We were all sweaty coming up to people, we would accost them and demand they take our picture as fast as they can."

Charles said: "They would tell us to smile, move over to the right. (We were thinking), 'Look, just take the photo.' "

The brothers make the perfect team, they say, because they have different strengths. Justin is the pop-culture specialist, so he fares better at the trivia part. Charles is usually first to spot the target.

"I'm his deadweight," Charles said. "I'm his Garfunkel. I can run and he's able to do everything else."

Justin concurred: "He's the Garfunkel to my Simon."

The Grahams plan to map out their own treasure hunt. They have some landmarks already pegged -- a hidden statue here, an obscure plaque there, something of historical value over yonder. Who knows? They might have a bridge with particularly troubled waters in mind.

E-mail Cicero A. Estrella at cestrella@sfchronicle.com.