2002 Finals
Urban Challenge National Championships
The Finish
A throng of people poured out of the Urban Challenge cocktail
party and into the Fremont Street Experience for the finish. Finalists
like David Olds were "shocked at the number of people lining
the chute as well as the noise. It is amazing that that so many
of you hung around to see the finish." A deafening roar went
up as the first teams came in.
Team Vignette #1, Marcy and
John Beard, nabbed the first place spot. They were the third team
across, but the first to get all the checkpoints right. Like the
semifinals, it was another nail-biting finish.
Jeff and Jake, #10037, John
(Jake) Kelley Courtney and Jeff Atkinson, came across way ahead
of the pack but had a picture of the wrong sleeping car for checkpoint
12. Team Fluffy Bunny, #10084,
David Olds and Damian Garcia, were second across the line, but didn't
get a picture of the "Make It So" bench for Checkpoint
5.
The second team to get all the checkpoints correct were Oozing
Monkeys, #10103, Catherine and
Terrence Lee. Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber (aka Team Google),
#10091, Charlie & Justin
Graham were the next team in with all the correct checkpoints.
Terrence Lee (Team Oozing Monkeys):
Personally, I was very suprised we did as well as we did! We were
lucky enough to come in 7th in the semi's and with the DQs in
the finals we ended up 2nd. But sitting on the van that took us
to the start of the finals was definitely tough, knowing the fitness
level of the other teams. My wife and I are in pretty good shape,
but when there is an Olympian who has an awesome ground support
team sitting behind you, it's hard to be confident. An interesting
observation is that the top two teams ended up being co-ed teams!
Maybe there is something to that whole marriage making you stronger
thing after all.
Justin Graham (Team Google):
First I want to say congrats to everyone who raced, to the other
six finalist teams, and especially to the Beards, who ran a stellar
race in the final round.
Charlie and I had an incredibly fun weekend. Of course
we wish we had won the money, but we love these kinds of competitions,
and we do them all the time with no money on the line. In fact,
while we were pretty intimidated by the other finalists' athletic
credentials, we were pretty confident in our puzzle solving ability.
The San Francisco Bay Area is unusually rich in treasure hunts
or puzzle hunts or whatever you want to call them, and we do every
one we possibly can (about 7 or 8 in the past year alone, not
including UC). Most of these require little athleticism and have
really really hard puzzles (examples: audio cryptograms; semaphore
on a chessboard; binary braille billiard balls).
PS: We don't actually work at Google, although we're
good friends with the company's founder. He hosted our Internet
search crew here in SF, but, despite our begging, he wouldn't
rig the search engine to give all of you little messages from
us!
It was Jeff & Jake and Team Fluffy Bunny that showed the most
endurance of the day. Long after many of the Urban Challenge elite
had gone home, and as the last Urban Challenge staff left, they
were out on the dance floor with their support crews, dancing and
shouting and laughing, seemingly off the ground more than on it.
The National Champions
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