Xplore Urban Racing Series: San Francisco

Altering the spelling of your event to start with an «X» is becoming «xtremely» hackneyed, but the race delivered more than expected (or, «xpected,» I guess), based on what I had heard about last year’s race. The major errors mentioned by the reviewer from last year were not apparent this year — every landmark we were supposed to visit was there, and the registration process was all done easily online.
Basically, the race is similar to the Amazing Race, in that you are given clues to solve and challenges to complete. The challenges aren’t particularly tough once you solve the clue — mostly you just have to photograph or video yourself doing a simple task at the location. Most of the strategy involves figuring out how to get through all of the tasks as quickly as possible. (My girlfriend and I decided to solve all the clues at the beginning so that we could map out a route — this consumed over a half hour of time because I got stuck on one and it’s a bit awkward to do all of this on a mobile device. There is a loophole in the rules we found out later that allows you to have non-​competitors help you solve clues and plot your path. Theoretically you could have a handful of friends at home on their laptops do this for you in just a few minutes.)
Once you solve the clues, you’re on your way, running around town (or taking public transit, when it’s advantageous), completing tasks, and uploading your progress. This last part proved to be the most frustrating part of the race, as the app we had to use repeatedly malfunctioned, forcing us to re-​do many of the tasks and adding at least a half hour to our time.
Although race organizers say it’s similar to a 5k, how far you run/​walk depends on your ability to plot an efficient route that will cover all the locations you need to hit. Even taking that into account, 5 km is a low-​ball estimate. We took about as efficient a route as you could take, and probably covered closer to 10 km. That wasn’t a problem for me, and it was actually a great way to see the city, but the description was misleading.
The finish line was at a bar in SoMa. It would have been cool if they had more of a reception area where you could debrief with organizers and other teams, and drink specials, etc., but I get that they have to keep registration costs low somehow. We were told that there were 57 teams competing.
A fun time, all in all. If they fix the app, I’d even say I’d be «xcited» to do it again.

I had to sit down and collect my thoughts for a while before I wrote this review. I also had to add a new business account for it to do so. I was pretty excited when I got information about this «5k» Urban Race from a friend, and when I heard it was similar to the Amazing Race, I quickly signed up. I had always wanted to do an Urban Adventure Race, and explore the city like I had never seen it before.
We quickly registered our team, The Benchwarmers, got our cameras, and set out for San Francisco on a beautiful, almost hot, day. The «race» seemed perfect at the moment because I had recently been injured and could not run. The site stated that we could include public transportation and our brainpower in the race, which sometimes beats plain running skills. Not really caring about any prize money anyways, I was relieved.
Once we got up to the location, my opinion on this race had severely diminished, and I was quite disappointed for various reasons:
Registration:
Some of the most apathetic people to have ever worked a «fun, extreme, race» I have ever encountered. You would think they would be passionate and excited to be there; after all, they represent the company and set the tone for the racers.
The volunteer looked bored and clearly did not want to be there.
Location:
We met at Sports Basement, but most of the locations on the «race» itself were off the Embarcadero and the Financial District (we even had a few in PacHeights). So, it was not really a 5k. In fact, we were so disappointed and frustrated with the race (and did not want to pay any more money) that we walked to the Embarcadero ourselves (about 3 miles each way… a 5k is about 3.1… keep that in mind), saw a few of the sites (some were not in existence anymore, more about that later), and explored on our own. Way more fun (once we got to the Embarcadero, the walk there was very sketchy; the area is bad, there are a lot of homeless people and it is in a bad part of town; do not go unless you are in a group).
Company Research:
Clearly there was none. Some of the statues and locations we were supposed to take pictures of were closed or torn down. Clearly the company did no research or follow up research on these sites, and it confused a lot of people. Also it is very misleading to have this run labeled as a 5k. It is not; it covers more than a half-​marathon (to the locations and back).
Use of Public Transportation
Honestly I believe it was just easier to walk, like we did. Public transportation in the city is costly, and our starting point was so far from Downtown (and on a weekend mind you) that it would have taken just as long to wait for the correct bus line and make all the stops to get to our destination. Again, there was no research on this, and I firmly believe that the Ferry Building, SOMETHING (even on a pier) would have been a prime, SAFE location to meet, debrief, and begin the «race.»
Apparently, this location was the biggest one to date; at a whopping 8 teams, I’d say job well done!
The only star I am giving is because I had a great bonding experience with friends. Please choose another Urban Race if you want to try this out. I was severely disappointed.