This past Saturday, in preemptive celebration of the Fourth of July, I joined up with a friend and entered the Amazing NY Race “Pub Crawl.” Our team (comprised of just the two of us) was called Boozin’ for a Bruisin’ and we were up against an onslaught of pub crawling talent, ranging from the ambitious K.A.K.E (who may or may not have been training for this event ahead of time), the cheerful and enthusiastic Thirsty Nerdlies, the Squatting Squirrels, Drunk-Aluffagus and the Beertenders. The six teams met at The Village Pourhouse on W. 46th St. at noon to begin a day of fun and games.

The premise of the pub-crawl was easy – they handed us a booklet full of photos, hints and activities that we had to complete by a certain time, and at the end of the day, the team who had completed the most, won!

There were four categories of challenges that needed to be surmounted in order to claim the title of reigning drinking team:

1) Hidden New York – where you have to locate a landmark (in our case, a sculpture) from a picture by following clues and vague directions.

If you don’t know the city very well (like myself), and find this task insurmountable, fear not! There are only four activities that are necessary to complete the race, and this was not one of them. The mandatory activities were called:

2) Roadblocks – four bars dispersed around the city that had to be located (based on hints) by a certain time. Once there, the Amazing NY Race coordinators would be waiting with a game that could be played to boost your team’s points.

The first clue was to find a bar in the E. Village with a name that meant both “to pour a beer” and “to recruit a football team.” I opted for the “phone a friend” option on this one, calling the one person in my life that knows more about beer and football than anyone else – my father. Although his primary concern was with my noontime drinking, once convinced that I was “at work” for INY (and thus, had to be at this fun race, drinking in the middle of the day), he proclaimed that obviously, they were talking about “the draft.” With this invaluable piece of information plugged into the navigation system of my friend’s smart phone, we continued on our way.

On top of all of this we also had a 3) photo scavenger hunt where you had to find and photograph as many of the prompts as possible en-route to the finish line. There was a range of options for this one, and as we snagged shots of “5 people dancing to no music,” “someone drinking out of a brown bag,” and “riding a mechanical bull” we got closer and closer to that Amazing gold medal!

But, alas, there was also a 4) detour that had to be taken, before we could get to the finish line. For this last activity, you have to choose between two options – either: Take a picture of you “tapping that ass” of four strangers OR get a picture of 7 different beers from 7 different countries. We went for option #2, but some of the other teams were braver than us and took on the first challenge with gusto!

This sounds like a lot, but you have 5 hours to complete it all and the only rule is that you can’t use a car or a taxi – so be sure to dress for the weather and BRING COMFORTABLE SHOES, because you’ll need them.

Did I win? Not even close… as Boozin’ for a Bruzin’ rolled up to last place (about 200 points behind the winning K.A.K.E team), it became apparent that maybe I was here for the beer more than the prizes. However, the winners took home an impressive trophy bag full of gift certificates and free passes that definitely made it worth all of the work they put in!

Whether we won or lost, by the end of the day, spirits were high, feet were hurting, and the cool beer was just what we needed to escape from the blazing hot summer day outside. I left the Pourhouse with a better understanding of the subway system, some great suggestions on cool places to visit and some new friends!

 
-Melissa Rouse

2 Comments | Posted on July 5, 2011 | Categories: Entertainment, From the Blog, Nightlife

tags: Amazing New York Race, bars, Melissa Rouse, Pub Crawl