| Author |
Message |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:05 pm: |       |
By David Burn (Woubit):
Does it make sense to say "this race was x miles long?" Yes - actual distance not important, except that it was rather long.
Does the race involve climbing? This one
diving? flying? |
David Burn (Woubit)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:07 pm: | |
Climbing mountains? Rocks? Trees? Walls? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:27 pm: | |
By David Burn (Woubit):
Climbing mountains? Yes - just the one mountain, though. Rocks? Trees? Walls? |
David Burn (Woubit)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:27 pm: | |
Everest? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:31 pm: | |
By David Burn (Woubit):
Everest? No - this is fictional, and I had no specific mountain in mind. Everest is a bit much though.. any big, rocky mountain will do. |
Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 2:04 am: | |
The finish line ended up being hidden... Was there a marked course for the racers to follow along the way? or were they given waypoints that they had to check in at? Was the finish line poorly defined? mis-defined? (Like it was a race to "the top of the mountain"? A mountain that had two points that could be considered "the top", and Sadie was the first racer to get to the point that was actually the highest, but the finish line had been mistakenly put at another point that was only a foot or so lower but was miles away? Say, on the opposite side of the crater of an extinct or dormant volcano?) |
Random (Random)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 7:11 am: | |
Wild guess but...
Was the finish line "hidden" due to heavy cloud cover?
If so, could it be Sadie overshot the finish line and promptly fell back down the mountain (and so far away by the time everyone else got there)? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 1:07 pm: | |
By Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab):
The finish line ended up being hidden... Yes
Was there a marked course for the racers to follow along the way? No
or were they given waypoints that they had to check in at? No - just a final destination.
Was the finish line poorly defined? Finding the destination was part of the race.
mis-defined? (Like it was a race to "the top of the mountain"? A mountain that had two points that could be considered "the top", and Sadie was the first racer to get to the point that was actually the highest, but the finish line had been mistakenly put at another point that was only a foot or so lower but was miles away? Say, on the opposite side of the crater of an extinct or dormant volcano?) Not like this - there was only one site that all contenders would recognize as the finish line.
By Random (Random):
Wild guess but...
Was the finish line "hidden" due to heavy cloud cover? No - good guess though.
If so, could it be Sadie overshot the finish line and promptly fell back down the mountain (and so far away by the time everyone else got there)? No. |
David Burn (Woubit)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 1:14 pm: | |
If this is "fictional", does it involve the paranormal? Is it from your imagination? from a book? film? play? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 1:20 pm: | |
By David Burn (Woubit):
If this is "fictional", does it involve the paranormal? No
Is it from your imagination? from a book? film? play? FMOTI* ... very loosely based on actual events.
*T= twisted |
Ixoye724 (Ixoye724)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 4:31 pm: | |
Was the race similar to a scavenger hunt (where the assignment is to find something, and at that point you are at the finish line)?
Did Sadie reach the end of the race before anyone else? Part of Sadie? One of her shoes? Part of her clothing? Part of her body?
Longshot: Did Sadie have any prosthetic limbs? Glass eye? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 4:48 pm: | |
By Ixoye724 (Ixoye724):
Was the race similar to a scavenger hunt (where the assignment is to find something, and at that point you are at the finish line)? Not exactly, but similar. The contestants did need to find the finish line itself.
Did Sadie reach the end of the race before anyone else? Yes
Part of Sadie? One of her shoes? Part of her clothing? Part of her body?
Longshot: Did Sadie have any prosthetic limbs? Glass eye? No, but this is coming very close to the solution... explore. |
Ixoye724 (Ixoye724)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 5:21 pm: | |
Was the 'finish line' somewhere that took some effort to reach?
Like maybe up a tree? Down in a hole/chasm? Atop a rock? Underwater?
Would racers need to perform a task to see the finish line, like pull a rope and a flag comes sliding down to them (like some cheesy "Fear Factor" stunt)?
At the exact minute that Sadie completed the race, was the next closest racer only a few seconds away from also completing the race? A few minutes away? An hour away? Hours? More?
Was anyone besides Sadie at the finish line when Sadie reached it? Relevant? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 5:30 pm: | |
By Ixoye724 (Ixoye724):
Was the 'finish line' somewhere that took some effort to reach? Yes
Like maybe up a tree? Down in a hole/chasm? Atop a rock? This one -- it was determined above that the race involved climbing a mountain. partially Underwater?
Would racers need to perform a task to see the finish line, like pull a rope and a flag comes sliding down to them (like some cheesy "Fear Factor" stunt)? Nothing like this
At the exact minute that Sadie completed the race, was the next closest racer only a few seconds away from also completing the race? A few minutes away? An hour away? Hours? More? Hours to a full day away.
Was anyone besides Sadie at the finish line when Sadie reached it? Relevant? No one else was around, and yes it is relevant. |
John Morahan (Wunderland)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 5:38 pm: | |
Did Sadie hide the finish line after reaching it? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 5:40 pm: | |
By John Morahan (Wunderland):
Did Sadie hide the finish line after reaching it? Sadie did not, but... |
Fred Z (Dref)
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 3:07 am: | |
Did she move the finish line? |
Ed Mason (Logician)
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 12:50 pm: | |
Did someone else hide the finish line? Did natural events hide the finish line? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 3:43 pm: | |
By Fred Z (Dref):
Did she move the finish line? No
By Ed Mason (Logician):
Did someone else hide the finish line? Not someone...
Did natural events hide the finish line? Yes - good question. |
John Morahan (Wunderland)
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 4:24 pm: | |
Was the finish line covered by a foot of snow? |
Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab)
| | Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 5:58 pm: | |
Avalanche? rockslide? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 1:22 pm: | |
By John Morahan (Wunderland):
Was the finish line covered by a foot of snow? No...
By Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab):
Avalanche? rockslide? Yes! Now then... |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 1:55 pm: | |
RECAP
Puzzle statement:
Sadie was miles away from the finish line at the end of a very long race when the rest of the competitors arrived, yet she won the race over the next closest finisher by a foot.
The Race
The race began at one point where all competitors started and was several miles long. There was one finish line, and part of the competition was to find it. The race took the contestants up the face of a mountain.
Sadie
Sadie had been to the finish line hours to a full day ahead of the rest of the competitors, however she was not declared the winner until the rest of the racers arrived, at which point she was literally miles away. Under normal circumstances, she would have been named the winner as soon as she crossed the line.
Misc.
At some point, a rockslide hid the finish line.
The "foot" is "not exactly" 12 inches, and "yesishly" the length of a person's foot. |
John Morahan (Wunderland)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 2:08 pm: | |
Was Sadie, um, depeditated by the landslide? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 2:13 pm: | |
By John Morahan (Wunderland):
Was Sadie, um, depeditated by the landslide? Very close, but not quite. She was "depeditated," but the landslide did not do it directly. |
Ixoye724 (Ixoye724)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:16 pm: | |
Did the landslide cause Sadie to lose a foot? A shoe? A leg? Something else? A body part? Something she was carrying?
Did Sadie survive the rockslide?
Was she alive when she was officially declared the winner? |
Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:18 pm: | |
Did she depeditate herself? Her prosthetic foot got caught in the landslide, so she took it off? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:20 pm: | |
By Ixoye724 (Ixoye724):
Did the landslide cause Sadie to lose a foot? Not directly, but the landslide was the reason that Sadie lost her foot another way.
A shoe? A leg? Something else? A body part? Something she was carrying? Yope on this last one also. You could say something she carried was lost from her temporarily.
Did Sadie survive the rockslide? Yes.
Was she alive when she was officially declared the winner? Yes. |
Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:21 pm: | |
And she was taken to the hospital immediately? so the winner wasn't declared until the race officials could determine whether she had actually been the first person to the finish line, which they did by finding her foot in the slide? |
Ixoye724 (Ixoye724)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:34 pm: | |
Did Sadie have to amputate her foot in order to escape entrapment?
This reminds me of those guys you hear about who hack off an arm or leg with a Swiss Army knife in order to not be caught in the wilderness and die.
Since no one was around when Sadie got to the finish line this may have been the case? |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:51 pm: | |
By Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab):
And she was taken to the hospital immediately? She was taken to a hospital, as soon as this was possible.
so the winner wasn't declared until the race officials could determine whether she had actually been the first person to the finish line, which they did by finding her foot in the slide? YES - good work!
By Ixoye724 (Ixoye724):
Did Sadie have to amputate her foot in order to escape entrapment? She did indeed
This reminds me of those guys you hear about who hack off an arm or leg with a Swiss Army knife in order to not be caught in the wilderness and die. ...And the event that the puzzle was loosely based on is this exactly.
Since no one was around when Sadie got to the finish line this may have been the case? It was... |
(Stuccosalt)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 3:59 pm: | |
***** SPOILER *****
Sadie was miles away from the finish line at the end of a very long race when the rest of the competitors arrived, yet she won the race over the next closest finisher by a foot.
A race was held as a promotional event by a sporting goods manufacturer which spanned several miles and included following a crude map and climbing a rocky cliff to find a tent.
Sadie, an expert rock climber, found and reached the finish line nearly a day before the next competitors. However, as she did, a landslide hit the area, burying the tent and crushing Sadie's foot, trapping her down. She had a cell phone in a bag she carried which was knocked out of her reach.
Knowing she could bleed to death, Sadie severed her foot with a pocket knife, got to her phone, and called for help. A helicopter took her miles away to a hospital, leaving her foot under the rocks.
When the competitors found the location, the debris had to be cleared away. The winner wasn't known until the finish line had been unearthed, and Sadie was found to have won, by a foot.
Great work, puzzlers - especially Rabrab and Ixoye for bringing it home! |
Ixoye724 (Ixoye724)
| | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 4:14 pm: | |
Great puzzle!
"She won by a foot" - sounds like something James Bond would say, doesn't it? Kinda like when James and the bad guy were hanging off the back of that military plane on the cargo net, and James cuts off his own boot, which the thug is clinging onto, sending the bad guy down to earth clutching the shoe. James gets back into the cockpit and the girl asks about the bad guy - James's response: "He got the boot." |
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