Here's how the day unfolded:
We showed up in running gear and big smiles on the edge of Gas Town with 700+ other people. Everyone competes in teams of two, and as we stood in the crowd listening to our instructions, the emcee made a point to say: "Look at the person beside you. Hug them." (the entire crowd embraced. "No matter what, you need this person. So when they get on your nerves, and believe me they will, hug them."
To start the race, we had to quickly find another team with a bib number that ended in the same last number as others. Then run with them to the Vancouver Art Gallery where a City Chase official would hand us our official clues sheet.
Mike and I tagged teamed with a brother-sister team who was in their third year of City Chase. "Kim, slow down and save your energy" said the girl as Mike and I tried to coax them to run faster to the Vancouver Art Gallery. "I know how this race is done."
She was kinda pretentious and a whole lot of annoying. So I smiled, nodded, and picked up the pace.
Luckily, we were able to ditch them as soon as we got our clue sheet.
We sat down at the gallery, read the sheet almost in full, and plotted a strategy.
Before we could cross the finish line, we would have to complete 10 Chase Points, located all around the city. Some of the clues told us exactly where to find them. Some were more vague.
Since it was early in the morning, we thought our best bet would be to tackle the clues that were the furthest away first. We wanted to beat traffic across the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver. Official rules state that we can only use our feet and public transit (i.e ferries, buses, and subway) to get to each Chase Point.
We hopped on a bus across the bridge and headed to a community centre in North Van for our first Chase Point.
Chase Point 1 and 2
When we arrived, we were sent into an art room. The City Chase official said "You have to both draw, on the same paper, the nude model in the middle of the room. When your drawing is deemed 'good enough', you can get a Chase Point."
We ran in, grabbed a seat in front of the nude model, picked up our graphite slabs, and fiercely drew a pretty darn good image. There were two other teams in the room doing the same.
"Finished!" we yelled holding up our image.
The official stamped our card and threw us for a loop when he said: "We'll give you another Chase Point if you both take off your clothes and one draws the other naked."
Our jaws were agape.
We shared a glance for about a second and a half and then feverishly started taking off our clothes.
Hey, anything for a Chase Point.
The opportunity to get two at one location would be a HUGE advantage.
So Mike lay down on the ground and "posed" while I sat on a stool, left arm over boobs and legs crossed, and drew him.
By this time there were about 20 people in the room. So much for modesty.
It was hilarious!
We left with two Chase Points and the fever of fun. We were loving this race.
Chase Point 3
We hopped back on the bus and headed toward East Vancouver to our next stop. We had to take a number of transfers and ended up waiting about 15 minutes for the last bus. Funny thing: once we hopped on, it literally dropped us off a block and a half away. We could have ran! It was our biggest folly time-wise that day.
We ran to a soccer field at a local high school that was littered with thousands of coloured balls.
The official gave us the rules: "One of you will be blind-folded the other will shout out directions. You have to get through the field to the big ball and pick it up without touching ANY of the small balls. Once you pick it up and put it in the air, we will give you your point."
Mike was blindfolded. I gave instructions.
And we excelled hugely.
Mike didn't touch a single ball and we were out of there in less than five minutes as other teams struggled to complete it.
We high-fived and headed back to the bus stop.
Chase Point 4
Next, we ran about a kilometre from a bus stop to a park near Commercial Drive where we had to put nylons on our heads, with tennis balls in the toes. The objective: use only your head to spin around the tennis ball and loop the nylon leg around another team's nylon and yank off their nylon. It was weird to the nth degree. And sweaty. But down right hilarious.
We lost the first round as one wily team managed to get Mike's nylon off, but we managed to kick butt in the second round, receive our Chase Point and run off to our next destination.
Chase Point 5
Next stop: Bowling!
We ran in, grabbed our bowling shoes, and listened to the instructions as we laced up:
"You EACH must bowl a spare or a strike. you can't leave until you do. Every time that you don't bowl a spare or a strike, your partner has to remove a layer of clothing."
Lucky for me, Mike is an exceptional bowler and got a spare on the first try.
Unlucky for Mike, I am a terrible bowler and he was down to his boxers -- no shoes, socks, shirt, or pants until I eventually knocked 'em all down.
"That was close, babe" he said wiping sweat from his brow.
We got our point and headed north.
5 down, 5 to go!
Chase Point 6
On our way to Chase Point 6 we ran into an Italian Cafe for a cold slice of pizza on the go.
"Win win win!" said the owner.
"We hope you do well," cheered the patrons.
We felt famous.
We ran and ate, ate and ran. It was bliss.
We ended up at the RONA Olympic Pre-Fabrication shop where we had to paint a piece of plywood then build a wooden Inukshuk for the olympics. My aggressive painting technique resulted in a broken brush. "That's a first," said the official.
And our over-enthusiastic wood glueing application made our inukshuk look slightly worse for the wear.
Once completed, we were given an official Olympic Pin, and our 6th Chase Point.
We were feeling mighty fine!
Chase Point 7 and 8
Our next Chase Point was relatively close to the last one with one obstacle: a fenced in train yard.
We didn't want to lose time going all the way around, so we ran to teh station, sweet talked a guard to letting us hop on and then hop off a passenger train, and run through the yard.
As we were running though, the guard yelled out "fence! barbed-wired fence!"
We looked around.
We were surrounded. But we kept running.
"There's got to be a gate we can hop," I said to Mike.
"You're insane," he said and high-fived me.
We came across a 15-ft gate with a 12-inch or so gap in between and a good foot of barbed wire on top. I climbed up on the chain and inched through. Mike did the same. And, to our surprise and joy, we were directly in front of our next adventure: Cliffhanger Climbing Gym.
This was a two-parter challenge. One person had to climb the climbing wall and touch the ceiling while the other completed a Sudoku puzzle. We glanced at each other and shared a knowing nod. "Sudoku!" Mike screamed with over-exuberance. He is, after all, a Sudoku master. I quickly got harness and began my ascent.
By the time I got down, Mike was well finished the Sudoku with officials raving at his speed and accuracy. Other teams were on the grass outside of the gym squabbling: "Why can't you get this!" "Hurry up! It's not THAT hard."
Music to our ears!
We received a second Chase Point here for raising over $500 for Right To Play, for which we thank all of our friends and family. It definitely gave us a leg up in the compeition.
So we left with two Chase Points.
Making us have only 2 more left to go.
Chase Point 9
The run to our next Chase Point was about 5k. We had been competing for 3 hours now and were slightly pooped but still hopped up on adrenaline. We jogged over the Cambie Bridge. Underneath was a bootcamp. In order to get our next Chase Point we would have to do a set of strenuous activities.
First, we were spun around 10 times and then had to compete in a three-legged obstacle course.
Then, we had to skip rope while tied together for 30 seconds.
Then, they tied a rope around me and gave the ends to Mike. I had to run forward while he pulled back. Exhausting!
Next up: burpees. We had to do ten each: you jump up, then jump into a push up position, do a push-up, and jump up again.
After that, a wheelbarrow race. I held on to Mike's lags while he ran 60 meters with his arms. But, to make it interesting (and WAY more difficult), they lathered up my hands and arms with vaseline!!! So it was very slippery and I had no grip on Mike's legs!
The last boot camp event involved Mike being blindfolded and diving into a pool of Ice Tea cans. I had to direct him to a magic green can. When he found it, we finally got our Chase Point!
The most gruelling and hilarious event of the day!
Chase Point 10 - last one!
Excited to be just about finished, we ran speedily to David Lam Park where we were given a frozen, knotted sock. The task: unfreeze and untie the sock and put it on!
Sounded easy but this was the most difficult task of the day.
We breathed on it, we hit the sock against cement to break the ice, we had a lady pour her tea on it, we tried to melt it in the water fountain. Turns out, it just took some patience. 15 minutes later, Mike had the sock knee high on his left foot, we received our final Chase Point and we ran like heck to the finish line.
The thing is, we didn't really know exactly where the finish line was. So we ran. And ran. And ran into a store to ask. And ran some more. And then finally spotted some other City Chasers and stumpled onto the finish line.
We ran across the finish line in 3 hours and 45 minutes. We can 45th out of 350+ teams (so we did REALLY well!) and had a blast!
The City Chase after party featured free beers and hamburgers and lots of prizes.
in addition to our awesome finish, I also took home a 6 month Golds Gym membership (which i totally don't need or want, but, hey!, i won!)
The whole day was smiley, fun, exhilarating, wild, edgy, exhausting, surprising, stimulating, hilarious, nerve-racking, and more. It was the very best day I've had in a long time and I'm itching to compete again next year!
