Bell City Chase
Well, here we are! All set and ready to take on City Chase day....you know, before we got all gross and sweaty running all over town :-)I have to say, this was really cool. Being a big Amazing Race fan, I was psyched to participate!
The day started out with us getting up ridiculously early so we'd get downtown to register in the first 200 teams so we could score the visors pictured above. I'll note now that there were 164 participating teams....you do the math....perhaps being there at 8am for the 10am start wasn't exactly necessary *sigh* but it did give us time to get a headstart on the scavenger hunt items we could need (thanks to Duncan's hard work behind the scenes!)
Around 9:20 or so they started some speeches, stunts (including a member of one team losing an eyebrow) and a couple of awards. We even got a shout out as one of the runners-up for their favourite team name - "We're #43".....the MC's words were something like "we don't know what it means, but we like it!". Another contender was "notgettingstuckingatineauthisyear" and the winner was "Is Vomiting an Option?".10am rolled around, and they gave us a list of 16 scavenger hunt items we'd need 10 of in order to get our Chase Point list. Highlights:
- Sir John A. MacKenzie's mother's name (Helen Shaw)
- A non-participant wearing tighty-whiteys (who you would need to have in person)
- A photocopy of a team-bib # within 10 digits of your own
- A lock of hair of at least 10 strands (or, in our case a HUGE chunk...thanx Matt....)
- The # of flags on Sparks St. between Elgin & Metcalfe
- A non-participant with the same colour eyes as the shortest person on your team (we sorta stole another team's after Matt recognized the guy)
- A ball with you team # on it (thanks to our "within 10 digit" buddies for buying it!!)
- The phone number of the pay phone closest to the Bell building on O'Connor
- Another City Chaser with the same name as a member of your team (which, although you'd think it easy with names like Matt & Jenn, we got at the last second while we were pretty much standing at the check-in table)
and etc....
** I see this being a long post at this rate ;-) **
Yay! We have our first Chase Point completed, now it's a mad dash for the O-train & Carleton U. The 1st 25 teams there were supposed to get special VIP cards, which would allow them to skip the line at 1 other Chase Point of their choosing. Fortunately, we were #23, and because Matt asked, we got our VIP card (the girl forgot). Next up, a trip through the maze of underground tunnels on the campus, with questions to be answered along the way. To be honest, I found this frustrating right away. The instructions were really vague, and more than once we were like "what are we supposed to be doing??". Anyway, we perservered and headed off to Hog's Back Falls with another team. We're still debating if this was the right call, because we had initially planned a different route, but ultimately it probably would only have saved us a little time.
Hog's Back was a zipline across the falls, where we chose to use our VIP card (awesome call, I felt bad for all the teams who had to just stand there while the VIP's all got in front, but hey it's a race). Next, off to Mooney's Bay for beach volleyball against another team. We lost our first matchup....it was close though...beat the second team, got some water, had a quick pee break...and off we went! uh....back across the road..... to set up and take down a tent as quickly as possible.
5 Chase Points down, 5 to go!!
We lucked out big time right here by catching a 111 like literally a minute after getting to the stop, getting to Billings and jumping on the 97 downtown. On the way, Duncan gave us a heads up that the secret Chase Point, that you could only get using a Bell cellphone, was at the Rideau Centre. Score! We're headed there anyway! By now we'd figured out that there were at least 6 or 7 Chase Points we could do downtown...so we nixed the idea of going white water canoe/kayaking, because it was just too far away. Next time Matt! :-)
Cue the Rideau Centre! We booked it down to Goodlife, where the secret Chase Point was taking a 5-6 minute aerobics class that took place every 10 minutes. Bonus again, we were right on time for the next one. Other than some coordination issues from the male half, we managed just fine, and were off to Bell World to borrow a camera and take some pictures in the market. They had a list of 6 pictures, you needed to get 4 in less than 45 minutes. The fastest team at that point has done it in 6, we finished in 13. Not too shabby!
Next is the old railway station, now known as the Government Conference Centre, I sat on the steps locked up singing "I've been working on the railroad" while Matt ran down to the locks in search of the combination. Only after did I understand why he grabbed my phone when he left....it has a camera! Sneaky, sneaky Matt....good thing they were busy yelling at someone else about using phones! ;-)
Ran up to Parliament Hill (and by run, I fully mean walked semi-quickly...) for some blindfolded croquet, where I brilliantly started off by directing Matt "right! right!...oh, wait..I mean left..." oops!! We still finished it up pretty quickly, and after Matt sweet talked the girl into giving him the Bell blindfold, we were off to the finish line for our last task!
The City Chase is partnered with Children's Wish Foundation, and our lask Chase Point was to sell at least $10 worth of tickets for ice cream or drinks at their booth. We could only sell them between O'Connor & Bank, from Sparks St. to Wellington. We stuck to Sparks St, and after a slow start, met some very generous people and raised $11.
FINISH LINE, HERE WE COME!!
And really....it probably should have had this warning because we, quite ceremoniously of course, almost took it down :-D Oh well, everyone at the finish had a good laugh on our behalf, and after I finished chasing a plastic piece down Sparks St, we showed off our 10 punches on the Chase Point card, and learned we'd finished 54th!! (at the end of the day we'd actually finished 53rd out of 164, so I'd say that's pretty awesome!)
So that's it....our full City Chase day. I highly encourage everyone to try it, it was a blast. Check it out for next year at www.bellcitychase.com
I also want to thank Duncan for helping us out with the computer all day, we definitely would've had a harder time without you!!
Until next time, ciao!
posted by skeeter @ 12:08 p.m.
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