I decided to post this email about the city chase I did on Saturday Oct 25 2003
Hey all, Today I participated in thecitychase.com race around Toronto. It was a blast and a great set of challenges. I didn't know much about it before I went, so it was kinda scary. Very glad I did it, although I am going to be very sore tomorrow. We started just after 10:00 this morning after we walked from the Hard Rock Cafe at Yonge and Dundas to Nathan Phillips Square. When everyone got there we started. There were all these tables setup with pie plates full of white stuff, and unknown stuff. We could see some raw eggs and worms in them. Yuck. The first challenge was to get the instructions from the bottom of the pie, without using your hands. My friend Noelle volunteered for this and did a great job of getting the ziplock bag out. We had to find 5 of the items on the list to go to the next step so I was running around picking up cigarette butts. We also had horseshoes that had been recommended in the instructions, we got the population of Toronto (from a non-subtle sign that we saw on the way to the field 2,344,850 if you were wondering), a lipstick mark on both cheeks that Noelle got from a passing woman, and a banana peel that one of the other teams dropped after they got all their items. Then we got the clue sheet with the 15 clues on it. We had to solve the clues and perform the challenges that we found when we got to the place. We had to do 10 of the challenges to finish so teams had the option to skip any challenge they wouldn't do. We got a stamp in our passport every time we finished a challenge. We started our clues and walked/ran towards a nearby clue, meanwhile calling Chris so he could look up all the locations of the other clues. We then planned which ones we wanted to do and figured out a good path to follow. We were close to the second clue on the way to the first, so we did that one. We had to determine the price for packaged dried fungi at the Asian Farm on Spadina. Then we had to find the city chase staff to give them the answer. We got the price for dried mushrooms, but that wasn't what they wanted, however another team said the answer outload so we didn't have to go back. Then we headed to the eating clue at La Palette restaurant (near College and Spadina) . We got to spin the wheel and eat the food associated with the number. There was: live crickets, canned dog food, fish cake of some kind, raw egg, chocolate cake, and water. Noelle had to eat the dog food, all covered in gravy (around 8 pieces) and almost threw up getting it down, and I lucked out and got the cake. Then we ran/walked over to the Yonge subway line, looking over our shoulder waiting for the bus, but it didn't get there until we had walked almost there. Took the subway up to Yonge and Eglington for the hit-the-target/shopping clue. Couldn't find the city chase anywhere, and wasted some time looking. Then another team told us it was outside in plain view (we missed it because we went underground to the Yonge-Eglington Centre). This was a dunking tank. I volunteered to get dunked in the cold water. They recommended removing clothing so it wouldn't get wet. I got down to my base layer and got dunked, it was cold, but not too bad and I changed quickly afterward so I wouldn't freeze. Back on the Subway down to Summerhill to go to RoseDale Reservoir (used to be named RoseHill Reservoir so we had to check both maps to find a matching name). Ran/walked to the field and found the chase site where we had a choice pass or pick. We selected pick and had to identify three plants on a card out of a group of plants on the ground (Begonia, Rubber Plant, and Azaleas). Noelle knew the flowers, and I knew the Rubber Plant so we finished in seconds. Ran/walked back to the subway and headed back down to Yonge and Bloor where we had to shout a shakespear sonnet at the top of our lungs for 30 seconds. Easy challenge. Then subway'ed to Chester and ran/walked to the Ice Lounge on the Danforth where Noelle put her feet in ice cold water so I could lace up the hockey skates. I started off too fast and got a bit tangled, but got the hang of it quickly. Her feet were freezing and my hands were freezing, but we managed to get it done. Then ran/walked back to the subway and headed to Planet Inc tattoo parlour where we had a choice of tattoo or hair dye. We had seen others around with the permanent marker on the face or the coloured goop in the hair. Only one of us had to do it, and Noelle volunteered and picked hair. We looked so strange anyway so it didn't really matter. Then we ran/walked (sensing a theme here?) to Church and Wellesley where we were given walkie-talkies and I had to talk Noelle though steps to get a clue. Another team had warned us that this was a slow challenge, but we thought we should do it anyway). Part-way through I saw a clue near the end which was in view of the start (a poster of two men in their tighty-whitie underwear), so we skipped the middle and I sent her to do the last bit to get the answer. Since the only requirement was to get the answer to a question. I should have read the whole thing to start with and we could have saved some time. But the organizer still said that we did it the fastest that she had seen. Then we subway'ed down to King and ran/walked to St. Lawrence market where we had to eat a snack and stinky cheese. I had volunteered since Noelle had the dog food, but they gave it to both of us. First we had to get bread from the Future's Bakery, then get stinky cheese from the South-West corner, the first city chase person had given us a hint that the second person may not be inside, and we found her easily. I plugged my nose as we neared the table, but it wasn't that stinky so it was ok. I guess the stinky cheese was too expensive. We changed plans for the last challenge, and did one that we had considered, but rejected earlier. We headed back to the John, University, King, Queen square where we had to find a wandering city chase staff person. We found her, and gave her the clue of what animal was holding the five-alive (sponsor) on the poster from Queen street that we saw earlier. Then she told us there was a second part to the clue, we had to find the number of signatures (not stars) on the Canada's Walk of Fame. We counted the northern side of King, but then we were told there were more stars and we had to count the south side and below Roy Thompson Hall. (ok, ok, actually it was mostly Noelle who could still run at this point). We got 95, which was close, so we just started counting up till we got it (98 I think). Then we ran back to Nathan Phillips Square to finish. When we got there we were told that we had to find our bib number on a flag before we could finish. We passed another team and came in 31st. It was a great feeling to cross the finish line with everyone cheering and knowing we did really well. The whole thing took us 4 hours and 7 minutes. There were over 100 teams total, (130 registered). We more than passed our goal of getting in the top half, and we did every challenge that we got to. They did have film crews filming, but I don't know how much we got in it, or if/when it will be on TV. The race was really a trial run for the races next year that they are running cross Canada. So the film footage is probably for the producers to sell the idea. They should be updating the web site in a couple days http://www.thecitychase.com Hope you enjoyed reading my adventures, Jen