Some random thoughts from a random day. The City
Chase was enjoyable for most of the day, but it seemed to
boil down to selecting ten challenges from a list of 20,
running around and doing them (or not), and then hoping
you did well on time. As opposed to the other urban
adventures where every team did about 90% or more of the
same locations, it was possible to have two teams
complete the race with only one location in common. And
since it was hard to decipher what you would be doing at
each location - and how long it might take - selecting
the most efficient course was complete luck. That's fun,
but considering it cost twice as much as the other races,
your chance of finishing near the top was completely
unknown regardless of how good you were.
Jordan (who I partnered with last year for the Urban
Dare) rejoined me for the only adventure she could make
this season. Even though I had done very well the weekend
before, we agreed that the format (as we knew it) meant
that the day would be a toss-up. Jordan and I agreed that
we really didn't want to eat any living creature (they
ate live meal worms in Chicago) and would decide on the
inevitable naked bowling at a later time.
The start was Love Park, and when we arrived there
were hundreds of teams already milling around. Once again
it was overcast and cool, and once again the rain
thankfully passed us over. At registration we received a
bulky bag with all sorts of paper coupons, ads, etc. in
it. Being a veteran, I knew to never, ever throw anything
away, but this was a lot of stuff! Luckily it all fit
into my bag (later saw quite a few teams wandering around
the course with the bulky bags in hand). Once everyone
was assembled, they did the usual introductions - with a
pro sound system - and had us do some exercises. In a
real coup, they got Mayor Nutter to give some words of
encouragement and talked about making Philly the home
base for the City Chase (not sure what that meant). Then
it was time to rumble!
The pre-challenge involved getting eight of ten
items. For some reason we were not given the list, but
had to write it down as they announced it. Since there
were nearly 300 teams - yow! - it would be difficult to
distribute the list to all and have no one peak... but
maybe the list on a big sign would have been nice.
Anyway, some of the items (Flyers logo, expired item)
screamed Walgreens, so off we went. Every nearby
convenience store was quickly besieged by people in
matching shirts. Between phone support (Joe and Jen for
me) and quick purchases, we had the eight items pretty
fast. Returning to the start, we showed everything to the
staff who were locked in a circle of tables and were
given our Clue Sheet (it was amazing to note how many
teams had returned with less than eight items and had to
go back out for more!). And what a Clue Sheet!
The sheet was packed with words - white space people!
Okay, green space (the color of the paper). It was a
daunting task just to read all the clues. We had to visit
ten locations and do something at each. There were -
yikes! - 20 locations to choose from. Locations 1 and 2
were either/or. Locations 3, 4 and 5 were two-of-three.
That left seven from the remaining 15. Sure enough, there
was naked bowling at Lucky Strikes. It was about the
closest destination, so we quickly decided to hold that
one in reserve. I also figured there would be some
paddling challenge, and since we both paddled we would
definitely do that. Unfortunately, in retrospect it was
impossible to choose that location and have any chance of
winning. Little did we know.
So, the paddling location (Walnut and the Schuylkill
River) offered one anchor point, and we chose other
checkpoints based on their proximity to it. Looking back
we never actually mapped a few of the locations, so who
knows where they were. Between the paddling and mandatory
locations, we picked places that we knew the location of
to chart our course. Both of the either/or locations were
in South Philly - one at 9th and South and the other 9th
and Christian. I read the latter as something where you
had to dance, so we opted to do the former. Another
non-winning choice (but who knew?). The 2-of-3 were in
West Philly, Old City and Fairmount Area, so we
originally went with the last two. That would
unfortunately change. Jordan mapped out some places
between here and the paddling, then back to Old City and
finish in Fairmount. Finally, we were off!
The first challenge was in the Kaplan Testing
building. We entered a classroom and they gave us a
SAT-level test of ten questions - we had to answer eight
correctly. Some were easy and some were rather involved.
I noticed that they marked the correct ones and gave you
the sheet back if the total was less than eight. Since
they were multiple choice, I figured we should answer
them quickly, see if we lucked out, then work on any
wrong. It took three iterations, but we got through them
pretty fast. On the last round I worked on the remaining
few while Jordan worked on the side 2 of the green sheet
(puzzles and brainteasers... and a challenge). The
"teacher" gave us a passing grade, Jordan had
finished the puzzles and we were off for location 2 -
with two Challenges already done!
Location 2 was Drinkers Pub on Chestnut. There we
were given a Palm Centro camera phone and a list of eight
photos/videos to take. Other teams were all over the
place accosting unsuspecting individuals for photos or
videos. One challenge was a picture of a redhead, so this
particular guy was VERY popular. The challenges went
pretty fast, though we did have to wait for the staff
person to erase a bunch of photos on some other phones
(get a lackey to do that!). We got the punch (on my
number - each location had a mark on my racing number and
the staff person punched it when you were successful) and
were off for the river.
I should note at this time that teams would be
entered for a random drawing to enter the finals if they
crossed the finish line with two helium inflated orange
balloons (a Palm campaign). You were given one balloon at
the start and had to "find" another one on the
course. Of course there was a Palm booth there with a box
of balloons, so it was not that tough. Plus they had a
tank of helium. Still, way too many teams inflated their
balloons at the beginning of the race and carried them
throughout the race (what a literal drag!). I saw a lot
of teams trying to run with large orange balloons
trailing behind them. Hello!
We arrived at the river - balloons safely
not-yet-inflated and stowed - to find the staff with
kayaks. I really thought they would have two-person
canoes, but instead we had to solo paddle a kayak up and
around the Market Street bridge, then the partner did the
same thing. Jordan and I did it pretty fast, but I
noticed that the events were all over the place in terms
of total elapsed time to complete the particular
challenge(s) and it seemed like picking the fasted course
was completely random. Pretty much. Plus some other teams
we encountered at this challenge were still on their
first challenge - we were up to four done. Jordan found
out that one of the 2-of-3's was at 39th and Chestnut.
Stupid me suggested we run up there (it seemed so close).
Well, first of all, it wasn't close - we had to cross
the river and run nine blocks. What was I thinking!
Jordan and I ended up in the Boston Market parking lot.
The challenge was to stilt walk 30 feet. It took Jordan
two tries and she did it. In short, I never did. I should
say I got about 25 feet at one point, but that didn't
count. Back to the start. Some participants were making
some pretty spectacular spills and I'm sure I added some
highlights. It didn't help that my wrist still hurt from
getting pegged by the softball the week before - I just
could not manage those 30 feet. I think I spent about 45
minutes - could have been more... maybe less - trying to
go 30 feet. After a long time of nothing, I started
having some luck, but by then my wrist and heels were
killing me. The one staff person just kept shouting,
"come on, you can do it. Try again. Work smarter,
not harder." Okay I lied about the last phrase. The
other staff person, who I noticed could stilt walk, spent
most of the time on the phone. Some teams got it right
away, many took a while and some bagged it. I would have
thought after a half-hour they would offer some
assistance, but no. There were about six sets of stilts
and a number of teams were queuing up to wait their turn.
That seemed like another random issue - since some
challenges could take a while, if you randomly showed up
a bad time, you might be waiting a half-hour just to try
your challenge; other times it could be a minute. I was
finally so exhausted that we bagged one of 2-of-3
challenges, which meant that we had to complete the other
two and pretty much threw the day out the window.
I think there were other challenges nearby, but our
dependence on the remaining mandatory challenges meant we
had to do Old City, South Street and Fairmount. Long day!
Jordan and I jumped onto the subway and headed to 2nd
Street. Our first stop there was Lucy's Hat Shop where
the challenge was to have a Boa Constrictor fed through
our shirt, one at a time. Okay, so some people hate
snakes, but the guys just feeds it through and you're
done. Beside, they don't really bite (hence the term
constrictor). This challenge took about a minute, though
Jordan took a bit longer since she had her jacket tied
around her waist and the snake started piling up around
her stomach! I acted quickly and untied the knot to let
the poor fellow out. Oh, and I should also point out that
this was the second 2-of-3 challenge, so I'm not sure how
one could compare this with the stilt walking... even if
you good at it.
The next challenge was just up the street at Doggie
Style (nice name). We were given a card with eight
unfamiliar dog photos and names. We just had to match the
two. After pretty much guessing, they said we had four
correct, which meant we had to eat half a can of wet dog
food. With that the staff person plopped a bunch of
gelatinous glop in a bowl and set it on a low table. We
had to get on our knees - on Market Street - and eat it.
Okay... Jordan and I looked at one another. What was in
it, I asked. Turkey, beer, carrots and celery was the
answer. Jordan asked if they had anything vegetarian...
no. What is with these contests and apparent surprise
that there might be vegetarians out there? We're out
there! Jordan volunteered to give it the first try. I'm
not sure if she actually got anything in her mouth, but
there was a lot of gagging and the bowl looked pretty
full. My turn. I got on my knees and gave it a try. Boy,
once that gelatin touches your lips it is gag city. I got
nothing in and luckily left nothing more. Yuck! Jordan
had the wits to ask if we could try again. Sure they said
and gave us the card back. We looked over the card while
I scanned around looking for, a, hints. Needless to say,
we got it down to two wrong and were honored with a dog
biscuit. I was happy to gobble that one down. So what
happens if you get all eight wrong (dog urine?).
With the Scooby snack safely tucked in my stomach, we
ran to the Painted Bride for our next challenge. Here we
had to join another team, and one member from each did
one of two challenges. I and my teammate had to locate
tiles on the exterior wall and mark which side (north,
west or south) they were on, while Jordan and her
teammate counted knobby sculptures inside. Nothing
disgusting and didn't take too long. Plus it involved
some teamwork with another team, so I liked it.
After that we had a long run down to the Fresh Fields
at 9th and South. There we received a challenge to raise
$30 for Back on My Feet Foundation (here's the website,
if you want to know what they do:
http://backonmyfeet.org/main/index.html). We knew a
little bit about the effort. They gave us a shirt to sell
for $25 and a bracelet for $5. We could sell those two
items or just collect contributions - anything to total
$30 or more. Okay, so nobody in their right mind is going
to pay $25 for a shirt. Also, we weren't given even a
flyer on the cause, so you're basically trying to raise
money for a cause that you know almost nothing about. I
would say if you need pizza money - and have no morals -
just dress in matching outfits and raise money for some
ambiguous cause. People will give. So, we ran into some
folks who looked pretty familiar, sold the bracelet, hit
up some strangers and returned with $33 for the cause.
What, no tax receipt? I later found out that the other
1-of-2 challenge was some obstacle course and 3-point
basketball shot (the other dance). I can't comprehend why
both of these were not fundraising challenges.
With our sole South Street challenge done, we had to
travel to the Fairmount section for the end of our fun.
Jordan and I ran up 9th Street and were lucky to catch a
bus to Spring Garden Street. Finally a rest! After a
short run along Spring Garden Street we arrive at
Franklin Towne Park. It was there we were introduced to
Spike Ball. I'm sure it's popular somewhere. You play the
game on a small trampoline and a softball-sized hard
ball. Teams stand on opposite sides and hit the ball into
the trampoline. You have to hit the ball back to them off
the trampoline. Like volleyball, you can have three
touches before hitting the trampoline (and hence over the
net), but good luck. One time I set the ball to Jordan,
but otherwise you hit the ball on the first try and hoped
you didn't miss the net or hit the rim (also a miss). We
played against another team - the winner move on while
the loser had to keep playing. Unlike the stilt walking,
there was an exit strategy. You played till you won or
three games. Very nice! The first game was close, but we
lost. Getting weary! The second game - against a new team
- was worse. Finally the third game! Once the other team
announced that they too were on their third game, I
suggested we just rocket through the game and both be on
our way. What a concept! They would serve the ball, I
would catch it (oops!) and toss it back to them to serve
again. We lost 25-0 and were out of there very fast. See
- losing is winning!
Finally the last challenge! The final 2-of-3
challenge was in the Urban Saloon. One of us had to play
another team member in Wii tennis. It was a tough match,
but Jordan lost, so we had to build a house of cards. We
were instructed to make the house - five high with
teepee-angled cards - exactly like the picture. Except I
noticed that the tables were covered in salt (which
hinders the cards from sliding out). They said that other
teams were doing this, so they said we could too. I
should say that the photos online showed other teams
using napkins between the layers to add friction, so the
level of control at the challenges seemed to be all over
the place. We built the castle in three tries and were
out of there fast.
Jordan and I had been on the course for quite some
time, so we decided to catch the 33 bus at 19th Street
down to the Parkway. Amazingly, the teams - with their
orange balloons - we saw on the way in were still there
waiting. And even better, the 33 was just coming down the
street! We jumped in and went for the ride. It was
amazing to hear that most teams still had many more
challenges to go. We also heard that the winners had
finished some time ago. The bus stopped by the Academy of
Natural Sciences, so we jumped off and quickly reached
the finish line. I ran over to the Palm pavilion and
inflated the balloons. We crossed the finish line at
5:07. Yow! Jordan had to run to a meeting, so I set off
for Tir Na Nog alone. I was beat!
It turned out that the winning team finished in 2:37
and - of course- avoided anything west of the Schuylkill.
They did bowl naked though. A couple we spoke with said
that they went to the bowling alley, but the line was so
long that they left. Basically, you needed to - with
little info - pick the most time efficient challenges,
then - with little info - figure out when to visit them.
Guess wrong and it's a half-hour wait. It turns out that
our time was a little better than average. A lot of teams
finished behind us, many never got to 10 challenges, and
who know how many just bagged it. It was basically run
around, do some maybe interesting, maybe disgusting,
maybe easy, maybe hard challenges show up at finish and
see if you won. I think the team randomly picked from the
orange balloon finishers has as good of a chance in the
Nationals as the team that won on time. I hope they are
good at naked bowling.
Note: The next race at Atlanta had an even worse
success rate with only about 40 teams beating the
six-hour time limit (out of a few hundred teams), while
the San Diego race had a good majority of the teams
completing the 10 challenges within six hours.
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