John and Kurt, duelling to the death and having fun with it!
Two days ago, a group of us Gumbooters participated in one of the coolest events in the city, the Mitsubishi City Chase. We laughed, yelled, ran and hobbled to the finish line, and have all thankfully lived to tell tales of fun and adventure.
For those of you who don’t know much about the event: City Chase is a city wide (and international!) obstacle/ scavenger hunt. In teams of two, you have to decipher clues and make your way – on foot or public transit only – to various chase point locations, where you have to complete a task to get a chase point. Once you get 10 points you race your way back to the finish line. Considering ourselves relatively young, fit Vancouverites, we didn’t really do much to prepare. In hindsight, a bit of training or even, ahem, taking part in the pre-chase warm-up would probably have helped us out a bit in the race. Ok. Probably not. But, it probably would have helped us out a the day after the race, which found us all moving as little as possible, complaining about how much everything hurt. Full disclosure: Two days later, everything still hurts. Despite that, I can confidently say that it was worth every second of post-race pain – the event was truly memorable and one heck of an adrenaline rush.
Instead of doing a breakdown of the events – and in order to not give away any clues for next year (I have this odd competitive streak that comes out sometimes), I’ll just give you a sampling of what we experienced: running … a lot of running, orienteering, drills (of the military variety), “Stroke! Stroke!”, dancing … for tips, parkour!, and porcine fare.
My lovely and completely hardcore partner Alison and I, I’m excited to report, beat the boys’ teams. Refer back to John’s trash talk article and perhaps you’ll get a clue as to why … as suspected, banking on dinosaurs and new haircuts to win the race just didn’t cut it. We did learn some great techniques and tips that will definitely help us all out next year though – and because here at the ‘boot we’re all about community, we thought we’d share them with you fine folks:
1. Don’t wear gumboots
Gumboots are great. Especially the Daily kind. But they’re not great for racing. Unless you want to lose to the girls, sprain your ankle and spend six hours in hot, smelly, gumboots and wet socks.
We really, really should have taken the warm up more seriously
2. Take part in the warm-up
And save yourself days of post-race aches and pains. Biggest. Regret. Of the year.
3. Don’t go to White Spot for lunch
I’m not saying that one of our teams chose to do this … but I’m not not saying that one of our teams chose to do this. Clearly, not a good tactic if you want to win (or, um, even finish) the race.
4. Special Tip for the ladies: Wear nice underwear
As overheard by one participant in a … let’s say more exposed challenge … “I really, really wish I had worn a nicer thong”
5. Enlist your friends. Make sure they’re near a computer and a phone
The Gumboot crew had a certain architecturally-inclined correspondent act as Central Command. We called him up to help us plan the best transit routes, decipher clues, and look up locations for us. Indispensible.
So there you have it. Feel free to add your tips in, other Gumbooters and City Chase participants – and see you out on the course next year!
Here are John’s Three Tips:
1. Read the instructions: Kurt and my strategy involved something like this…”Okay, we know that some of these are in Richmond, so let’s just get on the Skytrain and figure it out there.” [10 MINUTES LATER] “Hey, some people are getting off at Langara, let’s get off there too!!!”
2. Do the grueling physical things first: as much fun as it was getting beaten with broadswords while Kurt took five minutes to do 15 burpies, I wish he only took one minute to do it. Kurt’s not out of shape, he’s a rock star. He just carried out several feats of strength early in the race and was really, really tired by the end of it.
3. Be a Superhero, not a Douchebag*: this event is all about community, so be helpful and supportive of fellow Chasers. Be a friend and have fun with it!
*for more information about douchebags, check out our award-worthy series on the subject: http://dailygumboot.ca/2010/05/4528/.
tip # 1 — don’t wear street clothes and casually chat to your friends while you are standing at the edge of the ‘warm up’. you may find yourself in forced to run for your life as the crowd suddenly turns and is told to sprint their way to the first clue station, which happens to be directly at you. if caught up in such a happening, drop all dignity and run along with the best of ‘em.
tip # 2 — ensure your basecamp cellphone is charged, instead of having it sit dangerously in the red while your team calls asking you to decode “ditasll”
tip # 3 — if one of your teams ‘quits’, be sure to be extra supportive of such less-motivated individuals — they are still your friends….
Hi Guys,
Steve from team 2theTop here, Mike and I won this race and would agree with everything written in this article. Number one don’t forget to have fun – this race is a blast so enjoy it and don’t lose your cool.
And as mentioned above, its wise to wear things AND other garments that are both comfortable for lots of jogging, as well as somewhat presentable because there is a high likelihood they will see some light. …Or even be left on the floor for a more extreme chasepoint, such as last years nude partner sketch. Some manscaping may also be a good idea!
Hiking is also a great preperation. Check out mountainguru.com for some local ideas.
Cheers
Steve
Thanks so much for your input, Steve – and CONGRATS on winning the race! Next year, we’ll definitely be preparing a bit more beforehand – good call on the hiking.
Good luck at the nationals – we’ll be rooting for you guys!
Michelle & The Daily Gumboot team
Awesome tips guys, we will definitely keep you updated with Steve and MIke’s run to the National Championships!
You guys have a chance to bring it home for all of Vancouver and all of BC!
Let’s do this boys,
Chris
Just wanted to say,
If your team happens to be the one that may or may not have stopped for a burger and beer mid-way through the race it is proper etiquet to hand off your skip-to-the-front-of-the-line card won early on in the race to another team with a higher level of wanting-to-win-it, and lower levels of happy-because-of-burger-and-beer.
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