Racing and Chasing

On Saturday, Tom, Andrew, Ashley and I took part in the Mitsubishi City Chase.

If you've never heard of it before, imagine a scaled down version of the Amazing Race; part scavenger hunt, part obstacle course. There are clues to 40 Chase Points around the city with various tasks to complete at each station. You must complete 10 of the Chase Points, and it is mandatory to complete certain Chase Points in different geographic locations around the city. You can walk, run or use public transportation.

Team T & A

Team Racing With a Map of Calcutta

It was my intention to document our progress throughout the day... However, after taking a preliminary picture of our teams, the batteries in our camera promptly died. Very unfortunate.

Chase Point #1

Clue: Step it up at this landmark that opened at June 30, 1968.

Task: Climb the steps of the Calgary Tower! Yikes. According the the website there are 802 steps, and about 50 flights of stairs. Tom made it up the stairs in just over seven minutes. The rest of us took less than 10 minutes!

Chase Point #2

Clue: What was your favorite Rocky movie? Ours too. Such an Impact! Head over to the boxing ring to train like Balboa.

Task: Complete a short boxing circuit. Skipping, punching bag, and various speed balls. The trainer heckled Ashley and I, and I'm still having difficulty putting on and taking off my shirts (two days later) because my arms hurt so much. *Whine*

Chase Point #4

Clue: Spiderman, spiderman. Do whatever a spide can, crawl through a web - any size. No Limits is where you ChasePoint lies, Lookout - here comes the spiderman.

Task: Try out some Parkour (freestyle running/gymnastics) moves. It took some serious upper body strength for the demonstration we saw on this peg board. Also, one of the guys that was volunteering showed us how he could do a back flip off a wall!

Chase Point # 8

Clue: Misty May and Kerri Walsh wear the crowns. Come to the court beside the Dome where they practice year round.

Task: Play a game of beach volleyball. The first team to three points wins. If you lose, play another team until you win. Highlights -- Andrew gets an eyeball full of sand and almost cries.

Chase Point # 9

Clue: Slither over to where Slider cheers for his favorite team.

Task: Among the Viper stadium seating, find the five blue baseballs (each with a number on it), and add up the numbers on the balls correctly. We found four balls quite easily that had the numbers 23, 32, 6 and 44 on them. And then we spent a long time running up and down the aisles until Tom finally found the fifth ball-- 16! For a total of 117!

And finally... The finish line!

Clearly I do not know how to operate Tom's phone camera. I managed to get one of my fingers in the way!

Overall, 33km travelled in five and half hours-- and we actually finished 11 Chase Points instead of the required 10! It was an exhausting day, but it was a lot of fun. You should think about joining the chase next year!