Mitsubishi City Chase: strategy, endurance and a fully charged iPhone

I fight my way through a mob of red shirts scrumming a poor volunteer who clearly drew the short straw when the day's tasks were assigned.  I manage to grab a clue sheet.

At Nathan Phillips Square, in the heart of downtown Toronto, Marla and I are trying to figure out our first clue:  Mel Gibson's character's name in Braveheart + First name of the band that sings "I should be sleeping"...Carolyn Waldo is waiting for you.

We need to complete nine challenges in all, six mandatory and then three more. 

"I think these ones are clustered in the west end. According my phone Wallace crosses Emerson  two blocks north of Landsdowne St."

"That's got be the furthest one away.  Let's do it first and then work our way back to the centre of town"

"Come on."  We take off for the subway. 

Because we fail to Google the information in the clue, we find out the hard way that Wallace and Emerson is 20 minutes away from where we should be. Eventually we emerge, triumphant, from the change rooms at the Wallace Emerson Centre Pool.  The challenge is a synchronized swim routine. 

A real synchronized swimmer shows us what we have to do.  I'm all good with everything except the backwards somersault.  I try it once, I get water up my nose, in my ears and I can't contort myself all the way around.  Marla tries to show me what I'm doing wrong.  She disappears under water in a backwards whirl and emerges again...blood running down her nose.  "Ok.  Maybe don't try it in shallow end she says."  But there's no time to practise anyway, it's our turn.

Maybe it's the blood, or maybe they just look at me and decide that it's hopeless, but incredibly they give us a stamp for our first check point. We are out of the pool and back on the road again. 

Over the next few hours, we never stop moving, thinking, and searching for information on our phones. According to the rules, we can only travel on foot or by mass transit. Sitting on the bus or street car becomes our only break.  It rains, pretty much all day.  At times, we are soaked. 

But in the end:

• we hit three out of four targets in a hockey shooting competition and do 20 burpee jumps each to make up for the fourth target
• I pull Marla around a track on a wagon that's strapped to me
• we throw javelins
• we pull a half tonne truck about 25 feet and have to eat a raw garlic clove covered in wasabi because we aren't fast enough 
• we complete a "flair" bar tending routine
• we do squats and push-ups at a GoodLife gym
• Marla holds a python and a tarantula while I eat a cricket
• we spin for 20 minutes because I pick the most high calorie food on the menu and the challenge is to burn off the food you pick.

Finally... after 5 hours and 33 minutes of perpetual motion...we cross the finish line. We are number 139 out of 318 Chasers.  We are exhausted and starving, but elated that we make it before time runs out.  

People often say that it's journey that's important and not the destination-so it is with City Chase.  It's a race that takes patience, the flexibility to deal with things you can't control, as well as equal measures of endurance and the ability to laugh at yourself.  I was lucky. I had a great teammate and for both of us it was pure unabridged fun.  So far it has been the highlight of the 43 project.  I can't wait to see what's in store for Mitsubishi City Chase 2013. 

Never quit,

Mary

Coming up in the next few posts, I get some advice on staying motivated and I get back on my bike and do a mid-distance ride.