Seriously, Guys...Rashomon?!?!
Photoist
Pick a Party—Save the 941 Theater.
Gary Gulman at Helium Comedy Club
CinePhillyist
Give us a race with kayaking, naked bowling, and murderball any day. For anyone who thinks running just to run is just plain boring, the urban adventuring event that is City Chase USA is where it's at. Saturday morning in Love Park with started off some pre-chase chocolate covered cricket smoothie drinkin', an on-the-spot, off-key rendition of the national anthem sung a guy wearing shiny, shiny Rocky shorts and a warm up session led by two trainers from race sponsor Sweat Fitness. If there's one best decision Team Phillyist made along the way, it was to NOT DO SQUATS before literally running around Philadelphia for 4 hours. Crazy Sweat Trainer Dude: I would come take your class—that was a good live commercial. But did no one tell you the amount of cardio that was about to commence? (Hint: a lot).
First we all ran to get eight out of ten items on a scavenger hunt list in order to get our Chase Clue Sheet. Teams who had participated last year were more prepared than we were and already had canned food with them. This gave them a leg up from the approximately 200 people darted across the street to 7-11 to buy soup. For this part of City Chase, it definitely helped to have a camera phone as photographs of the scavenger items were acceptable and internet access was a must. How else would you find out the current temperature in Quebec City or the next direct flight from Philadelphia to Chicago? To get even further ahead in the Chase teams could have raised $40 for Back on Your Feet, City Chase's charity partner. Having done so was the equivalent of completing one out of the ten required ChasePoints. The parameters for this task were outlined in an email sent the Thursday before the race and donations were accepted until the end of the day Saturday. When all was said and done City Chase participants collected a total of $11,000 for Back on Your Feet's running for confidence programs. Andrew Kontos and Kari Czajkowski, "The Incredibles" were the top fundraisers with the largest team contribution of $1880.
After we received our neon green clue sheets, we deciphered most of the clues and headed towards the El with our free transpasses. We meant to go East toward the Liberty Bell to tackle the Marine Corps Boot Camp, but we went west instead (hey, even Phillyists make mistakes sometimes, but fortunately we know how to recover quickly). Since we were already at 30th Street, instead of turning around we decided to run over to the Kayaking ChasePoint on the Schuylkill River. There were only two teams ahead of us so we were able get on the water right away. Each team member had to paddle up, around the next bridge, and back. Then it was off to the Fitler Square Sweat on the adjacent corner.
After retrieving the clue sheet that I stupidly left on the treadmill, we headed to Plays and Players. There we had to memorize a one page scene from Titanic and audition in front of three directors. When we arrived there were several other teams trying to memorize their own scenes. When we left there were still several other teams trying to digest their scenes. Lesson: memorization is difficult, but don't let performance anxiety get the best of you. We may have been told we had all the emotion of Keanu Reeves, but we nailed the lines in five minutes flat.
The next couple of challenges involved nudity, our own and someone else’s. At the Plastic Club, we sketched a lovely art model. At Lucky Strike strip bowling was the name of the game. It wasn’t hard to figure out it much faster and easier to just get naked than to bowl a strike apiece. This Phillyist can’t bowl worth a lick, but I can surely get naked with the best of ‘em. The other half of Team Phillyist was a little shyer. Apparently it was cold in Lucky Strike.
We ran to Doc Watson's, where we bested snakes, spiders, cockroaches, and mealworms. Then on to Washington Square to translate Braille and earn our 6th ChasePoint. At this point we decided to bypass the Liberty Bell Marine Corps Bootcamp. Sorry, too late in the day for that kind of challenge. The Constitution Quiz at the Betsy Ross House, one of two required ChasePoints was next. The quiz was lengthy, but not difficult, especially with the aid of an iPhone. Unfortunately, wasn't so easy for everyone. Overhearing a self-professed "Lawyer in the City of Philadelphia" admit to failing twice before finally getting an acceptable grade was a little bit disturbing. Hearing the same person also admit to leaving the Kaplan College Prep Test ChasePoint because it was "too hard" was even more disturbing.
At Sweat, we were cheerfully instructed by a volunteer to eat three miniature candy bars. Unfortunately, since we had just consumed 120 calories, we needed to burn 120 calories. As a rival Chaser declared: “You think there's never really a bad time to eat chocolate, but then you look at the treadmill and think: maybe this is it. Somehow this Phillyist turned in her best mile time ever to complete the challenge. (8:25, not exactly lightning speed, but I'll take it. I hate running. I'm more of a swimmer. Too bad we skipped the pool ChasePoint at the Center City Sweat.) My teammate powered his through his calories in less than five minutes. You’d be surprised how fast you can run when you desperately need a bathroom.
The only place we tripped up was “The Dreaded Water Challenge” at Franklin Square. Dreaded because of the half hour-plus line we waited in. This was by far the most annoying ChasePoint. Participants had to strap on Double Dare style helmets with bowls and crawl to pass the muddy water to their teammate’s helmet/bowl. The best part of this ChasePoint was the team just in front of us whose strategy went something like this: "I'll get down on my knees and you just fill me up." After we finally finished at Franklin Square, we had to search Chinatown for our Chinese Zodiac symbols for our 10th and final ChasePoint. We snapped pictures of the Cock and the Horse and jetted off to the finish line at the Field House.
In the end Team Phillyist finished 22nd out of almost 250 teams—not too bad. The ultimate winners of City Chase Philadelphia 2009 were Kellyann Beene and Pat Shanahan, team "Urban Saloon." They finished in an impressive two hours and 36 minutes and are off to Quebec in September for the North American Finals. Would we do it again? Definitely. The staff and volunteers we met (many of them from Back on Your Feet) were great. The local establishments that allowed a bunch of sweaty, wet, and dirty chasers to come through their doors were all fantastic. We'd just ask that race organizers mix it up a bit. Many of the teams we spoke to at the Field House had participated in 2008 and they indicated that several of the ChasePoints were the same. If City Chase can manage to keep it fresh, this is an event worth running every year.
Image Credit: Author's own
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