Race Report: Chicago City Chase 2009

[This post was authored by Melissa.]

Note: Until we're all able to make it out to paradise, we'll be posting periodic updates on events in Chicago.

While many in Chicago may moan about the lack of summer-like weather this year, Saturday's weather was perfect for the event that took place throughout the city. Approximately 1,500 people participated in the "world's largest urban adventure" - City Chase 2009. Similar to "The Amazing Race," City Chase had teams of two racing through the city on various missions, with the prize being a trip to Quebec City for the North American Championships and a chance for a trip to Salta, Argentina for the World Championships. But most people just participated for fun, the challenge and a chance to see how much they know about Chicago.

My co-worker Emily and I signed up and arrived at the Daley Center, without knowing much about what to expect. After various warm-up activities, including a "challenge" where a guy proposed to his girlfriend on stage (she said "yes"), we were given our first task. In order to get our clue sheet for the day, we had to track down 8 out of 10 items on a scavenger hunt list. The items ranged from the temperature in Salta, Argentina to a ticket stub to something expired.

After gathering our eight items, we received our clue sheet. The clue sheet contained approximately 25 clues to Chasepoints throughout the city. At each Chasepoint, we had to complete a challenge. We had to complete 10 challenges in order to complete the event. The Chasepoints were scattered throughout the city, and the only way to get to each Chasepoint was by foot or public transportation. In addition, we had to complete a Chasepoint in three out of four areas of the city: South Side, West Loop, Bucktown and Lincoln Park.

So we figured out a couple of clues and headed south to Chinatown. It seemed like everyone was heading to the main Chinatown event, so we headed to Ping Tom Park. At Ping Tom Park, we each had nine tries to land a fly fishing cast in one of three hula hoop targets. If we didn't make it in nine tries, we had to wrestle and kiss a pig. I'm happy to say that our fishing skills paid off and we didn't have to kiss any pigs!

From that event we headed to the south end of Grant Park, with the large walking sculpture, to learn a color guard routine. After several practices, we performed for the judge. Even though I tripped on my flag and I think Emily dropped hers, miraculously we passed! I think the judge was feeling generous.

The next challenge was in the Loop by the library, where we had to identify the neighborhoods of Chicago off of a map. After getting the easy ones (Lakeview, Lincoln Park, West Loop), we had to guess on quite a few (Gresham, Irving Park, Westlawn). But we passed and were off to the next site.

We hopped on a bus and headed west to Union Station. At the Union Station gym, we participated in a game of dodgeball, where each person had to hit score eight "hits" on the other team. We finished that challenge with only a couple of bruises from being hit.

The next place we were heading was Union Park in the West Loop, but after leaving Union Station, we overhead someone talking about the challenge at Old St. Pat's. Somehow Emily and I had missed that there was a Chasepoint at Old St. Pat's, but we checked our clue sheet and saw that there was a clue that referred to the world's largest block party, so we decided to stop there on our way to Union Park. It's a good thing we did because look at the challenge that awaited us:

Yes, I had to hold a snake and put it down Emily's shirt and she had to do the same to me! The snake was pretty calm and it went well (except for the snake almost trying to go down Emily's pants, too!). Afterwards, we got a picture with the snake.

From there we got back on track and tried heading to Union Park, however, we took another little detour to a Chasepoint at an art gallery that another team alerted us to. I'm not sure that was the best choice, since the challenge was for one person to strip down and the other person to sketch them. We finished that one in a hurry!

Just a short time later we arrived in Union Park for the most physically challenging event we participated in that day.

We each had to hurdle approximately fifteen hurdles, run to the finish line and head back, all within 2 minutes total. Oh, and you couldn't knock over more than 4 hurdles or you had to start over. As many people may know, I am not so coordinated, so completing this event was a challenge. We both ended up practically stopping and stepping over the hurdles. But we ended in approximately 1 minute and 45 seconds and no knocked-over hurdles!

We headed back into downtown to catch the El up to Lincoln Park for our next challenge. We got incredibly lucky all day long in timing the trains and buses. We hopped right on the Brown Line up to Armitage where we went to play Flippy Cup at Kincade's. The number of cups you were able to flip in 60 seconds determined what tasty treat your partner had to eat. If you flipped 0-3 cups, you had to eat fermented bean paste; 3-7 cups was processed fish eggs; and 8 and over was fish oil. We decided that the bean paste sounded the "best", so we flipped less than 3 cups each.

We both were able to choke the paste down, although it really tasted like putting a cup full of salt in your mouth. Luckily we had some gum to wash down the paste.

The next location for us was the Noble Horse Theater where the task was to saddle a horse, have each person take one lap around the arena on the horse and then unsaddle the horse. This was actually the first place where we encountered a line all day. We had to wait almost an hour to get our turn. That time wasn't helped by the fact that Southwest Airlines had representatives throughout the city giving teams passes to cut in lines. About 6 groups were able to cut in line while we were waiting. Luckily Emily has lots of experience with horses and was able to get us saddled up in no time. She was also a pro in trotting around the arena (when most other people and horses were strolling).

After the horse ride, we had to head back to Kincade's to retrieve Emily's camera. After getting that, we headed to the Blue Jeans Bar on Halsted for the final Chasepoint of the day. The task was to barter a sticker in exchange for a non-perishable food item. Of course we had to get a picture of the exchange taking place, so it was a good thing we went back for the camera! We were able to get a granola bar in exchange for our sticker and we were off to the finish.

We made it to the finish line (aka Joe's Bar) shortly after our last Chasepoint.

We crossed the line in 5 hours, 5 minutes and 15 seconds, placing us 77th overall (out of 360 finishers and approximately 300 groups that didn't finish). (The winners came in at 2 hours and 56 minutes.) After making it to the finish, we were able to celebrate with a well-deserved beer.

City Chase 2009 was a great way to spend a summer Saturday in the city. And we got to experience things in Chicago that we never would have otherwise. We definitely could have improved on our time, if we knew what to expect! We managed to plan our routes pretty well, but we still ended up covering about 6 miles throughout the day. But I think we did great for being first-timers!