Mitsubishi City Chase – a clydesdale’s tale

Name of Race – Mitsubishi City Chase
Website for the Race – http://www.citychase.ca/
Date of Race – Saturday, June 23^rd, 2007
Location of Race – Toronto, Ontario
Type of Race – Urban Adventure Race
Distance or duration of Race – 6 hours to complete the race
Description of Race – An Amazing Race type event held all over downtown Toronto.  It was a beautiful day and a great atmosphere.
 

The Race:
 

After a few friends did the City Chase last year, a big group of us decided to do it this year.  I had done two tri’s in the last 2 weeks so a change of pace was welcomed.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but the idea and concept sounded like a lot of fun and I’ve heard nothing but great things from friends who had done the race in the past so I figured why not.  Plus, it was an excuse to hang out with good friends for a day and share some stories at the end.
I think the hardest thing about this race report is that I’m not sure what to write without giving too much away.  We all met at Metro Hall where all teams (I heard close to 700) were gathered for the start of the race.  In the past, a scavenger hunt was held at the beginning in order to get your clue sheet but they decided to forgo that this year.  But the number of people frantically writing things down as race organizer Nick Jelanyk (sp?) spoke was quite funny.  In past years, he would drop clues and hints to check point answers during his speech so everyone was trying to get it all down.  Our teams just joked around and committed it to memory. After a lengthy speech and sone fun on stage antics, we were told that technology would play a big part in the race and that we were to text the word CHASE to a number to find out where to pick up the clue sheet.  Well, 4 of our friends sent a text message as instructed and none of us received anything back…so we just ran with the crowd to Old City Hall to get the clue sheet.  A quick aside…we never received anything back telling us where the clue sheet was. Once we got the clue sheet, we started mapping out the plan for the day.  35 possibilities and you only needed to complete 10 check points, of which 3 were mandatory.  We decided that we weren’t there to win so we would just do checkpoints that sounded like fun.  This had us criss crossing the city (which prolonged the day) but we got to do some pretty fun events: 

• Shoot paintball guns at various targets…tennis balls and team mates.  I was the lucky one to take a paintball off the hip and the butt!
• Rock climb at Joe Rockhead’s
• Race a paddle boat at Ontario Place and run through the parks Maze attraction
• Figure out a Mensa challenge accessed via the web
• Sell hug for the Children’s Miracle Network (and get lost in the process of trying to find the checkpoint)
• Paddle canoes in a gross little inlet downtown
• Find glow sticks in the Firefighters training house while fully outfitted in fire fighting gear – this was the coolest!
• Push a car full of people while listening to the Barenaked ladies
• Attempt to fill a bucket with a hollow pole full of holes
• Ride the streetcars for FREE all over the city
• Run/walk for what felt like an eternity (although it only ended up being about 12K total)
• Enjoy a beautiful sunny summer day with good friends and have a bunch fo laughs in the process

I’d love to do the race again the following year.  Now that I’ve done it once, I’ve figured out how to do well in it.  There is definitely a trick to doing well and maybe next year we should try to “perform”.  Kudos go out for a well organized race with amazing volunteers all over the city.  For an event this big to be pulled off, you need great volunteers and these were some of the best.
I have a bit of a break now.  Next race is the Gravenhurst Sprint where we’ll be starting off the steam ships for a point to point straight swim.  Should be fun.  I’m heading in to that race as the HSBC point series leader for my classification so we’ll see if I can extend that lead!
 

Thanks for taking the time to read.