City Chase – a step by step rocking recap

                     Yesterday the Vancouver edition of the Mitsubishi City Chase powered by Blackberry (might as well get the full name in there, make the corporate sponsors happy, not that they’re reading this) was successfully run, and, as promised, it was awesome.  I dressed up like a fireman, found myself blindfolded no less than 3 times, saw naked people, went shopping and actually went willingly to one of the disgusting food challenges for the first time ever.   This was the first year for me and the bf, and I had no idea how we would react together under stress and physical exertion, but I’m happy to report all is well and no one has to move out!  There was a little sniping in frustration at the first chasepoint, but after that it only got better and better as the race progressed.  So, I promised you a blow by blow recap of my favorite day of the year, so here goes:

                   We started at Granville Square plaza, right beside Waterfront Skytrain Station and with an incredible view of North Vancouver and Canada Place at 9am sharp with the traditional speech and geeky warm up stretch/dance routine.  Then, at 10am sharp, it was go time.  In past years, in order to receive your clue sheet you have to complete a scavenger hunt that I dread with a passion, as it can take up to 1/2 an hour to find all the obscure objects (a business card printed in a language other than English?  A cocktail umbrella?), eating up a huge chunk of your precious 6-hour maximum race allotment.  Even had a homeless man help me out with that one year.  He had heard a lot of the teams run past saying they needed an apple core, so he found one and got it for me.  That was fantastic.  But this year they made it much easier, you just had to find another team with the same last digit of your team number and then check in with them at the Olympic Countdown Clock.  No sweat.  We found a team of girls wearing head to toe metallic pink spandex (not kidding) and ran to the clock, the whole process taking maybe 10 minutes with traffic.

                  Our strategy was to find what we thought was the farthest away chasepoint and head right there, doing a lot of our additional strategizing Geographically, it may not have been the farthest point, but we started with the hardest to get to one at the Cliffhanger rock climbing gym on Terminal Ave.  This was an important point for us, as we had raised CAD$50.00 for charity in advance of the race, and if you went there you got a chasepoint stamp for the fundraising as well as the task at hand, so it was an easy two points right there.  After skytraining it to Main Street, we discovered there is no other form of public transport from there to the rock climbing, so we had to hoof it.  Getting to the gym, Eric (the bf) had to climb a rock wall while I completed a Sudoku puzzle.  Let me just say, he rocked that wall.  It took him like a minute, he just flew up there.  I, on the other hand, did not have that much luck.  With him down and the two of us putting our heads together we managed to finish that damn puzzle in like 20 minutes and hit the road again.   Apparently some teams were working on that puzzle for an hour, so, despite my supreme frustration, we didn’t do too badly.  Two points down, eight to go.

                    From there we walked the 2.7km (once again, no freaking public transportation!  I don’t think in 5 other races I ever had to run/walk that far in one single stretch before) from Terminal, along Main St and up Prior, heading to Strathcona Park.  On the way we stumbled across another chasepoint, this one a block before the park at Fire Hall No. 1.  It had only said “go to firehall no. 1″ on the cryptic cluesheet, and we hadn’t had time yet to get out phone a friend back home (thanks Mom) to google that yet, so we had no idea it was right there, but since we had found it, we were doing it, whatever it was.  Turns out both team members had to don full firefighting gear, pull a firehose out, knock down a target with the water, then drag a weighted dummy across a yellow line, and then one team member had to unroll a fire hose and then the other had to roll it back up again.  Let me tell you, those outfits are not comfortable.  Not only are they hot as hell, but they weigh a ton.  On the upside, the bf looked great all dressed up like that   This point actually didn’t take too long, and soon we were on our way.

                   One block up was Strathcona park, where I got to be blindfolded while the bf, using only words, talked me through disassembling a skateboard.  This wasn’t too bad, he gives great directions and I’m pretty adept at taking things apart, but the grippy stuff on the skateboard deck did horrible things to my manicure!  Four down, 6 to go.

                  One more block up was La Casa Gelato, Vancouver’s legendary home of the 218 flavours of ice cream.  If this hadn’t been so close to the other points and involving the word “gelato” I probably wouldn’t have gone, as they never give you anything good to eat on the city chase.  Ever.  As a rule I usually avoid the eating challenges, but this one just made to much sense logistically to pass up.  One team member was blindfolded (me again) and had to taste 5 flavours  of gelato and try to identify them.  For every one they got wrong, their partner recieved a penalty.  Of the 5 flavours the only one I got right was ginger, though I heard the others were either wasabi, lychee, corn, balsamic vinagar, fish or pesto.  Honestly, none of those rang a bell to what had tickled my taste buds.  But because of my four errors, Eric had to take one for the team (love you, Handsome) and eat two huge oysters.  I really didn’t think he was going to manage the first one without vomiting, he came pretty close, but once it was down the second one was easy and we were on our way. 

             Finally, public transportation again!  It was now just over two hours into the race and we were finally getting to use our provided bus passes.  The 22 bus took us to VVC-Clark skytrain station (the driver helped us out and dropped us off right at the station instead of the bus stop), from where we trained it to Renfrew station and ran to the Grandview Rona store.  Here the task was shopping.  Sweet.  If I can do anything, it’s shop.  They gave us a list of 8 items and we had to correctly find 6 of them somewhere in the store.  They tried to be tricky, asking for 56 lt of bark chips, when the bags came in 2 cubic feet (it works out to be the same thing), but we quickly saw through this and finished in good time.  6 down, four to go.

              Right next door to Rona was Van Tech Highschool, where we wandered around lost with another team for a few precious minutes before we finally found the chasepoint hidden on a lower field.  Once again I was blindfolded (I was the navigator of the team because I rock with maps, but when it comes to giving small directions, like ”turn a little to your left” I have this horrible tendency to mix up my left and right.  Stop laughing, you know you do it to.  Our little saying is “your left or mine?” even though we’re both facing the same direction. Thus, I was always the blindfolded one while he, who seems to know his left and right, directed) and was verbally directed to walk through a field of scattered balls, where if I touched any of them, I had to go back to the start and try again.  No touches, we finished and were on our way.  Time for the home stretch, and we had it all planned out.  from here on out, all the points we needed were along our rapid transit routes, so we were good.

                  Skytrain again back to Science World, where we got to team up with four other teams and paddle a dragon boat through a marked course.  That was fun and fast. Back on the train, it was straight to waterfront station and the start/finish line to pick up the trivia question sheet we needed to complete for our next point.  Let me tell you, it was hard being so close to the finish line and not be able to cross it, then have to run away again and hop on the nearby seabus to North Van.  The questions were hard, random facts about the world, like “Which country has the lowest literacy rate?” and “where in the world is the highest waterfall?” (I work in travel, I knew that last one was Venezuela), but between our phone a friend and working with other teams we got them all by the time the seabus docked and it was time to run again.

                 In North Van we had two options, either learn a dance routine with the BC Lions’ cheerleading squad the Felions, or draw a nude model.  The clue was very cryptic on this one, as it sounded like you had to get naked, so we had automatically ruled that out (my underwear I’ll do, no problem.  Anything more than that, no freaking way.  Luckily Eric felt the same way), despite the fact that he really didn’t want to dance and had warned me it would take him forever.  Of the two of us, I have the rhythm.  But on the seabus we learned that you only had to draw a nude model, not become one, to get your stamp.  If you were willing to get naked you could get a second stamp, but that was optional.  Since the two chasepoints were right beside one another, we figured we’d try the drawing and see how it went.  I’m a half-decent artist if I do say so myself, and we were in and out of there in 5 minutes flat, chorusing a resounding “NO!” when they asked us if we wanted to get naked for point number 2.  Besides, we didn’t need it, we were done.

                 Back to the seabus, a quick stop just behind the start/finish line to turn in our trivia sheet and officially get chasepoint #10, a run through a construction zone to get to the entrance, and we sprinted to the finish, crossing at about the 5-hour mark.  Apparently the winners finished in 2 hours 48, but I’m still really proud of how we did.  We finished.  I’ve had years when you just have to cross the line with 8 stamps because the course is going to close before you can finish.  And we finished still talking to one another!  I’m under no illusions that I’m ever going to win the Chase, I’m not a runner, but it’s all about the journey and the fun, and it was a hell of a lot of both.  On the upside, he’s already willing to do it again next year!  Sweet!  I’ve converted another one!

               Great course, great year, great race, great fun.  If you hear about a City Chase in your area, do it!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, dragon boating, fun, gross, nudity, odd, public transportation, race, rock climbing, running, vancouver, weird

The Chase is on!

                Saturday in Vancouver, the Chase is on!  It’s time again  for the Vancouver City Chase and I can’t wait.  This is year six for both me and the Chase, and it’s going to be the best race ever.

               For the uninitiated, the City Chase is like The Amazing Race, but all contained within one city, and you can only travel by public transit or foot.  An urban adventure race that’s part scavenger hunt, part footrace, part strategy and part “what the hell, let’s do it”, it’s a ridiculous amount of fun.   Being that I’m totally obsessed with the Amazing Race, this is as close to being on the show that this Canadian girl can get: six hours of running around Vancouver and completing various random tasks at ten chasepoints scattered throughout the city.  Oh, and you’re with a partner, so there’s someone there to drag you along, be dragged, argue with and hug in celebration along the way.  Check it out online at mitsubishicitychase.com or on Facebook and see for yourself.

           The big question is, as usual, what are they going to make us do this year?  All they tell us going in is where the start line is and it’s not until they say “go” that you get your clue sheets, so it involves a lot of blind faith.  Sometimes the tasks are fun (modeling your partner’s likeness out of play-doh), sometimes they’re physical (climbing the 700 stairs to the observation deck at Harbour Centre), sometimes they’re wet (the organizers promised not to make anyone ever do the underwater bowling ever again, as it was almost impossible), and sometimes they’re gross (anything with the words “smoothie” or “dog bakery” mean you’re going to have to eat something really, really gross, and last year for the first time I downed a live meal worm.  Yep, it’s as unpleasant as you’d expect, but thankfully they’re small and can be taken like pills).  God knows, it could be anything.  Kayaking.  Fencing.  Wheelchair basketball against professionals.  Nudity made it’s first appearance last year as one of the optional points was to run an obstacle course at Wreck Beach full-on starkers. 

              But that’s the fun of the chase.  The unknown.  I’m not exactly an overly-outgoing person, my friends would probobly describe me as the “quiet one” in our group, but I am incredibly competitive.  Over the years I’ve discovered that in the heat of the race I’ll do pretty much anything.  Approach random seniors and ask if I can hold their false teeth in a photo; eat the aforementioned mealworm; strip to my underwear in public for a water challenge (because, really, bathing suits are not supportive running attire); and one of my prouder moments came by completing a high ropes course, complete with rappel.  I was shaking the whole time, but that competitive streak of mine got me over that fear, and afterwards it felt really good.

             From a travel perspective (this is a travel blog, after all), it wasn’t until I started this race that I really learned how to navigate Vancouver.  Before the first year I literally studied downtown maps like I was cramming for an exam, and now this girl from the ‘burbs knows her way around.  But also, the race takes me places I might never have gone otherwise, like being a very fast-paced tourist in my own city.    Every year I end up with a shortlist of places that looked really cool as I ran through them, so now I need to go back and really enjoy them.

              But the coolest part is that this is an international race.  All across Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, London… they’re adding more cities every year, and the winners of each go on to the World Championships, which have been in Rome, Chicago, Morocco, and this year are in Argentina.  Sure, it’s way easier to race around a city you already have some knowledge about, but still I have this fantasy of running the London or Hong Kong race some year, zipping around on their great public transportation, trying new things…

              We’ll soon see how this year plays out, and I’ll post an after-race recap, but it’s going to be fun!    

mitsubishicitychase.com

Tags: adventure, City Chase, competition, fun, odd, public transit, race, rapelling, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Concert night in Vancouver

       Tonight I’m taking a chance to enjoy some of the best that Vancouver has to offer:  Japanese/Korean BBQ and Rod Stewart live at GM Place.  There is a vibe in downtown Vancouver that I just love, an electricity that comes out when the sun goes down, and when you combine that with some classic rock, I’m getting ready to party! 

               The plan is to hit one of my favorite downtown Asian eateries, Shabusen, a place where you can cook your own Korean BBQ right in your table while also having thirty types of sushi to choose from.   This is what makes Vancouver so much fun, with so many ethnicities, in a geographically small space, you get a plethora of this awesome  fusion to choose from.  And, with our large Asian population, my addiction to all foods Asian gets easily satisfied.  There are so many options.  Had an Indian/Malaysian/Thai combination once and it blew my mind.  The big question is whether or not tonight I’ll order off the menu or be too overloaded with the options and go for the all-you-can-eat again.

            Then a short walk’ll take us to the Garage (I mean, GM Place) for the Rod.  I hear they’ve been doing some renos in preparation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in a few months, so I’m interested to see if it’s any different.  For a hockey stadium, the acoustics are pretty good, so it’s going to be a night to rock out and remember.  As the BF says, they should totally make a Rod Stewart Rockband game, because I’d love to be belting out “Hot Legs” in our living room! 

            This I’m looking forwards to.  Now I just need to figure out which shirt to wear.  I need something not too low-cut (when eating wih chopsticks, there’s always the possibility of dropping something on yourself – maybe this is just me, but I can be clumsy from time to time – and it’s awkward fishing some edamame out of your cleavage), but stil something that says Rock and Roll.  Any suggestions?

Tags: asian, culture, Food, music, vancouver

You’ve come to visit, now what?

             Okay, friends/relatives have come to visit.  Great.  It’s so good to see you.  Now what the hell am I going to do with you?  Why is it always so hard to find things to do with out of town guests?  

               Don’t get me wrong, Vancouver is the best place on Earth (you don’t really think I’d live my whole life somewhere that sucked did you?), but the concept of showing someone around always causes my mind to blank.  What about the aquarium?  No, too dorky.  The art gallery?  Too boring.  Shopping on Robson St?  Cousin Steve would rather run out into oncoming traffic than endure that.   Hell, I even find myself vetoing things I’ve never done, and thus can’t make an informed decision about,  like hiking the Grouse Grind, just because I think it might involve too much nature.    It’s like suddenly dating your city again, where you look too closely at all the features that attracted you here, and suddenly you’re nitpicking them about that cowlick, faint odour of cheese or habit of playing with their forks at the dinner table.   

                It’s that pressure to be perfect, the “look, my city is so freaking awesome that living anywhere else is just a waste of space”.  Why do we do this?  Chances are Great- Aunt Bessie is just happy to see me, and my living room, a cup of tea and some chocolate digestive biscuits would make her happy as a clam.  I don’t have to spend a week’s salary on that boat cruise around Stanley Park.  But I want her trip to be memorable!

               The worst part about this is that I completely fail to take into consideration that my loved ones might actually know what they want to do already.  The wonderment of my company might have been what brought them out here in the first place, but that doesn’t mean they want to spend all their time with me playing tour guide.  God knows, when I’m the visitor I’m constantly trying to make sure I’m not imposing on them too much, while still seeing all the “must-see” attractions listed in my Rough Guide. 

           Aargh.  I know I’m not alone in this.  So what’s the perfect solution?

Tags: guests, sightseeing, Tips, vancouver