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| City Chase 2012 |
I was invited to join "Team Bunz" for City Chase (June 29, 2012), since Jeff thought it might be something different from my usual running gig. Turned out he was right! Much like the Amazing Race, City Chase Toronto was the local version of it. My partner in crime was Grumpy, to whom I coaxed into joining with me. The race started out with a sheet of paper filled with clues to where we needed to go to reach our "checkpoints". When we reach the checkpoints, we would have to do the task at hand and then once completed, we would get a hole punched on on our bibs.
Sad to say, but we had a tough time with figuring out the checkpoints. Thankfully we merged up with another group and traded off some of our answers for ones we couldn't figure out. After that, it was just a matter of getting to the locations in the most optimal route. My friend, "Grumpy", was amazing for that. Despite complaining about the reasons why we were doing this and that.., she was an amazing navigator. A walking GPS so to speak. Yay for me, since I'm terrible with directions :)
The most memorable checkpoint that I encountered during the race, was the firehouse checkpoint. The task there started
out with each of us having to strap on a fire extinguisher (empty one!), and one
of us had to carry the fire hose (mind you, it wasn't even attached
to anything, just the head of the hose), run up 3 flights of stairs
and rescue a baby. Grumpy offered to carry it. That was a good call
since she was the stronger one of the two of us.
At the top of the
stairs a person directed us to put on this mask, that pretty much
simulated what it would be like for someone running inside a burning
building: zero visibility.
Our
mission, we were told, was to go inside this room, and find the baby.
Both us had to enter, but one of us always had to be touching the
wall, and we had to be a finger's length reach of each other. Makes
sense because you wouldn't want to lose your partner inside a burning
building. I stuck to the wall, and felt around the room for the baby.
The person giving us the instructions suddenly couldn't hold back a
laugh, because it seemed like I was more focused on searching for the
baby on the wall, vs. on the ground, where most people would be
looking quite embarrassing Guess not a fireman career for
me! After that hint that baby would be on the ground (duh!), we found
it right in the corner of the room.
Yay
baby rescued! Now we had to head back down to the main floor, unstrap
the extinguishers, and had to lift a dummy from one end of the room
to the other. This dummy weighed about 200 pounds. Mind you also, we
live in a country where people weigh far more than just 200, we're
looking at 250-290! It was heavy. As dead weight, the dummy felt so
much heavier; but the two of us managed it in the end. 1+ respect for
these men and woman who are in this profession.
We ended the final
round of tasks with having to hammer something, I really don't
remember what the purpose of it was, but I'm guessing it was to
simulate breaking down a door or the like.
Although we didn't win (since we didn't complete the required amount of checkpoints), it was still a wonderful experience. The best part of it was of course, being able to hang out with my friend, and just sort of touring the city with her. However, if you ask her, she will give a completely different story (Grumpy: Wendy, we could have just walked around the city instead!!). haha. Thankfully, this is my blog and not hers :)
After finishing off the City Chase event, Team Bunz and us (Team Happy and Grumpy) went for some Greek food on the danforth and had a delicious souvlaki dinner.
Next event...Spartan Race (June 30, 2012)...the day after City Chase. To say I wasn't a little tired from yesterday's event would be fibbing a bit. I met up again with Team Bunz and we drove down to Barrie, to Horseshoe Valley Resort where the event was taking place. I was both excited and nervous since this was my first actual physically tiring event after surgery. But I was "prepared", as I had on me some snowboarding goggles. Yes, yes, its a strange thing to bring for a race, but I was determined to protect my eyes above all else.
The past week I had been checking the Spart Race website, hoping to see or get an idea of what obstacles I would be undertaking. I knew for a fact that there definitely would be a muddy area with barbed wire, and some walls, but how many of these I didn't know.
When we arrived at the location, we gave them our bib numbers and our signed waivers (yep, another one of those that save event organizers from liabilities!). Our bib number was written on our foreheads, and ironically, when I mentioned to to person writing on my forehead that I had a meeting the next day and it would be best not to have it smaller in print, she actually wrote it bigger! haha, joke was on me for that one.
[Anyway, after checking in our baggage, we had some time to chill, so we just checked out what we could see of the course; haystacks? rowing machines? Hmmm.. strange to see rowing machines.. ]
After the 9:00am Heat started, we lined up and the first thing we encountered as we were running was an artificially induced smokey fog. Down came those goggles (boy did I look ridiculous in them!). Mind you, this was the only time in the ENTIRE race did I use them. For the rest of the way, they sat nestled comfortably on my head, and with occasional comments from runners and organizers on how "cool" (er, not cool?) ;) those goggles were.
Obstacle 1: Smoke
Obstacle 2: crawl through a dark pipe
Obstacle 3: Climb up cargo net
Obstacle 4: Climb up rope ladder (girls), climb up rope (boys)
Obstacle 5: pull up weights to top
Obstacle 6: crawl under barbed wire in mud x 2
Obstacle 7: walk through mud pit
Obstacle 8: carry heavy bean bag and run a short course
Obstacle 9: Thrown wooden javelin at a post (if missed, 30 burpees, 1 try only)
Obstacle 10: Climb over wall
Obstacle 11: Crawl under large wooden cover
Obstacle 12: Climb over tall wall
Obstacle 13: roll weights attached to string up and down twice
Obstacle 14: Push wheel barrow with heavy bags of weight on both sides
Obstacle 15: Balance on zigzag beam
Obstacle 16: Run through tires
Obstacle 17: Leap over fire
Obstacle 18: Do 20 reps of rowing machine
Obstacle 19: Crawl under ice with barbed wire
Obstacle 20: Climb over hay stacks
Obstacle 21: Run through and avoid gladiators!
Obstacle 22: Climb up tall ramp - wall
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| Spartan Race 2012 |
I had some memorable portions of the race, namely the mudpit (gravity as my worse enemy!) and the final obstacle course where you would think going up a ramp would be easy, but it was hard to get through this one. If I hadn't been tired out from the rest of the race already, the final one took me out :) Thankfully I had met two friends (shout out to the care bears team :D) who tried to act as my stepping stones to get through it... though in the end, I did end up doing the burpies :P This of course, was a last resort - there is only x number of times you can slip and slide back down a ramp before bruises starts to form on your elbows and knees.
[Overall, it was an amazing experience, and lots of lessons learned: TRAIN!! At least a minimum amount. The next one would be... not to do it so soon after surgery. lol With my vision still adjusting, it felt like my depth perception was still a bit off. Bringing kneepads would be helpful. Do not wear cotton shirts, they will weigh you down. Just some things off the top of my head that I can remember thinking after the race. Oh the memories :)]
Would I do it again? Maybe ... wayyyy down the line. At least until I build up some upperstrength. Until then, probably will stick to my running.
