Six hours, Ten Chase Points, One Free Beer!

The Bell City Chase

On Saturday my fiancée and I participated in the Bell City Chase. This was our second year participating, and it was a great experience.

GOD do my legs ever hurt today!

Essentially the Bell City Chase is a quasi-Amazing Race ripoff. It's a scavenger hunt/race/obstacle course/team building exercise.

And this year was MUCH harder than last year.

The event started at Dunday Square at 9:30am for a kick-off and the actual race began at 10am.

Our first clue, given at 9:59am, was this: "Your clue sheets are located at two different fire stations in Toronto. One is in the entertainment district, and one is in Regent Park." And, like that, we were off!

We chose to head to the Regent Park site, since we felt it was closer. When we got there (after a crowded street car ride and some pushing and shoving on the car) we were handed our clue sheet. Fifteen possible Chase Points - 10 needed to be completed to finish the event, and a few were mandatory.

The first mandatory one was a "Scivanger Hunt" ("Scavenger" and "Triva", get it?) Again, 15 questions, 10 needed completion. The questions ranged from "How many days since the Toronto Maple Leafs last one the Stanley Cup" to "What is the phone number on the Bell phone booth at Dundas and Bathurst" to "Find an inflatable object." The sheets needed to be brought, completed, to the VIA stage in Toronto's "Gay-bourhhood" (which ended up being at Church and Wellesley.

We read the clues and planned our root for a few minutes, the only stipulation was that you needed to complete two out of three other mandatory tasks. The Chase Points could be done in any order.

We chose to do one of those tasks first, since it was at Riverdale Farm (both near where we were and far from pretty much everything else.)

Once we arrived there, we were to carry a large bale of hay down a hill (heavier than it seems!) build a scarecrow at the bottom of the hill, and then carry the bale back up.

After completing that, it was back to Dundas Square. We entered the Olympic Spirt Cafe and were again given a choice: Mental or Physical. Mental involved answering a series of questions using artifacts inside the cafe. Physical involved completing two Olympic sports simulations. We chose physical. It turned out to be a good choice. We quickly completed a 100-metre dash and scored a curling rock each into the house to complete the task.

Next, off to King and Bay to the photo hunt task. Using a Bell cell phone (did I mention the blantant product placement on this race yet? Because there was tonnes of it) we needed to take pictures of four out of seven things. We snapped photos of a man with a mustache, a mannequin wearing jeans, a kid (in McDonalds) eating ice cream, and somehow managed to convince a girl to let us draw a City Chase logo on her cheek! Once that was done, we raced back, received a stamp for that Chase Point, and we were off! All and all, everything was going quite well!

Thought the task we had dreaded came next. We had completed this task last year and had vowed not to do it again. But since it was a place we knew and it was along the way, we went for it once again.
The task? Climb 27 stories to the top of the larger tower at the Toronto City Hall. Again, it's a lot more difficult than it sounds. After some serious hard work, some fear of heights, and some minor stress, we made it to the top! What a view! After looking out at the city for a few seconds (I raced by the view last year and was determined to enjoy it this year) we moved on, with aching muscles.

It was then off to the National Film Board on Richmond. There we needed to piece together a piece of paper that would form a question. We then needed to watch a film for the answer to that question. It didn't take long - another good choice of tasks. Five down, five to go!

Then it was off to Kensington Market. There we had to find five sites out of seven and record information about them. Thanks to some help from some friendly fellow teams, we completed this one quickly.

Then we took the streetcar back to College, and took another streetcar across to Ossington. There we had to compete against another team of two in a short game of ultimate frisbee. We did not do so well in this task. Let's just say that we were beaten by two all women teams, and I hurt my leg pretty badly. Thankfully, you either had to win a game or lose two games before continuing, and thus we eventually moved on.

Next, it was off to Harbord and Ossington for the next task. We had to tie sponges to our arms and, without using our hands, we needed to soak up water from a small pool and drain it into a bucket. We struggled for a bit (my inability to tie knots slowed us down) but we completed the task!

Eight down! Only one more task, and then we had to hand in our "Scivanger Hunt" sheet. We had almost all of the items at this point (again, thanks to some very friendly teams that we traded answers with.)

For this task we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. Anna had to dress me in a toga using a bed sheet and some instructions. Not a bad task. We completed it and moved onto the homestretch!

Two items short of our required ten, we raced to the VIA stage anyway, hoping we would find some help along the way (we needed either a live animal, a man in tighty whities, a man in cut off shorts, a shaved eyebrow, or a City Chase magazine ad to complete the task.) Thankfully, being Church street on Pride Weekend gave us the man in the underwear. And another friendly team gave us a bug of some sort in a bottle. Thankfully no eyebrow shaving was necessary!

With ten Chase Points under our belt (actually punched on the card around my neck) it was back to Dundas Square! We ran into Wellesley Station and barely caught the subway (yes, holding the doors open is technically illegal - but this was a race!) Several other teams were on the same subway car. We knew we'd need to beat all of them out of the subway or risk finishing behind all of them.

The train came to a stop and everyone ran. Now, this is where attending Ryerson for four years finally paid off. Some teams ran towards the Atrium on Bay to exit the station. Some, along with us, ran up the steps leading to Ryerson. There were a few teams ahead of us. We emerged from the subway and ran across the street (yes, jaywalking is technically illegal - but this was a race!) Looking behind me I saw Anna on my side of the street, and a few teams on the opposite corner, heading towards Dundas Square. I ran across the street again (yes, jaywalking is technically, yadda, yadda, yadda) and sprinted into the Square. Almost getting hit in the face by a stream from the fountain, I hit the finish line. I turned around, expecting to see several teams barrelling down on me.... instead there was only Anna! She ran up to me, I hugged her, and we finished the race!

Five hours and 25 minutes! Nine minutes less than last year, and the race was much harder this year. Still, we had wanted to improve greatly on our 348th place from 2005. But when they told us our place we were shocked: 103rd! Out of over 550 teams! We were really pleased!

From there it was off to the afterparty at Philthy McNasty's (one free beer coupon each - a far cry from the six we managed to scam last year!)

All in all, it was a great time, and this is a really long blog entry.

We are seriously contemplating entering again in August, but we'll be there for sure next year!!!