So That's What It Tastes Like...:

The Bell City Chase sounded okay. In theory. And I guess it really wasn't that bad. In theory.

Emily and I started off the day feeling pretty confident. Both of us have done scavenger hunts before, just never on such a short time limit and never in the city of Toronto. We had six hours to find 10 of 15 checkpoints and to complete the various activities at said checkpoints to receive a stamp in our passport. We could only travel on foot or by TTC (they gave us the day passes). Sounds okay, right? So...first of all, before we could get the checkpoint clues (of course, they're not going to just TELL us where they are), we had to do a mini-scavenger hunt at the beginning of the race. Within 45 minutes, we had to find 10 of 15 objects in and around the Air Canada Centre before we could get the list (after 45 minutes, you could go and get the list by default). The ten things that we found:
1) a dandelion
2) a TTC transfer
3) a page from yesterday's Toronto Star (with the date on it)
4) a carrot with the leafy part still attached (they gave us a clue about that before the race)
5) a lock of hair, 10 strands minimum (we took the scissors to my head)
6) a worm (Em found one in the median on Front Street across from Union Station - quite impressive)
7) Canadian Tire money (a girl on the street gave us 10 cents for free)
8) a maple leaf (I was wearing a Canada hat)
9) a magnet (had to buy that one)
10) a 1984 coin (the last coin I had on me, naturally)
The remaining five things that we didn't get were: the main label from a beer bottle, a cup of sand, goose poop (still in log form), an inflated balloon, and a golf tee. So, this gives you an idea of the kind of day we had in store for us.

To make a long story short, we only got six and a half of ten checkpoints. Briefly and in the order of completion:
1) Ransom: My hands were tied with a plastic chain and a Dudley lock and I was blindfolded while Em had to run up and down the street with the ransom note to find a way to set me free. She got the list of combinations but we tried them all and none of them seemed to work. The guy eventually had to help us out.
2) Boggle: Make as many words (five or more letters) as you can with the letters from "Bell City Chase". You can't reuse letters, you can't use the word 'chase', no plurals, no proper nouns, and at least one word had to be 6 or more letters. With some help from Boni via cellphone, we got it done pretty fast. Em was the wordsmith of the day with 'blase'.
3) Show Me The Money: Panhandle for 20 minutes or until you get $5 at the corner of Yonge and Bloor. We tried for five minutes, then I just put in $5 and we were off. (The money was for charity)
4) A Rooftop View: Who knew that New City Hall had an observation deck? Who knew that it was on the 27th floor? Who guessed that the two of us had to climb 27 flights of stairs before doing a small orienteering task?
5) Surprise!: After searching for a specific car with a clue in the City Hall underground parking, we made our way over to Queen and Peter to...eat stuff. A bad roll of the dice and flip of a coin meant that the two of us had to eat two cans of cat food. I had to ask the guy what the difference was between the pink one and the brown one (salmon and tuna). I don't know what's worse - the bones, or the crunchy stuff that I couldn't identify. I only almost threw up once. But it could have been WAY worse. The other choices besides the cat food were sardines, hot peppers, a live grub (actually, that was the easiest), chew a whole pack of gum and blow a bubble, or drink a cup of the first five items blended together. I heard that a lot of people ended up with that choice, some refused to do it, while others tried and quickly regurgitated it.
6) Trivia 101: Sit in a classroom at U of T, answer 10 of 15 questions involving pop culture, history, and math. By far, the easiest part of the entire race for me.

The last thing we tried to do was actually an ongoing process. We had to find four business cards: one with a non-416 area code, one with a Dundas Street address, one with a photo on it, and one from a police/fire/ambulance worker. The only one that gave us trouble was the photo card, because it was incredibly difficult to find a real estate agency when you're downtown and running around. After we got them all, we had to find a Bell store on Dufferin. Somehow we got misdirected to Yorkdale, but by then it was 5pm (they extended the race by an hour), so it was too late.

We got back to the ACC but we were not the last to arrive, so I guess that says something. It took us a total of 7 hours and 30ish minutes, I think. The winning team finished in 4 hours and 45 minutes, so they're representing Toronto in the National Championships in September. If we thought this race was gruelling, that race is probably going to be killer. First of all, they're competing with eight other teams from across the country, but nobody will know WHERE in the country the race will be held until the day before. And for today's race, finish times were measured in hours...the Nationals will likely be measured in DAYS. Good luck to them.

My legs have rarely hurt in this manner, but hopefully I'll get over it soon. What's really sad is that I started getting tired before we even got to the first checkpoint. I feared that I would burn myself out in the opening moments, and my fears were realized. But this was our first attempt, and it gave us a chance to work out the kinks and realize that our strategy was slightly flawed. I'm sure it'll turn out better next year.

"Just sweet beginnings and bitter endings"