Journey to the End of the Night
Comments (2) This past Saturday, one of my roommates (Annie) and I participated in Chicago’s Journey to the End of the Night, a street game -slash- race -slash- tag -slash- scavenger hunt.
It was awesome.
About eight miles of walking, running, jogging, and HIDING!
The premise is that you – as a ‘runner’ – are trying to get from the starting point to the end point, stopping at checkpoints along the way to get a piece of paper stamped to prove you’ve been there. As a runner, you have a blue ribbon on your arm. Chasers, wearing red ribbons, are scattered throughout the playing area, and if you’re caught by a chaser you have to give them your blue ribbon (as a trophy of sorts) and put on a red ribbon. Then you become a chaser, too.
The event covered all of the north-east side of Chicago, and Annie came up with a map of our route. We went at least eight miles total, and you weren’t allowed to use cars, taxis, or bikes. You could use public transit, but ran the risk of chasers catching you; being on transit was safe (as were train stations) but waiting for the bus was a risky proposition.
We made it to three of the six check-point, and were caught between #3 and #4, right around where the map says “N Broadway.” (For those of you familiar with Chicago, we were caught right outside the Dominicks on Broadway just south of Granville.)
After being caught, we wandered around trying to catch more folks. Annie and Eric (the guy who caught Annie and who we teamed up with as chasers) each caught a few people but I, alas, did not.
Nevertheless, and in spite of the exhaustion and pain on Sunday and Monday, it was totally worth it. TONS of fun, and highly recommended to similarly ridiculous folks.
Themocracy