My Saturday started off boring. I did some work, read some Harry Potter to catch before the movie starts and made some dinner. Somewhere in between reading and dinner, I checked facebook and saw what event I had said maybe or yes to. I found one that sounded interesting: Journey to the End of the Night. It was a foot race around the city. The catch? Don't get caught by the chasers in yellow ribbons. Great! Immediately, I told my roommates and they said they were in.
Upon my arrival to Embarcadero, I saw a plethora of costumes: Waldo and Wendy from the popular Where's Waldo, the house from the movie Up, a missing person on the face of a milk carton, and several other characters. I met up with a friend and my roommates, but not before encountering my friends Alex and Jaena. After signing in, we (my roommates, our friend, and I) looked at the map to see what first safety and check in point would be most accessible by foot and which is more direct. We had to choose either Chinatown or the Bay Bridge. We chose the Bridge. We put on our blue ribbons, mentioning we were players trying to win the game.
When the horn blew at 8 p.m. we ran as fast as we could toward the bridge. We got there pretty fast without getting caught by a chaser. We made it safely to the first checkpoint. While waiting in line, we planned our next moves toward the next checkpoint: a van parked close to nearby the Moscone Center. While being chased by chasers, we took shelter at a roofed bus stop, a safety zone. While chatting with another group of players, my roommates and friend abandoned me! Granted, I had mentioned earlier, repeatedly that it was "every man for themselves." I supposed I deserve the desertion. I spent some time with some of the other groups. Not much later, I was regrouped with my roommates and we made it safely to the second. Once we planned our next moves, we kept our pace and tried to act non-suspicious. Of course running in downtown San Francisco is always suspicious. While being on the lookout, a homeless man had noticed a chaser across the street from us, and warned us. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have gotten so far. For 2 and a half hours we were acting paranoid, wanting not to be caught, running every time we saw a chaser or heard a scream.
The running went on, from one location to another. During our run to the fourth checkpoint, we met up with another group of blue ribbon players and pretty much stuck together. We met up on Potrero Hill, and headed toward the Mission, by 16th Street. We were right across Whiz Burger, which I hear is delicious, when suddenly a chaser taps my roommate Amy on the arm, tagging her as a chaser. That was it. We had lost the game. But it was okay, because now it was our chance to chase players around. As we made way to the 5th checkpoint, we saw a group of players through a government issued filled parking lot. Amy and Darrell ran through the parking, chasing 4 players. I stayed behind at the entrance. Amy chased one player towards me, and as soon as I saw the player, I went for her, almost tackling her in the tagging. It felt like a game of tag football. I then tagged her friend. 2 tags in one location!
By the time we were approaching the fifth location, Duboce Park, we were beat. Amy and her mother went home, but Darrell and I continued. We departed at Church and Market. The time was about 11 p.m. Just past Fillmore and Haight, we saw a blue ribbon. He saw my yellow ribbon (chaser) and continued cautiously. What he did not see was Darrell. Darrell and I chased him up a hill and through the Streets until Darrell finally caught up to him and relieved him of his player status.
We were really tired by this point. We avoided Duboce park and proceeded to the apartment on Oak where the 6th checkpoint was. While their, we played blackjack. Then we attempted to pass some security lasers to get into a vault with some secret prize. I don't know what the prize was. We failed. On our way to the bus stop we decided, what the heck! let's go to the end which was behind the Academy of Science museum. Once there a band was playing, glow sticks were hanging from trees, and people were hanging out. We made it out of safe and alive and then headed home. After 4 and a half hours of playing and about , we made it home a little after one. What a great night before Halloween. In the end, we ran, hiked, walked about 9 miles.
Videos will be up in a different post later.
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