Journey to the End of the Night

I'm really not sure what came over me when I decided to do this event, Journey to the End of the Night in DC this past Saturday. Really. It was more of an impulse, considering I'm not a good runner, nor do I have much stamina. But whatevs.

[official website]

The basic premise is a giant combo tag-scavenger hunt adventure. It started at Dupont Circle in DC at 7:30 and players had the next 7 hours to make it through 6 checkpoints without getting caught. They were chased by... chasers... who tag players. Once you've been tagged, you become a chaser. Players wore blue ribbons on their arms, chasers wore orange. Once caught you had to give the chaser your blue and put on your orange [we're given both at check-in].

Yasha and I leave home at about 5, and for some reason his GPS routed us through Silver Spring to get there... Anyway, we officially got there a little after 6. We then proceeded to drive around, attempting to find 24 hour parking that was open on weekends. We spent an hour and a half doing that. We finally found a garage under a hotel that was expensive but open. And then we sprinted to the circle, a few blocks away. Just that tired me out, and we hadn't even started yet!

We found the group easily enough: Yasha's friend Jeremy has bright red hair. We were team Bros For The Win, and we had close to 20 people [2 of them girls: me and Anjali]. Turns out the race starts at 8 because we had to wait for Chicago to get ready - yeah, it happened simultaneously here and in Chicago. So we got Krispy Kreme and a potty break! Whoo!

A little after 8 the race started. We bolted down Connecticut... and ran into our first chaser: a dude holding a sign that said "I AM NOT A CHASER." After a bit of confusion, we figured it out and booked it down the street... and into another chaser. He separated out group a bit, cornered me and Anjali, but didn't tag us. She had tripped, he was concerned, and then Kevin was across the street and distracting him so we could get away. Ninja skills? The Power of Christ? No clue how we got away, really...

Separated, we walked down 18th following the general route our team made earlier. The first checkpoint was the park in front of the White House. We ran into a couple more chasers, ran around some construction to avoid him, and just when we thought we saw another one we entered the safe zone. Horray!

The whole team made it to the first checkpoint, though in 2 groups. Us latecomers got briefly duped into waiting in a line to get our maps signed, but the error was quickly pointed out and we got our maps signed and the group went on. We decided to get the bonus house next, then the second checkpoint.

We started out from there probably a little before 9, all almost-20 of us. The bonus house was on 6th, so we had 10 blocks to go. As a giant group, we were actually pretty successful. We stayed generally together, and between the 5 walkie talkies there was plenty of communication. And with so many team members plenty of scouts. We had a few close calls, but we got to about 8th and I before there were any real problems.

There was a park around there, and we thought we saw orange so we hid on the porch of a church. When we thought it was clear, we moved out towards the park. And all of a sudden about 5 chasers appear and give chase. I implemented my clever plan: run a bit, find a dark place and hide. I hid behind an SUV and next to a tree. It got quiet. I came out, noticed no one around [except uninvolved citizens]. I call Yasha to figure out where they are and it goes straight to voicemail. I freak out a bit. Call back and he answers. I find him and we make our way together.

The rest of the team is almost to the bonus, so we were gonna meet them there. It turns out that the chasers got one of us, Chad. While walking and being paranoid, we find the group we were with the first time we were separated and feel instantly better. It was way creepy walking with just us two. So all 8 of us start towards the bonus.

We stop on a corner to examine our plan of action. Across the street we see a couple chasers, but aren't sure if they see us. Then they do, and we bolt. Down the street a bit. Around a corner. I hide between 2 parked cars, hoping. A kid gets tagged, and they walk past me, seeing me. I get tagged. It's almost 9:30.

I start to call Yasha to tell him, and as I walk I see that he's been caught too. I update my status. Our little group has all been converted. It was fun for a while, I guess, even if I was totally tired.

Then we see some players. And we chase them. And suddenly this game is so much more exciting.

Chasing, chasing, chasing...

We find this one kid. Give chase. He's cornered, he trips and falls in the street. Zach reaches over and tags him. We think, game over, awesome. He gets up, looks at his hand like it's hurt, starts walking. We follow, he walks faster, and suddenly he takes off. Yasha was off chasing another girl, Kevin yells at him to get this guy. He chases him back and forth across the street, but the cheater gets away. Asshole. We stalked him the rest of the night...

We eventually find the bonus house, hearing it has water and lemonade and music. It's pretty cool in there. Anyone can enter the safe zones, but no one can get tagged there. So there's players and chasers in there, chilling. We eventually leave, meet up with the guys who tagged us. We check in with the rest of the team: they made it to checkpoint 3 safely, or at least some of them. Jeremy and another kid got tagged. We decide to go to checkpoint 2, thinking there's still gonna be people coming in.

On the way there, we chase. We find these 2 guys who don't realize we're chasers till we're practically face to face [Yasha was leading with his orange ribbon on his orange shirt]. We chase. One runs off somewhere, but Anjali catches a girl who was with them. We have to wait because she needed her phone from one of the other dudes, and she had no orange ribbon. She eventually gets her phone back, and we swear we won't chase the dude. And then we do. He gets away.

We end up at Union Station and decide to ride the Metro to someplace else because these first couple checkpoints are dead. The Metro is the only other allowed method of transport, and the stations, trains, escalators and elevators are safe zones. We end up riding it to U St, which is between checkpoints 4 and 5. By now it's close to midnight.

We start walking to 5, but see very few players, or even chasers. We eventually see a couple chasers, but by this point nearly everyone has been converted.

Oh, I forgot to mention: the first team won at about 9:40, right after we were tagged. It was Fireteam Camelot, a group of Marines. Now, that is just not fair. People were using the Twitter to send messages to the other players, and I got a text at 8:59 to say they were at checkpoint 4. Really. Not fair.

Anyway... We get kinda close then meet a couple of staff chasers, people who had signed up to be chasers right from the start. They were heading to checkpoint 6 and the party. They told us that so few players are left it might just be better to go to the party. So we do.

We get there around 12:30. 2 of our teammates were already there, one of them still a player! So we got on the board as 5th or 6th, which is not bad. The other player, Josh, told us a tale of woe. At the start of the race we had all decided we weren't going to sell each other out, we weren't going to tag our team. Turns out that one kid did.

Checkpoint 6, the party, was an Italian restaurant near the gay clubs. So we sit down at a table and order some food. It rains a bit, and other team members show up. Jeremy gets there with no shirt on, which I found a bit weird. And one of the walkie talkies got dropped and picked up by someone... which is a bad thing, because Jeremy borrowed them from UB's Student Events Board. Then 2 members run up, still players! Incredible!

I think it was between 1 and 1:30 that the megaphone started being passed around for story sharing. We heard from that first "I AM NOT A CHASER" chaser, and then Yasha told of the asshole who got away. He also stated that our team probably had the most variety in almost-got-run-overs: several cars, a motorcycle, a tourist bus, a cop car...

Our team won something! We got Best Chasers because between the 15 or so of us that got converted we collected 34 ribbons. I didn't get any, but oh well.

Yasha and I left close to 2. As we were walking from Dupont Circle back to the car, we ran into a not-sober [though what he was on I'm not sure] gay guy... who started hit on Yasha. He opened with, "Is that your wife?" indicating me. So for a few minutes I was his girlfriend. It was... kinda funny, actually. We have to keep walking straight when the guy turns down the street we needed, but we make it back to the car with no further problems.

We drive to Yasha's uncle Boris's in Gaithersburg to sleep. We get there at 2:45 and end up sharing the futon. I'm not sure how much I actually slept, and I don't really know why either. But when we get up at 11 HOLY SHIT do my legs hurt. We eat breakfast and leave a little after 12. I get home at 1, have some time to rest and pack and eat, and am back on the road at 2 to get back to Richmond for my last finals.

And right now, as I type this, I have no regrets. The only sad part is how ridiculously out of shape I am. And how badly my legs hurt yesterday. They don't hurt as much now, just mainly sore and stiff, but it's not fun. Stupid bunk bed... I never really realized how much I walk until I got back to campus and had to walk to and from Bowe Street and Shafer and just... everywhere. I make old man noises when I stand up...

Anyway, I am SO doing that again next year. Yasha and I already started making plans. We're not sure if we're gonna sign up as chasers or players though. Oh well, we'll get to it when we get to it.

I would put up the 2 pics I have if I had the energy to stand up and hobble over to wherever my camera is... Maybe later...

EDIT from an email:
"Congratulations to Fireteam Camelot, the winningest team in the history of Journey to the End of the Night! These three marines made it through the course in a blazing hour and a half, taking first, second and third individual, and first surviving team. They were great sports, and you might see them as staff chasers next year... 550 people signed up on survivedc.com this year; 650 people showed up at Dupont Circle. Only 85 survived to the end. Congratulations to everyone who survived the most brutal Journey so far, and to everyone who played!"