Oh, Journey, how I love you.

(Lengthy text incoming, as always.)

Every time I've attended a Journey, it's always been a journey, literally. I've debated throwing one together in St. Louis, where I live, but the city dynamics just don't really work for it at the moment. So, I've settled with traveling to them when they arise and I'm able.

For this Journey, I was hauling my beloved bike up from St. Louis to Chicago. I was quite excited about this. I've never had the chance to be a bike chaser, and I was more then happy to take it. Bike chasing seemed to be something more exciting then just chasing. Not because you have a speed 'advantage', but more because of the terror a chaser on a bike can inspire.

I got into town Friday evening, got my things put away and organized, and hung out for a bit. I declined on drinks for the most part that evening, as I learned my lesson when I ran a Journey the day after my birthday once. Showing up at the starting line with a kicking hangover is normally not a good idea.

Saturday, game day. I woke early, got the things I'd need together and threw them in my backpack. I jumped on my bike and toured the route so I'd have a basic feel for it, since I don't live in Chicago and the directions wouldn't just come to me. After taking my tour, I headed north to Logan Square to hang out with Dax and Allison pre-game. We hung out for a bit, then split, as Dax headed one way, and Allison and I went to meet up with a couple of the other chasers. From there, we headed to the start for a pre-Journey staff meeting and planning.

We started discussing staff-chaser placement, and solidifying plans when we noticed that players were starting to show up already. Voices were lowered and eventually we had everything laid out. Most of our Chasers headed out into the field to lay in wait, while myself and the Tennis Player (Referred to as Track Star in other Praxi) stayed at the start.

The amount of people that ended up showing caused a bit of confusion at the start. We were short some materials, people kept tugging my arm, begging for blue and pink bands so they could play, maps so they could get them signed. Game time was soon, and Dax implored people to cut their bands in half and share with some so we had enough. I ran around the starting grounds picking players and asking them for half their bands until we finally came up with enough. Dax called for them to start while I was still handing out a few more ribbons, so myself, and a few of the runners got a bit of a late start.

Everyone seemed to scatter in the same direction from the start. I watched as I handed out the last few ribbons and then jumped on my bike. Checkpoint one wasn't very far, and I didn't want it to be completely uneventful for everyone. I ignored the runners that got a late start due to not having armbands, as it seemed only fair. Biking past them I came upon the groups of people that had stopped running already, apparently not seeing a reason to run yet. A few of them turned and saw me, and beginning running, but the two that interested me were the two that were just calmly walking down the bridge like they had no care in the world. I biked up right alongside of them and looked over before they finally jumped realizing I was a chaser. Not wanting someone to go out of the game so early, and so easy, I asked them if they really thought they'd make it halfway playing like this, and took off after a group that started running when they saw me.

The runners were using everything they could to their advantage right away, which I loved. Sprinting towards stairs, getting off of concrete and into grass, darting through bushes, making sharp, quick turns away from me, and trying their best to nullify my speed advantage. My competitive spirit took over, and the only challenge they threw at me that I wasn't willing to tackle was taking my bike, which is meant to only be on roads, down flights of stairs. I chased them through grass with no question, I hopped off and on curbs just as quickly as they did, and when they quickly changed directions, I'd mash my rear brake and slid my rear wheel around to be facing their direction again in moments. I was chasing them with determination...but little did most of them know, I wasn't really attempting to tag any of them yet. I'd pretend the grass was slowing me down more then it really was, I'd reach for them but "miss", or I'd "give up" chasing someone to pursue someone else instead. As I biked further down the street I encountered a couple on the sidewalk. At this point there was a fence between us, so I couldn't really get to them. When they noticed me, they looked startled for a moment, but I reassured them that I couldn't fly and continued on. The fence opened up further down the road and I did a dramatic skid stop onto the sidewalk, looking at them further up the sidewalk while sitting still. They immediately looked at each other and took off. I biked towards them and they ran into a tennis court enclosure but left the door open, so I biked in after them. One of them went out the left side and shut the door behind him, so I chased the other into the left side, until she did the same. It was an amusing chase, and I let them go as I headed towards the checkpoint. As I closed on checkpoint 1, I chased a few of the runners into the checkpoint with those already safe cheering them on. Then I circled around to the front of the checkpoint and addressed all the runners with a yell.

"I've been being really nice to you guys in between the start and the first checkpoint. That all changes when you leave here!"

In response I heard one of the players say, "Oh man! I KNEW he was playing with us!" Which made me immensely happy.

This next part is fairly comical considering the declaration I just made. After stating that, I bike towards a player sitting on the corner not paying attention. I slowly come up behind him, with my hand out, just waiting for it to touch him when he hears the players at the checkpoint yelling for him to run. He turns and sees me just in time, missing my tag by inches, and takes off. I let him go, and hopped the curb to get onto the street and hassle some of the runners heading towards checkpoint 2, but the lights weren't in my favor so I turned around to hassle people coming to and leaving 1 still. As I did so I went to chase one person and the way I was riding my bike finally caught up to me. It seems a bike meant to be rode on the streets doesn't like taking jumps, hoping curbs, and generally riding it like it was a mountain bike. I went off a sidewalk after someone and shortly after noticed my back tire had blew. I was quite upset, so early in the game, for this to happen. Though it truly was my fault, I shouldn't have been riding it like that. I had to dejectedly walk my bike to CP1 and make a call to Dax informing him what had happened, and that I had to walk my bike to CP4 where my bag and lock was. This took me out of the game for a bit. Everyone at CP1 that just heard me tell them I wasn't going to be so nice in chasing them anymore I'm sure had a bit of a chuckle, and some relief. I actually ended up popping a spoke out also, which un-trued my wheel quite a bit.



























From here I walked my bike to CP4. On the way I kept seeing runners scatter from me and I was sad that I couldn't chase them. I didn't want to set my bike down and risk it getting stolen, and running with it I'd never catch anyone. I felt really bad, because I don't think most of them knew my tire was flat, so they probably just thought I didn't care to chase them, which might have taken away part of the fun until they got to chasers that actually started to chase them. I also ran into a group of runners sitting inside a CTA station. I had to walk right by them so I couldn't pass the chance to screw with them a little bit. I walked my bike into the station and asked them if they wanted to ride the train together. They were quite nice, and I told them I actually had to get to 4 for my bike lock since my tire blew. They directed me towards an air pump, which I headed towards for a moment, until I realized it wouldn't help since I didn't have patches on me. I reassured them that I wasn't going to chase them as they left, since it wasn't worth ruining my rim, or risking my bike getting stolen and was on my way. I finally made it to four, talked with the Animus, locked my bike up, grabbed a drink, and stalked the first runner I saw that made it there. I was a bit upset about my bike and this poor guy was getting the brunt of it. I watched him get his manifest signed, and jog off, so I started jogging along a side street in the same direction. He paused on a corner to ask directions and I slowly walked up to the corner, as I had a pole for cover in between us. Eventually I had to come around the pole, and he noticed me, but it was too late, I was right on top of him. The poor guy jumped back from the tag and into the people he was asking for directions. We both apologized to them, and headed back to CP4. I hung around there for a minute, deciding what I wanted to do with my bike, when Megin came alone with patches to save the day. After getting my bike fixed (Patched, couldn't fix the spoke, but it was able to be rode), Megin and I patrolled around between four and the finish looking for players. We covered a ton of ground but weren't really finding a lot of players. Eventually, after we'd been gone from the finish for a while and no more players had made it in, we decided many more couldn't be left and called it a night. That was at 17 players finished. In the end 54 players finished! I'm a bit sad I stopped when there were so many more left, but I'm sure there were enough player chasers to keep them occupied anyway.

Apologies for the lack of pictures, I don't tend to pause for them during Journey. All I can really do is snap a picture of my bicycle damage now and post it along with. I can also mention that my local bike shop lectured me about proper usage of my bicycle.