The dash when the whistle went off proved to be the first challenge: after three blocks, I realized I had dropped my cell phone and we retraced our steps to (thankfully) find it lying on the ground, unstolen.
After that we began to walk toward Sansome street to get to Coit Tower, but were met with the sight of Ian on a bicycle sporting a red band. We ran back around the block and because it was early in the game, he had mercy and we weren’t followed. We got all the way to the stairs below Coit Tower, and then spotted blue-band sf0-ers hiding in some trees. Following our instincts, we hid alongside them and decided to join groups. We looped back around the block but there was a chaser across the street. He started running toward us and we split into two groups, running off into different directions. I lost the chaser (and the group) but met player Avidd on the stairs up to the top of Coit tower. Wow. Those were difficult stairs, but the view of the bay was brilliant, made even better by the sunset. At the top I met back up with my group, and we set off for Jackson street. There was some confusion over which direction to go, but we made it there without chasers, except right after getting the signature we headed down an ally and had to split off again when a player sprinted past. We lost the chasers but half the group was gone, and were a bit vague on the phone when asked whether they’d been tagged. Ramon and I decided to head out to the third checkpoint anyway, and started walking with another group.
We started up the steep slopes of Nob Hill and noticed the shadows of two players in front of us. They appeared to be harmless. However, one of them was red, and had just tricked her friend into believing she was blue. Tagging, running, madness ensued; everyone split. I turned just in time to see Ramon get tagged, still a bit confused. The rest of us split and scattered. I walked with Tom a bit, only to get chased again by someone different with a dog. I stopped at a bus stop, completely out of breath. Thankfully, I survived and began, once again, walking up a hill. I saw Tom, and he called Ashley, and we walked to the third checkpoint. I saw Ramon, who had decided to become neutral. He graciously offered to walk in front of us and warn us if anyone red started coming. We caught the #1 bus and walked down to Japantown without any trouble, meeting back up with Neil, one of the group who had got caught by the pretending chaser. He had a mission of vengeance, which Ramon agreed to assist him in. Unfortunately, the targeted person had already been turned into a chaser, and Ramon and Niel just became regular chasers. At this point I had to drop out of the game and go home.