Hm. Where to begin...

I heard about Journey to the End of the Night at the Cryptozoo event a couple weekends back. I immediately knew I was in. I mean, if you tell me there's a game played out in the real world with hundreds of people, I'm pretty much always in, but I was particularly excited about this one. See, there's this awesome/terrible show on the Sci Fi channel called Cha$e (http://www.scifi.com/chase/), where 10 runners wander through city streets, trying to survive for an hour against an increasing number of hunters.

Sounds familiar, right?

Well, ever since seeing this show, I'd been thinking about what it would take to run a version of it myself up in Seattle, so you can imagine how happy I was to find that not only had this already been solved, but that I would get to try it out. Before showing up I asked around at work to see if anyone was interested, but found no takers, so it would just be me and my good friend Beek.

The Journey Itself

We arrived at the amphitheater and collected our ribbons and maps, at which point I decided it would be fun to provide updates on my progress via Twitter.

waiting at the amphitheater with ~100 people. Wonder how many chasers are out there?

This number swelled to 200+ pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we were off. We took off at a jog, choosing a slightly out of the way route that led us towards the first big hill (which also happened to be quite a chokepoint, as it was the only reasonable way to proceed).

developing a phobia of orange objects

Even before we saw our first chaser I'd already grown a strong sense of paranoia. Having read some reports from people who ran in previous Journies, I knew that chasers liked to blend into the environment, so I trusted no one, no matter how inconspicuous they might have seemed. People with orange clothing seemed somehow more ominous. Maybe they were wearing that to hide their ribbon?

We encountered our first chaser on the cross street before the hill, with a biker eyeing us from across the street. We ran the opposite way, not knowing what to expect, and then immediately doubled back when she passed us and declined to turn around. In hindsight I suppose the chasers were given orders to take it easy in the beginning, but it was scary nonetheless.

The game was on.

using other runners as bait

I quickly realized that I felt safe when there was another group of runners a little ahead bit of me, under the assumption that they would fall into whatever trap was waiting for us. This worked well until later in the race, when the chasers got more numerous.

On the way up the hill we had a series of incidents:

1. A woman in an orange jacket, with one hand clasped behind her back, walked directly towards us on the sidewalk. I reflexively crossed the street, not willing to take the chance that she was hiding an orange ribbon, and then watched guiltily as Beek walked right by her. "Should have warned him," I thought. Luckily, it was a false alarm.

2. The appearance of a couple chasers at the top of the hill caused panic amongst the nearby runners. I ran down a path leading up to a small house and crouched in the bushes, until a gruff voice said, "Can I help you?" I looked up and saw an older man with wild gray hair looking down at me. I tried to explain that I was being chased, that it was just a game, and that I'd be out of here in a second, hoping that chasers wouldn't hear the exchange and come find me. Eventually he shrugged, motioned downstairs, and said that his brother might freak out if he saw me. I didn't know what "freaking out" would entail, and come to think of it, I heard voices coming from downstairs as well. I moved on. The chasers had moved on as well.

3. We got to the intersection at the corner of the park that held the first checkpoint and debated our next move. After deciding to continue forward (the shortest path to the goal), we suddenly saw a chaser in front of us. Backing up, we saw another to our right, and then another behind us. We broke into a sprint down the street to our left, with chasers in pursuit.

slid down a massive hill to escape a chaser dressed in steampunk officer gear

Beek yelled, "Here!" and I looked back to see him disappearing through a crack in the bushes. I rushed back and saw a steep dirt hill leading downwards into the park, Beek already halfway down. I shrugged and followed, almost losing my footing a number of times. The chaser arrived at the top, took one look, and yelled, "Whatever!" I yelled back, "See you later!" (but inside I thought, hopefully not).

setting out again after a brief stop at a fortuneteller staffed checkpoint

We made our way to the fortuneteller and received our signatures from the magician, then set off. Again, there were only a couple reasonable routes, so we soon ran into a chaser who broke into an immediate sprint. I went around him and continued forward, eventually stopping on a side street with a couple other runners, and called Beek. He was all the way back at the checkpoint. "Want to meet up?" he said. I did, but given that I was going to have to wait for him somewhere, I decided I'd rather do it at a safe spot, so we agreed to meet at the next checkpoint. I set out on my own.

misread the map and hit a dead end. good news: no chasers.

The good thing about going off course is that no one's there to catch you. I made my way back to the main road and eventually started following two runners, catching up to them when they spied a couple chasers and hid behind a tree. Right about now Beek caught up as well, so as a foursome we headed onwards.

stuck at the longest light ever, but made it to the second checkpoint

We met the Unlikely Fisherman, who recorded our names and images, and collected our signatures from a woman in a top hat. I considered asking if I could take a sip from the nearby wineglasses, but thought better of it. Next time I'll have to bring a flask. Anyway, the nearby area was already swarming with chasers. We set out a couple times and each time we made a quick retreat to the safety of the checkpoint. In desperation, we hatched a plan to go around the lake the long way, and headed out on a long journey that would take us past checkpoint four and then back to three.

taking a huuuuge detour around the lake. too many chasers the other way

Wait, I thought. Past checkpoint four and then back to three? That area's going to be swarming with chasers. But it was too late, we'd gone far enough to be committed, and we stuck to the plan, although I had a sinking feeling that we were in trouble. Sure enough, when we got to the area between the third and fourth checkpoints, we immediately spied a chaser. He sprinted after us and we scattered, with him choosing to follow Beek. By now, I had become enamored with my double back plan, and I shouted to Jessie and Jesper that we should continue forward. We did, heading along the water and soon enough another chaser showed up, but he was far enough behind that I wasn't worried, so I just kept running.

For some reason I had it in my head that I shouldn't check behind me, that this would slow me down, and I noted that Jessie had just looked back and not reacted at all or increased her speed, so I thought we were safe (although in hindsight I think she was merely resigned to her fate). About five seconds later I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Fuck.

Two more chasers had (presumably) come down from the stairs above, and just like that, we were done. I felt a profound sense of disappointment, not just that I had failed so early, but that I hadn't even realized I needed to sprint, that I'd lost without giving it my all.

Beek, having made the smarter choice of continuing backwards to an area we knew was safe, was still alive, and Jessie and Jesper were thinking of hitting up a bar, so the decision was between setting out to chase on my own, or getting a couple drinks. I was torn.

On the one hand, I really wanted to see the game out, to experience it fully. Quitting now would feel like giving up.

On the other, I'd been enjoying chatting with my two comrades, and having just moved here three weeks ago, I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to make some new friends.

What made my decision, though, was that despite the orange band around my arm, I still identified with the runners. I didn't want to inflict that same sinking feeling that I now felt upon other people aspiring to make it to the end.

miscalculated and traveled backwards through the 3 --> 4 area. gg. got beers with some folks instead of chasing.

So that was that. We found a random bar and talked for a couple hours, until deciding to head back to the final checkpoint around 10:15. Along the way we ran into a bunch of orange armbands, but no runners, so no chasing was necessary. I was excited to find that no one had won yet, and there was lots of fun speculation about how many runners were still out there. I texted Beek to see how he was doing, but didn't get an answer, so I figured he was probably still in it.

Ten minutes later: "Just got caught :("

Sad.

winner just arrived, four hours after start. 40ish chasers at the finish line weren't sure anyone would make it at all, cheered greatly.

Oluwaseun crossed the finish line, bottle in hand, and gratefully accepted the awesome trophy and congratulations from all. Apparently 52 eventually survived, although the number was still in the single digits by the time we left around 11:30 to walk back to our cars. The best story, though, came from Beek when he finally arrived:

After checkpoint five he decided he needed to make up ground, so he ran at a full sprint the whole way from 5 to 6, dodging chasers left and right. Eventually he ran into a pack of them at the Marriott, a block from 6, and was juking them with the aid of a giant pillar, when one of them yelled out, "STOP HIM!" Before he knew it a bellhop came out of nowhere and literally tackled him to the ground, at which point the chasers tagged him and explained to the bellhop that it was just a game. Hah.

I'm not sure if this bellhop tackles people on a regular basis, or if he's just been waiting all his life to be the hero, or what, but in any case we've now decided that the term "bellhopped" should be used to describe getting screwed, ideally in the most hilarious way possible.

Analyzing the Journey

I couldn't help but analyze the game afterwards, and honestly, I loved it. You had the obvious choice between wide and "safe" routes versus direct and risky routes. You also had a choice between going full speed at the beginning to try and stay ahead of the growing pack of newly minted chasers (but then you're winded and you're encountering original chasers who are fresh) versus going slowly and hoping for safety in numbers.

The fact that the winner didn't come in until three and a half hours had elapsed says to me that it wasn't just about pure speed and athleticism, which is awesome.

Also, I always love the feeling of being a part of a game that's taking part on a grand scale right in the midst of people's everyday lives. We had a bunch of people ask us what was going on (our answers ranged from "a race" to "a giant game of tag") and everyone seeemd a little jealous that they weren't a part of it. It also totally transformed how I looked at the world, with my brain coming up with all sorts of unlikely scenarios about where chasers could be hiding or who might be undercover. On top of that, the sense of camaraderie with fellow runners was tangible.

Thanks again to the illustrious Dax and all of the other organizers for setting this up! I can't wait for the next one, and in the meantime some of these other tasks look rather interesting...