City Chase in Kelowna, BC

On Saturday, June 4th, Mike and I raced in the Mitsubishi City Chase in Kelowna and had an absolute blast.

For those who have never heard of this event, it's a mini 'Amazing Race' but done in a day instead of a month - here's a brief description:
The Mitsubishi City Chase is an urban adventure; participants must be able to show teamwork, resourcefulness, determination and the ability to make decisions on the fly as they search for ChasePoints scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. ChasePoints are designed to test teams with a variety of physical, intellectual, adventurous and humorous challenges.

Team of 2 will run, walk and use public transit to navigate their way throughout the city - The first team to complete the required Chase Points and cross the finish line before the 6 hour timeframe WINS. This race takes places in major cities across Canada, and is also on the worldwide scene. (check their site at www.mitsubishicitychase.com)

Kelowna hosted more than 100 teams that day and the weather was absolutely amazing. We were slow to start since our knowledge of Kelowna was limited, except for driving through on our way to Vancouver so we were definitely at a disadvantage from the start. Once we figured out some of the chase points, the race was on.


We had a few firsts that is for sure: I rode an ATV through an obstacle course, Mike had to learn to knit, pull a car (with me in it!) and scale down the Sandman Hotel from the 14th floor.

We want to thank our friends who sponsored us for the Right to Play Charity. Part of the event is a venue to raise money for Right to Play. By raising money, this gave us the advantage of having one chase point ahead of time; we just needed to show up at the proper chase point to get our credit.

Our biggest challenge was figuring out the transit system; we misread the schedule so although we did all our 10 chase points, we were 10 minutes late to cross the finish line. But now, we know Kelowna much better.

We're hoping for a few friends to join us in the fun next year. We are definitely entering again.

This wasn't our first event; when we lived on the coast, we participated in the Vancouver City Chase in 05, 06 and 07. So we're thrilled that Kelowna is now hosting an event.

At the finish line, a nice cold Molson Canadian was waiting; nice! And cookies from Subway and Nestea soft drinks. This whole event is really well organized.

There is an after party which we missed; we were so bagged that we went out for dinner and went back to our B&B; we sipped delicious wines while watching the sunset over the lake and mountains, a nice way to finish the day.

Stay active, have fun!
Marie