Survive DC

Last night we played a game in Washington, DC. Our goal: to survive.

Here is a quick breakdown of the game. As a player, you are trying to get to seven checkpoints around DC, ending at a final destination. You may travel on foot, or by metro. No bikes, no taxis, no busses, nothing but you, your running shoes, and the metro. At each checkpoint someone is waiting to sign your map to prove you indeed made it to that checkpoint. To show that you are a player you simply wear a blue band around your arm.

The catch: you're being chased, by chasers wearing an orange band. Should you be caught, you are no longer a player. Instead, you become a chaser. Should you see a chaser, it is in your best interest to take off in a dead sprint. Or hide. Whichever seems to the best option for the situation.

Before you contine onto pictures, let me clarify, I did not invent this game. Multiple people have thought that I invented these antics. I did not. This is bonified game.

Here we are, en route to Dupont Circle, the starting point. You might note the black attire. This was an effort to blend in as night fell. Wise move to hide from chasers. Bad move to be seen by cars.Nancy and me sporting our armbands. Nancy, me and Claire waiting to begin in Dupont Circle. Claire was the one who invited us to play. Really, she was the source of knowledge about Survive DC. As you can see, she was all business last night.Here we are after making it to our first checkpoint at Washington Circle. At this point we had been chased twice, taken cover in the Marriot Hotel, and ridden in the elevetor with about 10 members of the National Psychiatric Association. They didn't have NEAR enough time to anaylze our psyche.

Our goal was to make it to two of the seven checkpoints before being tagged by a chaser. We were really happy that we had made it half way to our goal.

Shortly after leaving Washington Square I realized my arm band had fallen off. Luckly John Paul was with us. We ducked behind some bushes, he whipped out his pocket knife and had that problem solved in no time. The race continued.

We continued en route to our destinations. John saved our skin by surveying the area ahead of us at almost al times. To get to our third destination we had to run acorss the Mall. The entire thing. Not so bad, if it wasn't a massive open space where we could be seen easily by orange-band wearing chasers. Just outside of our third checkpoint we were chased and I went down. Hard. Luckily we were able to scoot to the gardens behind the Smithsonian, tend the knee, and then scale the fence out of there.

In the end, we made it to four checkpoints before having to head out. We had doubled our goal and felt pretty good about it. We were exhausted (I had run a half marathon, and played a soccer game in the morning, blogging to come later). We also still had things to finish up in Baltimore before the night was out.

We ran into some other teammates of ours who had been tagged as chasers at our fourth checkpoint and surrundered our blue armbands for orange ones.

All in all, an incredible night. Survive DC will definitely be palyed again next year.