Sunday Sep 30 |
 | Note | |
| (rest day) |
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Saturday Sep 29 |
| Note | |
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| Had to ride on electric mopeds about 30km to some village. Not part of the race and on busy roads and Neil and I both sucked at this so they let us ride with the French guys who both own their own motorbikes. |
| Caving 15:00 [2] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Through a tunnel built in 600BC through a mountain. Some bits quite narrow but nothing too scary. It was class! |
| Running 30:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Had to run to some village called Nemi with no map. We took a shit route, but it was up a big hill so played into our hands quite nicely. Gorgeous views. Aussies got 4mins ahead of us on the caving/run. Canadians far ahead. |
| Jumping 2 [5] | |
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| Had to jump from a 2nd floor window onto a crash mat. This was by far the scariest challenge. So glad I did it though although landed badly and still have a dodgy neck 2 days later. Some people (Ben, Neil...) struggled to do muster up the courage but everyone managed it in the end. Should make good TV that bit. Andy commented that on landing it felt like having a poo shoved back up your ass. |
| Running 15:00 [4] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| The race to the finish was on now. Set off in 3rd, 40mins behind Canada and 10mins (cos 4mins was "too close") behind Australia. Had to find our way back to Rome first. Quick dash down the hill to a bigger town. |
| Note | |
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| Then sat on a bus/metro for over an hour. |
| Running 1:10:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Then had to do a picture scavanger hunt. Ran off 180deg in the wrong direction (film crew loved that for orienteers), then had to get photos of us in exact locations round the city. Quite easy but lots of running involved. Lost a bit of time due to dumb-ass members of the public not understanding and cos we didn't know where we were meant to finish the challenge. Then raced to the finish by the collosseum after picking up the England flag. Ended up 3rd but pulled back time on the Canadians (1st) and Aussies (2nd). |
| Note | |
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| Good fun that. Realised pretty quick that it was only a game and you couldn't expect it to be fair, but most of the stuff we did was fun. The tattoo bit sucked though. |
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| C • I'm impressed 5 |
Friday Sep 28 |
| Note | |
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| Got maybe 3hrs sleep then had the best coffee ever in the world ever. Prob just cos I needed it so bad after having shared a sleeping bag with Neil. Also got some croissants. |
| Obstacle course 20:00 [3] | |
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| Got into my fetching mankini (a la borat) and had to go round a buoy in the sea (cold) before doing some obstacle course which I sucked at (still in mankini). Then had to dig in the sand to find some bike tyres (still in mankini). |
| Cycling 1:30:00 [3] | |
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| Then (still in mankini) rode with Andy and Ben to Rome (a long way) on a dual carriage way (in morning rush hour). Got to Rome and tried to find the right metro station only to realise we'd ridden about 20km too far. Tried to board metro but police had received 120calls about 4men in mankinis (us) on the busy road. They stopped us and called the organisers. Had to wait for an hour and a half before being released, along with some clothes. |
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| C • Craney + mankini + national TV = 1 |
| Cycling 40:00 [2] | |
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| Then rode into Rome to some fashion centre. Ben and Neil had flat tyres so had to run pushing their bikes. Me and Andy had it easy. |
| Note | |
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| Then some girl dressed us in silly clothes and we had to go down the catwalk. The whole current standings depended on this performance and we came last. |
| Running 20:00 [3] | |
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| Across Rome to the start of the canoeing... |
| Canoeing 50:00 [2] | |
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| We seriously sucked at this. It was very hard to balance. Fell in the river Tiber about 5 times. At the far end had to carry the canoe over a bridge. Our technique of head in boat caused much amusement as we kept dropping stuff and couldn't see where we were going. |
| Running 25:00 [3] | |
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| The next couple of runs. In between we had to grab 2 members of the public and Neil had to be the chef while I was the waiter. |
| Running 50:00 [3] | |
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| Trivia trail round the Roman ruins answering questions. Caught the Aussies and French and moved into =3rd. Then a bit of a run/metro up to some art school. Had to pose nude for 15mins while we got drawn. Our poses were horrible and my back was f***ed. Also couldn't stop sweating - worse than when I went spinning once. Then a long run with the Aussies to the next challenge... Into =2nd now behind Canadians. |
| Note | |
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| One of us had to get a tattoo of the city chase logo to pass this challenge. I wish I'd thought about it cos I'd have never got it done if I had. But I foolishly went along with it and now I have an arrow on my ass (pointing away...). It doesn't look too bad, though it's gonna get removed sometime! No-one really very happy with the organisers for having this challenge included. The Spaniards were eliminated at the restaurant, and now the Portugese and Singaporians eliminated as they refused the tattoo. 6 teams left. |
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| C • thats ridiculous! 12 |
| Note | |
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| Then had to collect 5 coins of different currencies (other than Euros). Then had to collect 5 notes of different currencies (other than Euros). Teamed up with Ben and Andy for this one which helped a lot. People seemed quite keen to help us and it was quite good fun. |
| Note | |
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| End of the day in =2nd. No accommodation sorted though so up to us what we did. Was gonna rough it with the Aussies til some English guy overheard our final briefing and offered us a night at his place. RESULT! Got a shower and a bed. Still had to get up at 5am though. Got around 4hrs sleep. Not bad. |
Thursday Sep 27 |
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| Event: CityChase World Final
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| Running 20:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Bit of a headless chicken run from the start in the zoo to some restaurant with the Aussies (Andy and Ben) and Canadians (James Dean hehe and Dave). Note: all the times in here are guestimates. |
| Note | |
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| Had to eat a MASSIVE meal which would even put an LJ's to shame. Turns out later that you could share it with another team. We didn't. Then we had to sit and wait for the Spaniards to turn up before we could set off. Now in last place and very full and feeling a little sick (Spaniards very hungry). |
| Running 1:00:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Cruisin round Rome with Neil and the Spaniards trying to pick up money, metro tickets, blankets, English-Italian dictionaries etc etc from various checkpoints. |
| Note | |
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| Was the first to spot Nick (the organiser) dressed as Julius Caeser and he told us to go to Circo Massimo. Decided to help out the Aussies and Canadians, so told them and the 3 of us snuck away. |
| Chariot Racing 5:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Built a chariot and took turns with Neil pulling each other round Circo massimo. |
| Running 15:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| From Circo to some big touristy square |
| Note | |
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| then spent ages busking in the rain, unable to talk, trying to offer massages and earn 30euros. This isn't easy. Other teams turned up after us and got musical instuments which was far easier. Dropped from 1st to pretty much last. |
| Running 50:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Then had to run to some church to drop off our earnings, before a longish run in the rain to some gladiator place. |
| Note | |
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| Turned up 4th at the gladiator place about 30mins down on Portugal and Australia. Over 2hrs ahead of the Canadians. Then we had to wait inside cos it was pissing down with rain. Everyone arrived and it turned out only the order mattered, not the time. Gay. And then even the order didn't matter that much... Spent ages doing various shots for the TV show before the next challenge. Had to play off against the Spaniards at throwing knives in a board (lost). Then beat them at some game with a ball. Then lost to them in some gay game where we had to construct a star out of wood. The 5 losing teams then had to throw spears at some screen. I got 1 in, Neil missed all his. So now it's just us and the Italians (girls) and one of us is gonna get ELIMINATED. Neil steps up to fight Nero the gladiator in some ring, but steps out after 10secs. Shit, we're going out. But then the Iti girl only lasted 3secs, so we're still in, but last out of 9. |
| Running 30:00 [3] | |
| shoes: asics roady things |
| Quick run late at night from gladiator place to the train-line. Got the same train as teams 5th-8th. Got off at the wrong stop so had to run back to the right one - doh! |
| Note | |
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| then the 18 of us had to sleep on the wooden veranda of a beach hut in 11 sleeping bags with 7 pillows. It was cold and windy. The top 4 teams (not us or Oz) got a proper nice dinner but we got some sangas at least. They brought us inside just before it chucked with rain. |
Wednesday Sep 26 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Nah |
Tuesday Sep 25 |
| Running 47:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks Cascadia somethings |
| Feelin pretty good cruisin out along conduit, round trespass, along t'other conduit (I hate to think how many wildies I've had along side this one, I added another one to the list today), headstone, Rivelin dam and back up. Soon it'll be dark before 7pm which means I'll struggle to get runs in after Neighbours which could mean I'll have to completely restructure my days. Well I guess I'll be in Australia again soon enough anyway so boohoo :o) |
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| C • Matthew 1 |
Monday Sep 24 |
| Running 1:13:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Brooks Cascadia somethings |
| Bit nippy and windy out there but managed to enjoy myself mainly cos I felt pretty good. Trespass, pole, High Neb, conduit, Wyming Brook. |