After a 16 mile run Saturday morning with the OMTC crew I had an hour to rest and caffeinate before the high noon start at The Cubby Bear. Our strategy was simple, sprint to the Addison Red Line stop ASAP and work on the clues from there. This went sour when we waited 10+ minutes for the southbound train to arrive which allowed the CTA platform become a complete GUR clusterf*ck. The trip south gave us plenty of time to solve the clues and map out our routes: Q1) Comedy Sportz – Belmont and Sheffield – check. Q2) need to find someone wearing a tie-dyed shirt or Chuck Taylors – keep in the memory bank. Q3) Kingston Mines – Wrightood and Halsted – check. Q4) Find a job application or a Help Wanted sign – easy, hit up a Starbucks before the finish. Q5) Herman Joseph _____ started what German restaurant…think, think….Berghoff – around Adams and State – check. Q6) Daley Bicentennial Plaza, just east of Millennium Park – check. Q7) Victor Fleming directed what movie in 1939 that later had a Chicago park dedicated to it? Has to be Oz Park. What character did Jack Haley play? ….we need a picture in front of the Tin Man – Lincoln Park off Halsted – check. Q8) Famous tattoo shop owned by Dale Grande? …. Has to be the one near Belmont and Sheffield, note: near Comedy Sportz. Q9) Riddle that Joe solved before even finishing – need to find a street sign w/ the same consecutive letters, ie..Sheffield, Fullerton, Wellington – check. Q10) Eat a hot dog from new joint at Fullerton/Clark, easy enough. Q11) Detour: count how many Olympic flags are in the Morningstar building window, then hold up that many fingers in a picture in front of the Art Institute, or count number of flags outside the Palmer House and do the same but in front of the Picasso – cake walk. Q12) Donate one of 4 items (pack of 8 markers and one coloring book, matchbox car, Barbie doll, or a children’s book) to the Starlight Children’s Foundation – across from Berghoff easy.
Train stops at Lake Street, we’re off. I sprint to the Morningstar building while Joe goes straight to Daley Bicentennial Park. 7 flags, Ricky don’t forget this. Now sprint the near mile to the park dodging thru traffic and putting my body as fatal risk crossing Michigan Ave to meet Joe just as he is jogging there. Task: crab walk, then leap frog, then wheelbarrow the full length of the tennis courts here. After 5 minutes of constant sweating we’re off to the Art Museum. Take picture w/ 7 fingers, check. Berghoff, there down the street, go! Wait, we need a kids book, we got to the poster store across from the museum and pick up a $15 kids book on who knows what. We dash out of there, donate the sweaty book to Starlight and dash across to the Berghoff. Wait, what do we need to do here? Get a picture of 10 people doing the “Superstar” pose in front of the sign. Joe, I’ll round up 10 people, you get someone to take the picture. God damn Joe, get someone to take the picture, these people are restless. After finally asking 5 people, someone is nice enough to take our mug. Now sprint to the Brown Line. After another near 10 minute wait we finally get on. Wait, Joe, look, Chuck Taylors. Excuse me sir, do you mind of we take a picture with your feet? Brown Line arrives at Armitage, we sprint for Oz Park and find the Tin Man. Joe is completely winded and slowly heading towards the pain cave. Joe, you wait for the Halsted bus north and I’ll meet you at Comedy Sportz, we’ll skip Kingston and I’ll run to Fullerton and grab the dog. I sprint to the hot dog joint, crab one immediately off the counter and proceed to run w/ it in my had for the 1.5 mile distance over to CS. Still no sign of Joe, I wait, I wait, I wait and wait. Finally he sprints up the stairs. Our task: charades, we can’t leave until Joe guesses 1 of 2 of my words. I get “children” or “knight”. After a couple failed attempts of acting like a baby, I pull out my knight act and he gets it immediately, go figure. Joe, eat the hot dog, I ran with it for 2 miles you put it in your mouth. Now off to the tattoo parlor. Pick up a rub on GUR tattoo and put it on my forehead. This took way too long to get it to stick. After many failed attempts it’s time to spring back to the bar. Wait, Sheffield, get a picture of the sign. Nice call. Now sprinting home, get the Starbucks application and cross the finish line to victory. Well after 1 hour and 38 minutes of closeness with Broseph we take 2nd overall out of 500+ teams. Since Joe is the head hancho though we obviously have a conflict of interest and don’t officially count in the results. After a shower and 2 Lagunitas IPAs, its time to celebrate.
The post party wastes no time as we’re joined by Selfy and the many GUR staff/interns. We spend too many hours at the Cubby Bear (especially considering Kyle and I were already here for the EB&D premier) getting drunk on cheap beer and watching a makeshift jam band on stage. Kyle arrives after his adventures at Cog Hill and we head out to actually start crossing bars off the list. The night gets blurry as our raucous behavior continues on to John Barleycorn (worst bar in the city) and Moe’s Cantina (not far behind). We play the dancing game (each person gets 1 artist, and when the DJ plays that artist, that person needs to lead the dancefloor). I challenge Selfy to many one on one’s and I’ll have to admit he had the better of me this evening. My quick feet and flailing arms are no match for his electric shoulders and swinging hips. Around 11 I call it a night (after consistent boozing since 2PM). Kyle holds on strong and does EBONY proud.
Tonight we are off the Southside see Gordon Beckham and the Sox tackle the team with the best record in the AL on Mark Buehrle appreciation night. We'll be raising a pint in MB's honor.
