Journey to the end of finals week

I defy finals.  Not so much because I can afford to, I just refused to miss out on some amazing opportunities for fun this weekend.  There's my FOMO kicking in.  (Fear Of Missing Out, for the uninformed.  It's a serious phobia, and I caught it.)  For whatever reason, finals week has never felt so long.  Memo to AU: Straddling a weekend for finals is just not cool.  Thus my defiance.

Unmissable activity #1: Brian Regan

Yes, I've seen him three times before.  But he had some real zingers that I hope end up on his next DVD.  And I got to wear my "Readin' don't never do nothin'" tee!

He is a master of comedic timing.  Here's one that I was able to capture:

Unmissable activity #2: Journey to the End of the Night

I discovered this event last year and was unable to attend, so there was a lot of anticipation backing up my excitement this time around.  Basically, this is just a massive scavenger hunt that crisscrosses the city - except the whole time you have to hide from chasers.  If one of them catches you, then you too must chase.  An artful description can be found here.  

I bumped into some DC2 friends at the very beginning and joined their "team."  We ran, we jogged, we tiptoed, we metroed, we dove into bushes and shadows, and every so often we sprinted in terror back the way we came to escape a chaser.  (I can't remember the last time I ran that fast.  Love the adrenaline rush!)   

At some of the checkpoints, we had to do something extra to get our paper stamped, like draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up, or sing a campfire song.  

Every so often, one of use got picked off.  We started out as a dozen, but by the fourth checkpoint (there were six), it was down to me and four of the boys.  By this time, I'd earned their respect, not just for being hard core, but for being able to keep up and hold my own.  Sometimes it's cool to be a runner. :)  

A block away from the 5th checkpoint, we were in the middle of Adams Morgan.  (We had just come from Howard University.  For those of you who don't know, that's a decent hike all by itself.)  It was midnight, so we figured most chasers had given up, and plus we were surrounded by lots of people.  We figured, safe time to check the ol' mappy, right?  WRONG!  We were poached, and all of us lost our non-chaser status except Greg.  One block from safe space.  Sad.  We didn't even see it coming!!  (The dude in brown is the one who ambushed us.)

We figured, we're this close to the end, let's hang with him for the rest of the way.  And so we did.  Well, I did.  The last checkpoint was at a restaurant full of chasers and racers.  Everyone started cheering for Greg, and he got a medal.  So far, only 19 people had actually finished.  Out of hundreds.  Awesome.  

I couldn't resist clocking our route once I got home.  You can see it right here.  I'd just like to point out, it was essentially a half marathon.  Although we did cheat for about 3/4 of a mile and took the metro.  And it did take us about 4 hours.  I think I'm still counting it.  

I am sore, it hurts to walk, and I think I may have caught a cold, but I am exhilarated and completely happy and content.  Bring on the finals.

P.S. Click here for some bonus photos from last week's RunAmuck, just to give you an idea of what the route was like.