“I already knew he was a keeper, but I was reminded several times throughout the day.”
The suicide drills test your mettle. The shooting event tested your aim. The tarantula and the snake? Those checked your bravery.
Going into last weekend’s Citychase, I knew it would be a challenge. What I didn’t know was that my relationship would also be put to the test.
Forget major holidays and meeting the parents. How you work together, deal with stress and strategize in the world’s largest urban adventure race can be the best barometer of your relationship and an indicator of where it’s going.
My significant other, Mike, and I were one of 400 teams in the Citychase event here. Our first stop was an Inukshuk building challenge near the paper mill by the river. Problem was, we picked oddly shaped rocks. Team after team came and went. By the time we stacked our rocks, we found the pile didn’t meet the two-foot minimum.
Irked, I wanted to kick them over and move on. But Mike, who is a hundred times more patient than I am, methodically found the flattest and tallest rocks we had and stacked them into a sturdy structure.
We made our way to Brewer’s Park, where we were given five paintballs to shoot down four cans.
When I only hit two cans, we had a chance to earn five more shots — if one of us shot the other.
Mike offered to sacrifice his backside right away. As hard as it is to pull the trigger when your love is the bullseye, I nailed him somewhere between the lower back and his right butt cheek.
“Funny that your aim improves when you had to shoot at me,” he said. “It must be a bigger target.”
Imagine how badly I felt when I missed my next five shots at the cans. He put his arm around me. “It’s OK,” he said, a purple welt already blooming.
Payback came at the Whalesbone restaurant, where I gagged down four raw oysters. Mike watched in horror as each one slithered down my throat. “I would have thrown up,” he confessed.
We rafted the rapids in the Ottawa River, played goalball with visually impaired athletes and made a replica of a coin at the Royal Canadian Mint with our hands tied together.
It wasn’t always easy. We left four locations without our stamps. We couldn’t find anyone to sing along with us to satellite radio on Sparks Street, and we screwed up the trivia challenge at the Bank Street Running Room.
In the course of your real-life relationship, the challenges you encounter may not be as simplistic as hunting for gnomes or fencing against a pro. But if you can do these things without wanting to kill each other, you’ve got a fighting chance at making it.
I already knew he was a keeper, but I was reminded several times throughout the day.
The guy took a bullet for me (OK, a paintball, but still …), continued running after his feet hurt because he didn’t want to let me down, reminded me to drink water and held my hand through it all.
We didn’t get the points needed to finish the race, but that didn’t matter, he said. He had a great time.
Finding a guy like that? Now that’s the real challenge.
