Discussion: CHICAGO: Anyone from or near there?

Fat Rat and I are running in a race called City Chase Adventure in 3 weeks. It involves running around checkpoints in the city (similar to the Amazing Race). Is anyone from or near there that can give us some tips?

Learning how the grid system works for the streets might be helpful. I don't remember what it is, but I know there is a system b/c we were taught it in elementary school. Also, learn the river branches and many distinctive landmarks/buildings, esp downtown. Try to learn what some of them look like and where they are in relation to each other, and not just "the lake is to the east".

Sounds like you can't use public transportation, but if I'm wrong familiarize yourselves with the El (and know where the stations and above-ground tracks are regardless). Good luck!

If you do use the L, make sure you get off as soon as you get to the loop. The trains are often delayed on the loop because all the lines overlap. If you get stuck between stations, you have no choice but to wait it out. The loop stations are so close together, running is about as fast, even when things are moving well.

thanks for that tip!

so apart from the obvious like Sears Tower, what is Chicago famous for? are there any amusement parks?

Be aware of The Bean.

The rivers cut up the downtown area, but there are bridges everywhere. The lakefront parks are hugely long (like 20 miles) and there is lots of stuff there. Then the Navy Pier and the new Millenium Park. I guess the best thing to have would be a good MAP!

Definitely learn where Wriggly Field, Soldier Field, and Cominski Park are. Those seem to get included in lots of events. It's possible that they'll run you through the Forest Preserves as well. If so, you're in for some really excellent terrain (provided you don't mind thick vegetation). Most of those are on the west side of town, but there are a few to the north as well.

Where is Clark lurking? He should be your best resource. There seems to be no one with more encyclopedic knowledge of the city, orienteers or not. chitownclark at cs dot com

For the record, the street grid is metric. 1000 units every 2000 m.

Yes, metric, because we Midwesterners are so forward thinking!

Clark does know the city mighty well. I think not owning a car has a lot to do with that. Public transportation often has you taking pretty indirect routes.

Tip: Ann Sather's has really good cinnamon rolls.
:-)

If you're in the neighbourhood say hi to Elwood Blues, he lives at 1060 W. Addison Street. The trains go by so often, you hardly notice them.

There used to be some good maps of Chicago and suburbs; but with the rise of MapQuest and other internet sites I believe, they're now out of print.
Nevertheless, I'd recommend The Chicago Bicycle Map: it is free, widely available and viewable on-line. It also has the names of ALL the city streets, all the public transportation stations, and the best routes to take if you're biking: <http://www.biketraffic.org/content.php?id=86_0_10_...>
The ChicagoLAND bicycle map costs $7 and covers the suburbs too, but not as much detail.
And I've written a piece about using public transportation to get to the various forest preserves on our O club website: <http://chicago-orienteering.org/bulletinboard/view...>
Good luck to all competitors...we here in Chicago are honored to be the venue for this "Amazing Race meets Fear Factor"

Thanks for the discussion. Keep it up as it is really helpful. I'm racing with Team Calgary and even though I was in Chicago just a few weeks ago, it seems nearly impossible to understand such a massive city. The local knowledge is really great. How easy is it to get to Six Flags from downtown Chicago, and what public transport system would you take?

Well Nicki, there are a couple of options on this, depending upon the day of the week and time of day.

It's aboout a 40-mile trip from the Loop downtown out to Six Flags Great America Theme Park in Gurnee, up near the Wisconsin state line. The key is the #572 Pace bus which connects Six Flags to THREE different train lines, which run on three different schedules.

And to add to this complexity, these three train lines take three different routes out of Chicago....north, northwest and west. So you'd have to add in your starting location, and how long it would take you to get to the nearest station of each of those lines, so you could catch the train in the first place!

Once you had the day and time of your trip, you would have to spread out the #572 schedule (which is set up to co-ordinate with the arrival of SOME of those trains) with the three train schedules and compare travel times.

And congratulations on your finish in Calgary last June
<http://www.bellcitychase.com/results/2006/calgary/...>

Good to see your on Attackpoint Nicki!

Are you going to post any training or just take the Chicago tips? :) Are you the Aussie in the team?

Hi Ben,
Yeah, I'm the aussie. We were supposed to meet up at Stampede with Mark Gregson. I do a lot of orienteering so I often just keep track of what's on attack point. I've never posted a training log though. I was glad to see you guys start the Chicago discussion. I was in Chicago just a few weeks ago (before we found out) and I said to myself, "this would be an awesome city to hold the Chase Finals" so I did a bit of scoping......just in case. It is FUN city. I guess I had a lucky hunch. Looking forward to meeting you.

Thanks for the input everyone. It's been really helpful.

Also on a different topic is there any good running areas or maps between Chicago and New York as we are planning to drive between the two after the race in Chicago.

This question is a bit like asking 'are there any maps between Sydney and Melbourne?'. Of course there are. As far as O maps go, southern Michigan (apparently) has some negative terrain (next year's US team trials); the 2004 North American champs were near Cleveland, OH (sample map), and there is a ton of terrain mapped nearer to Philadelphia and New York (if you'll be in NYC you have to run at Harriman on the WOC 1993 maps and their updates; even better, if you'll be in New York on Saturday Oct 15 then run the Hudson Highlander, a 26.3km long-O race in Harriman - see the Attackpoint event listing).

Nicki,

oh ok, Stampede...

what a funny event. yer, it was pretty awkward with the others. felt pretty bad about that.

hunch about Chicago, what a hunch!!!

Feet: Hey mate. We will stay somewhere, then Boston, then NYC. How would we get maps? Is there any kind of location guides to maps in the north-west?