Capitol Improv

The threat of rain didn’t deter an astounding 1200 people from coming out to participate again this year!

The crowd begins to gather at the start of Survive DC. Photo By thisisbossi

Very quickly, if you did not get a chance to donate and wanted to, please donate here. The park service permit put us way over our budget so every little bit helps. Survive DC is a community-funded event and only exists because of the contributions of people like yourself! It’s also the only place you can get a whole night’s worth of entertainment for just an optional donation!

The Awards:

Top Runners:
1st place – tied and both finishing at 9:50PM (1hr 50min)
George McArdle & Ben Stern
(Also taking the trophy for top team finish for Fat Heps Alumni)
2nd Place – finishing at 10:15PM (2hrs 15min)
David Shaffer
3rd Place – finishing at 10:24PM (2hrs 24min)
Judd Kennedy (Trophy yet to be awarded)

Top Chasers:
1st Place Clifton Vallance – 19 runners caught!
2nd Place Stuart Dean – 16 runners caught (Trophy yet to be awarded)
3rd Place Peter Matek – 16 runners caught (Trophy yet to be awarded)

Best Story – Neil Landers
Who managed to climb up a fire escape, jump between two buildings and slide down a construction waste chute to get to freedom.

Best Costume – Madison Geisler for her zombie batgirl.
(Honorable mention to spiderman btw!)

Anything marked in red denotes that we lack information needed to hand out or give proper credit for those awards. If you participated in SurviveDC, please share this link until we find everyone and give them the trophy they deserve. If you have information on someone listed above, please contact us with relevant information!

Important Links

Check out and add pictures to the Flickr group here

The Survive DC website and just as important, the Survive DC donation page!

To keep tabs on next year’s event – make sure to follow either Capitol Improv or Survive DC on Facebook or twitter. CI links are at the top right of the page and the SurviveDC page is here

The Recap:
This is a very incomplete recap as I was not able to be everywhere at once. Please leave your own stories in the comments below! More photos will also be added as the Flickr group fills up!

Participants began to gather for registration for the event rather early as a line was already forming by 6:00PM! Participants handed in their wavers and were given their runner (blue) ribbon and their chaser (orange) ribbon along with the manifest which listed all of the safe points, checkpoints and the finish line which is where the afterparty and awards ceremonies occurred.



Registration begins for Survive DC and participants show up in droves. Oscar Soto helps out by handing out ribbons and manifests to incoming participants. Photo By thisisbossi

Teams began to organize off into their own groups either just to hang out, or to carefully study every potential move.



Team Rocket gathering for a chance at surviving DC. Photo By thisisbossi



Other teams took time studying the manifest, thinking about potential routes and how to avoid chasers. Photo By thisisbossi

Because our event is starting to have a rather gigantic following, we decided it would be wise this year to get a legitimate permit from park services. While it didn’t come without downside, we were happy to have the full approval of everyone where we were participating.



Event organizer Thomas Lotze talks with police officers required by the permit for the event. Photo By thisisbossi

We had a lot of great costuming including Thomas Lotze (above) as a boy scout, batgirl, zombie batgirl (below) and spiderman. We also had some serious team comradery with many teams dressing up in team colors and shirts. More and more people are getting into the full spirit of the event every year!



Zombies at the start of the event. Photo By Kelvin 0001



Madison dressed up as zombie batgirl. Photo By Habohead59

After a quick announcement at the start of the race, it was time to release hundreds of people into DC to start the event.



Event Coordinator Nacim Bouchtia gives instructions at the start of the event. Photo By thisisbossi



Participants are released into the night. Photo By Kelvin 0001

Participants then went through a series of checkpoint over a 7 mile course – but of course, only the foolish take this course head-on. They had to avoid the ever-mounting presence of chasers while navigating from checkpoint to checkpoint. When caught, the only option left to earn any trophies was to chase and capture other runners a who still remained.

The checkpoints this year included a dance off checkpoint – where participants had to dance to earn their stamp, a speed dating checkpoint where participants had to “find true love” in order to continue, and many more odd twists.

Unfortunately, rain set in just about an hour into the event. While it came in two rounds and the first round was brief and somewhat cooling, the second round became rather drenching and many people took shelter at local bars or restaurants to wait out the rain. Unfortunately, some people also called it a night and went back home.

Despite the rain though, we still had several hundred people show up at the finish line to report a successful finish or to show a multitude of runners captured. People with impressive finishes by time completed or by number of players captured got to place their names on the big board. Along with awards for runner and chaser categories, we also gave out trophies for best costume and best story.



The big board of those who finished and those who captured many people. The uberchaser is also present and the rainy conditions we encounter in the event can be seen in the background out the window Photo By thisisbossi

To everyone that participated – a big thank you. This event wouldn’t be possible without participants and volunteers like you!

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