Easter Keg Hunt 2010

Last year's Easter Keg Hunt did not go super well. And one might argue that this year's went even worse. Here is my story.

My team [Team DC Sportbikes] unfortunately did not plan very well this year. The usual orchestrator of our attack has been busy recovering from various surgeries and prepping for the upcoming race season. Thus, this year's event slipped a lot of our minds, and we never really got around to forming a plan.

The weather has been great recently, so I've also been riding my new bike into work. So I get in early this morning and pull up DC101 on the computer and start listening. Lots of people calling in saying how they've found kegs, which really made me wish we had planned this year. For those unaware, each year there is one 'golden Easter keg' that is hidden somewhere with one of the people from the radio show. He calls in periodically and gives clues to where it might be. Clues 1-3 only revealed that they were in fact in DC somewhere. Then I heard clue #4 and knew instantly where they were. Clue 4 was "Under the lights" -- they were at RFK stadium. How did I know this? Well the prizes for all the other redeemed kegs were tickets to DC United's home opener this weekend. I put 2 and 2 together real quick and knew RFK was the location.

I asked my supervisor if I could try and go for it, and he said "yea man, just call me if you get it and I'll come pick up the keg in my car." So I threw the jacket and helmet back on, and blasted over to RFK as quickly as possible on the DRZ.

Cause I'm also a nerd I had the 'I Heart Radio' app going on my iPhone while riding over there. I made it to RFK in about 10 minutes and snuck around a fence or two on the bike (WHICH I AM LOVING BY THE WAY) and starting blasting around the parking lots with my head on a swivel looking for a DC101 van of some kind. Unfortuntely the app cut out briefly and I missed the last clue which probably would've helped.

I checked all the parking lots with nothing to be found, so I headed back under the tunnel and decided to park near the offices. I hopped off the bike and start walking up to the security guard. As I'm walking up, another guy is just behind me walking up as well. We asked each other if we were going for the keg, which confirmed we both had the clues right. I was trying to talk to the security guard to let me peak onto the field to see if it was there.

She didn't know what I was talking about, so she called someone on the radio and I asked them if they knew anything about DC101 and the Easter Keg Hunt. "Yea, they're supposed to be here" the voice responded. I begged the guard to let me go check the field real quick. No sooner am I trying to convince her I'm not a lunatic, then I hear on the radio [DC101] that two guys just nabbed it, and they were indeed on the field at RFK.

NOOO! SOOOOO CLOSE!

After a minute of chatting with the guy with me at the entrance I started walking back to the bike and I see the two guys carrying the golden keg back to their car. I walked over and let them and said hi and let them know how close I was. They were nice guys, we chatted for a few about the keg hunt. They were actually driving by the stadium when they heard the clue about "under the lights." Had I not circled all the parking lots and just gone and tried to go straight onto the field I bet I would've gotten it. Un-freakin-believable! Oh well.

On my way back to my building I decided to do a lap or two around the tidal basin since it's such a nice day out. It was packed full of people looking at the cherry blossoms, one kid even tried to give me a high five as I rode by. [And yes mom, I literally am that close from work.]

In conclusion, team DC Sportbikes [me] came very very close to snagging the mother Golden Keg. This fuels my inspiration for next year, which hopefully will go better.

Oh, and the prize for finding the golden keg? Free beer for one whole year. Yea.....

UPDATE: I just learned that one of my friends over at DC United was the woman behind the whole collaboration between DC101 and DC United. A little heads up would've been nice, but I certainly understand why I didn't hear a peep about it! ;) Congrats DC United office workers, who are also friends of mine, for a perfectly executed marketing operation! Now everyone go to the home opener this Saturday!