When your boss asks if you want to spend Saturday afternoon running around Mount Vernon to solve a Valentine's Day-themed scavenger hunt, the answer should always be a resounding, "Erm...OK?" As it turns out, spending a Saturday afternoon running around Mount Vernon to solve a Valentine's Day-themed scavenger hunt is an awesomely great time.

Ravenchase adventures occur throughout the country, some are relegated to small areas (like Mount Vernon) and others span multiple states.

"You learn different tricks for the clues," says Anji Stinson, Maryland representative of and organizer for the Race for My Bloody Valentine. When using her racing skills to organize events and compose rhyming clues in verse, she claims "It's got to be fun for those who are just starting out, but also challenging enough for those experienced racers."

Judging by the turnout, the Ravenchase races are catching on in the Baltimore area, as several teams included returning racers.

"It's an intellectual challenge and a physical challenge, and it's something that's really social," said experienced racer Beth Ann Pizziriello.

"It's really a great event, because you get to know a lot of places you never would have gone to before," added racer Amanda Pickett, citing some of the hot spots along this race route, like Donna's Coffee Bar and The Walters Art Museum.

Intrigued? Lace up your shoes, grab a pen and paper and let's do this.

The race: Some Ravenchase events have fabulous cash prizes for winning teams. This Ravenchase, however, had a fabulously tacky prize for the winning team.

My friend Lindsay and I gathered with other teams on a sunny Saturday afternoon for the debriefing. (We should add that we had to solve a clue two days prior to discover the starting point of the race.)

"Play smart," the organizers told us. "Don't go beyond the boundaries on the map, because you'll waste time. And don't over-think things."

"I'm a girl," I piped up. "I over-think everything." I looked at Lindsay. "We are so screwed."

We could call organizers for hints, if we were really stuck, but calling for answers incurs a 20-minute penalty. More than two calls means a team can't place, essentially forfeiting the fabulously tacky prize. We hoped it wouldn't come to that.

We got our first clue, a puzzle—literally, a puzzle—that provided the next. We bolted around Mount Vernon, darting in and out of buildings and staring at statues while squinting in the sun and asking, "Is that it? Wait, what does that say? Where are we? Wait, where did Lindsay go? Lindsay? Liiiiinnnd-saaaayyyyy?!?"

There were five clues to solve in the first set, and I won't lie: It took us an hour-and-a-half to solve the first one. Though, after that, something clicked and we zipped through the rest. OK, maybe not zipped. Maybe more like walked briskly through the rest. Anyway, these clues were difficult, and the rhyming verses didn't help matters. Thankfully, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers, and one thing Baltimore has a plethora of is people who are kind of strange. But knowledgeable. They pointed us in the right direction more than once.

Using various methods such as numerology, Vigenere's cipher or general trickery to solve clues felt like yoga for the brain, bending it this way and that to figure things out. The decoding tripped us up more than once, forcing Team Metromix to call for a hint. We didn't ask for answers, though, and thus avoided penalization.

After the first five clues, there's a second set that leads racers to the final destination. By this point, Lindsay and I had gotten tuned in to how things worked, and after only a mild amount of whimpering, confusion and walking in circles, we were rewarded with a joyous feeling of having figured it all out.

The result: It took us three hours and 43 minutes to complete the race, but we didn't come in last. Yay, we didn't come in last! OK, we came in third to last of more than 10 teams, but we did not come in last.

Our final clue led to the historic Belvedere Hotel, and more importantly, Owl Bar. All but two teams drank and made merry, and we felt pretty special when the other teams applauded our arrival.

To give you an idea of what we were up against, the first place team completed the race in an hour and 25 minutes. It's kind of like running against a Kenyan in the Boston Marathon. We can only hope that for the next race our time will be much better.

Don't be sad, my little valentines, that you missed out on this event. Ravenchase is coming back with two more races in the near future: The Quest for the Golden Blarney Stone in March (a pub crawl-style chase in honor of Saint Patrick's Day) and All Things Monty Python The Quest for the Golden Shrubbery in April.