Mayhem, Stairs and High Life

After spending a jam packed weekend between the shop and 2 related bar adventures I’m actually happy to not have anything planned for the next 2 weeks. Ahh…relaxation. The weekend was semi fruitful as I was able to connect with a few people, some old and some new and make some hopefully important connections for the future of my racing. Saturday this past weekend was the first Midwestern and possibly national major fixed gear trick riding competition titled, Midwest Mayhem.

The event started off at an old place of employment, Hi Hat lounge were they screened a premier for a new and highly anticipated fixed gear film, Revival. Before everyone headed 15 or so miles west I decided to cal it a night and went home in the fog…which would have been an adventure without the beer I had consumed earlier. From what I gathered the event was epic and unprecedented, with out of town people giving the local planners serious respect for the planning and executing of everything. Something tells me that this might lead to something even larger in the national scene.

Now, I’m not a trick rider, I don’t want to be a trick rider. I just want to be able to track stand long enough at a red light to keep from having to unclip, but I do enjoy watching trick riding and have respect for what these people can do, it’s pretty unbelievable. Instead I focus almost exclusively on racing. With Stupor Bowl less than 2 weeks away I have been working my muscled into a nice gelatinous substance leading up to the event by increasing the gearing on my bike from a 48x15 to a 49x14. Not much compared to a friend from track racing who is currently running something like a 54x13 or so, but it’s still a big gear to be pushing up and down the hills I hit. Once it’s time to head to the Twin Cities I will drop it back to the 15 which should feel like butter at that point.

In a round about way this weekend also sealed an idea I was kicking around last week, to participate in a stair climbing race for charity. On Saturday March 20^th the American Lung Association with be putting on it’s annual Fight For Air Climb in which participants race up the stairwells of the US Bank building in downtown Milwaukee, 47 floors, 1034 steps. Part of my registration is to raise a minimum of $100 for the American Lung Association. So once again I send out the call of help from friends and family to help me raise some money for the ALA and make me run up 47 flights of stairs. Now you may be thinking, what the hell is he doing running stairs, he hates running, let alone walking and would prefer to actually just bike everywhere he goes. Running stairs use much of the same muscles a pushing a gear, so it’s all good! I see this as crazy cross training at its best. I first heard about this event last year but was too late and too lazy to participate, this year is a different story.

If anyone wants to help donate to the charity on my behalf for registering for the event let me know. I will post more info soon to how to donate as I might be able to get some sort of deposit account set up for this through the organization for direct transfer.

I was worried that I might have to pass on this event as March 20^th seemed like the most likely date for this year's MMI. Friday I asked a few people if there had been a date set, then Sunday night I took a peek at Cog’s site for the hell of it and spotted the rad logo for this years race posted by Kevin. I had heard about the logo when asking around about the date, but it exceeds what I had imagined what it looked like. The logo clearly states that this year’s race will be taking place in the warmer and cleaner (hopefully) month of April this year. Now I can participate in climbing stairs until I puke and this also buys some more time to unveil something special that should be done by then. That’s it for this unusual type of post and there will be something in about 2 weeks recapping Stupor Bowl XIII.

First Friday Alley Cat - January 10

January’s First Friday found me planning it due to my win in December due to a small field of participants. I was not hopeful for a large race this time around especially after the couple of inches of snow fall the day before.

Leading up to the race I took about an hour riding around downtown putting a sticker with a number on 25 different bike poles for the race. I arrived at The Door to find it unusually busy, there was some companies holiday party happening at the same time. I pulled up a stool at the crowded bar next to Matt and Steven and began to drink.

The race was based on a bingo card that I had made up for the racers. The card listed all the numbers in the squares and it was up to the racers to ride around a concentrated area of downtown and find the numbered stickers. Once a sticker was found the racer had to jot down the associated street address on the manifest. The person with the most bingos/points wins. Pretty easy, but took a whole lot of pre-planning and will not be in my top list of alley cats to run again. I wanted an easy race for a change as the past few months of races have included some semi long treks. It also played in favor with the winter weather we had experienced.

Soon the time to start drew near and Matt, Capt Jake and a brand new racer were all that there was. After explaining the rules to them I let the go for an hour worth of rummaging through the winter mess while I sat and enjoyed beer and eventually shots. A few messengers I hadn’t seen in a while showed up and conversations began. After a while Capt. Jake came back and needed a pen as he had lost his. He headed back out into the cold after some jeers. The new racer showed up 15 minutes early and I told him to get back out there and find more.

After another 15 minutes they all arrived at close to the same time and I went through and tallied up the points. No one had received a bingo so it was strictly points based. Each square was worth a certain number of points and that was determined by how far I had placed them from the bar. In the end Matt had won but since both of us would not be in town for the next race we left it up to the new guy, who took second to plan the race. I fear that no one will show up for that as lately Matt or my self have been 1 of 3 racers…but time will tell.

Instead of racing for February’s First Friday, somehow I seem to miss or come close to missing the races in February, Matt and I will be in Minneapolis for the 13^th annual installment of Stupor Bowl.

For those that are unaware, Stupor Bowl is one of the longest running alley cats in the country and is slated to be the toughest. Always set for the weekend of the Super Bowl it finds it’s self in the middle of the Twin Cities hellish winter. Last years race brought in around 400 people! The majority of the past races have been single digit or sub zero temperature affairs and from what I have heard if the temperature is above 0 the planners get irate due to the slack mother nature allows the participants.

This will be my first time doing this race and the first in a list of larger messenger races in different cities. It will also be my first time in Minnesota so I expect poor results. I plan on following people who know the city better than I do to at least give me the chance to complete it with in the time frame. Stupor Bowl is notorious for it’s name sake. Along with the usual fastest male/female/messenger/non-messenger/out of towner/etc, they also have a second race that takes place at the same time whose goal is to crown the Stupor Champ. The Stupor Champ is the person who hits all of the designated stops and has at least 1 drink at each, the drunkest racer to finish with in the time limit wins. From the photos I have seen of past Stupor Champs I am not even close to being able to attempt this stunt. Some of these people are professionals in both drinking and biking and they are so loaded they can barely stand. Fun times abound!!

My excitement for the race is building as it nears and it will be both and adventure and a lesson in my abilities. Luckily Matt’s parents live in a suburb west of downtown that we can stay with so the trip should be minimal in the way of expenses, and Matt has some knowledge of the city. Soon I’ll have a understanding of it too, in the meantime I’m studying the map of downtown to try to get it under control. Sub-zero Minnesota insanity…here I come.

Here is a post I lifted off of a current thread for this months race to help shed some light on the insanity of it all; “Last year was my first year for this race. I didn't drink the entire race but some how managed to get plastered at the after party. Long story short, woke up the next day with the previous night's dinner on my face and all over my friend's closet.”

I can’t wait!!

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=stupor+bowl+12&m=text for images from last years race.