As the year has been quiet in regards to posting about the races I have been in this year, I felt I should get back into that mode since another big out of town race is around the bend and post about the September race that I ended up winning.
The year has been a bit on the slacker side when it comes to training. My form has been off and I have felt out of touch all year. This years MMI was somewhat disappointing as I didn’t feel I had the energy in me that I normally do and du to a few errors I placed 17th, which is still good, but I could have been top 10. Oh well, it was a fun race and I left myself out there so I can’t regret not giving it all I had, what I had to give though was lacking.
Riverwest 24 this year was also lacking and our team, at my suggestion, pulled out with 3.5 hours to go in favor of partying instead. We rolled well for the first 12 hours, sticking in the 3rd/4th spot for our division but the sudden loss of a rider and the relentless rain took its toll on most if not all of our determination. As we watched our standings slide so did my moral and after a while I just didn’t want to mount the saddle any longer.
The First Friday races have been up and down through the entire year with turn out being abysmal for the first half of the year. Due to being the winner, being out of town or being injured I have unfortunately only been able to participate in a portion of the races. On top of all of that I was riding a bike that I didn’t even own as my bike is in parts due to problems with the crank.
Augusts’ race had been won by Capt. Jake and I had slid into 2nd due to answers, not speed. The race was part of an effort to help raise funds for the
A good sized group showed up, around 12 or so, including many faces that have been frequenting them this summer, hopefully they will still come around in January. The manifest was handed out and we all had a chance to plot our route before take off. Working with Matt and another frequent race partner Dan we plotted a route. I decided to leave the bag at the bar and ride with only my flat repair hipster pouch. I grabbed my bike from the alley and took off as soon as the start was called, pulling onto a dead Clybourn and turning at a green onto Water Street, as with so many other races.
The majority of the riders headed south as well and we flowed between slowed Friday night traffic through the 3rd Ward, summoning a few car horns, on our way to the first stop, the Circle K on Water. I was the first to pull onto the sidewalk and up to the mart, franticly scanning the window ledges along the west face for a sign of silver colored pennies. As we searched more racers showed up until someone noticed them on a higher ledge. Matt grabbed one for me which I snagged as I shot north to go down
The cross street is Menomonee and it is the street that exists for about 2 blocks and is near the southern terminus of Broadway…right in front of a small park. I flew through the park, not even finding a street sign for Menomonee, thinking it was the name of the street on the other side of the park. Dan was following and when we go to the other side and I didn’t see it I said to hell with searching and kept going. I pushed forward across the river and onto the southern leg of
I almost missed the next stop at 700 S. Water and came back around to mentally note the answer, before pulling out to National. As I circled around one of the racers following wondered what I was doing, saying the stop was right there. I didn’t answer and shot off towards the next stop. I took National to Barclay as the next stop was Barclay and
At this point I realized I needed to write an answer down as I was beginning to jump up the first one in the queue. I jotted down the last stop as I rode down 1st, which was easy to do since it was just a number. Then I continued to go over the other answer making sure I remembered it correctly. As I neared the 5th stop a group of about half of the racers were headed south to the
As I did the two racers who were following me since the 3rd ward arrived as well and I realized it was my buddy Flynn’s rookie named Devon and a cat from
From there I took of west through the parking lot to
The 4th racer pulled off on
I pulled onto the sidewalk just before Brady and was a bit shocked as I turned the corner to see the large group of racers gathered in front of the next stop. We all tried to get the answer and many of them were telling us it was 3. I was in doubt and scanned as closely as I could. I was kicking my self for wasting so much time at
For the life of me I couldn’t remember the characters names…at least Belushi’s. I thought Aykroyds was Elway but that was throwing me off. We all kind of agreed as we rolled south on Farwell that it was probably John. At this point I wasn’t confident in my placing, all I was trying to do was not be DFL. I had 1 answer that was questionable, 1 I didn’t verify and 1 I didn’t even have an answer for. Over half of the racers were ahead of me and I was worn out. As we crossed Mason on a red, cars angrily honked at us and I smiled as I pulled into the left lane and tucked into the corner for Wisconsin, I hung left at the next street then right onto Michigan, pounding as hard as my worn out legs could go. At about Jackson Devon pulled ahead of me and I feared he would overcome me but as he pulled off to get around a block or so later he lost time and I shot past him and onto the crowded sidewalk in front of the door.
Everyone was surrounding Jake, who was on the ground trying to organize everything. In a last ditch effort I wrote down Harley on the manifest for the missed
We stood around waiting a little longer for the last racer to come back, a diminutive messenger with STS (or what it is now). When she got back she instantly threw her helmet to the ground and shouted that she was only 5 fucking feet and that Jake was a bastard for putting a penny up on a ledge she would never be able to reach. She ended up finding one on the ground anyways, but it was one of the funniest moments in race history. Soon after the winners were announced and too my surprise my name was called off first, so I figured at first it was 3rd place. But when he handed me a wad of cash and told me to go talk to the rep for
Now it was time to plan the October race…I still have a few ideas to incorporate but this one might be a little more simplistic than past ones, no multiple manifests…or maybe I will. For me the next race I have to look forward to is the Cuttin’ Crew Classic in
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