well, i sure underestimated that one, didn't i? i'd planned out a course that i figured fast riders would do in about 2 hours. it took the winners 3 hours. DFL took 4 and a half. yikes. i'm sorry? nah, i'm not sorry. there were some glitches - for instance, the mysterious disappearrance of the 8th wildcard checkpoint, which seemingly got clipped entirely from the manifest masters in my haste to print. i don't think we'll ever really know what happenned there.
at the start, riders discovered that, as was probably expected, there were a few twists to the race - namely, that there was a delivery from one of the wildcard checkpoints to another, and that there was a poker hand to be had from cards handed out at each of the relays and the finish. in the end, the wildcard manifest was as follows:
ACME (delivery and slide down the slide - this one proved problematic to some, as it isnt on all maps...)
SE CORNER OF 8TH AND MARKET STREETS (old location of Central Park, the Bay City Wheelmen¹s 4 lap to the mile concrete velodrome in the 1890s)
on the pillar on the corner what is trinity properties phone #? (433-3333)
what will it cost you if you lose your ticket at the parking lot? ($25)
ESMERALDA @ WINFIELD (pickup and slide down the slide)
SW CORNER OF BAKER AND FELL STREETS (across the street, on the northwest corner, is the former location of the Velodrome, where SFs first 6-day race was held in 1899)
200 BLOCK OF QUANE
what cartoon characters are painted on a fence on the west side of the alley? (calvin & hobbes)
what color is the fence? (brown/grey/wood)
PETRARCH
How many steps in the stairwell at the end of the alley? (9)
VULCAN
What material are the built-in planters along this alley constructed of? (cobblestones/brick/stone/etc)
so at 1pm sharp (no one arrived late and lost out - rob of wildcard showed up about 30 seconds after id said go, and didnt end up getting delayed too much), everyone opened their envelopes and found all that out. then they spent the next 5-10 minutes sitting around trying to decide what they were going to do, knowing that they had to pick 2 of the above on their way to lake merced. 8th & market/baker & fell seemed to be the popular choice (which paid off for some in the end because of some issues with the checkpoint there that fouled people up later). 2nd relay was lake merced to heron's head, then the 3rd from heron's head to the wave organ, and then 4th from the wave organ to the crowbar (this relay leg only had to do one wildcard thanks to the disappearring 8th checkpoint...). knowing what i knew about the course layout (ie everything), i figured the best route would have been south park - 8th/market - vulcan - lake merced, then quane - esmeralda - heron's head, then acme - baker/fell - wave organ, and then finally petrarch and the crowbar, this is pretty much how godspeed rode it.
the extended race time meant that the finishing leg riders out at the wave organ got stuck in the cold sea air for as much as 4 hours... sorry about that, guys - maybe i should have mentioned something about how warm clothing might be handy to have... oops. but no one seemed to want to kill me for it, so i guess it's ok. anyhow, in the end, the results looked something like this:
1. godspeed (super mike/aaron/brendan/james) in 2h 51m, and with the best poker hand (3 of a kind - kings)
2. western warriors (fergus/demarco/josh/steven) in 2h 57m, and (wait for it...) 2nd best poker hand (pair of aces)
3. team geezer/jetset (cappa/john cunningham/bruce/shawn tre) in 3h 13m, and (would you beleive it...) 3rd best poker hand (pair of kings)
4. cupid (nice time/sarah/rev. jim/joel) in 3h 13m (only just barely edged out by the geezers), with a king high (queen kicker)
5. the gentlemen (ethan/ethan/aubrey/darren) in 3h 17m (no hand)
6. caw caw (chalkhead/jamie/jason/bryce) in 3h 19, with a king high (8 kicker)
7. the unnamed kids from pro (james/laura/diana/larry) in 3h 46m with a pair of 4s
8. check me out (jodi/eric 97/steve zoom/chris) in 3h 52m, with an ace high (8 kicker)
9. team z (george jones/dennis riley/zo/mattie hanon) in 3 h 54m, with a pair of 2s
10. side side (dennis/brad/sumeet/koshi) in 4h 1m, with a king high (jack kicker) (WORST POKER HAND because caw caw had already gotten a prize)
11. nyc (squid/alfred/hugo/todd) in 4h 7m, with a pair of 8s (BEST OUT OF TOWN)
12. nyc 2 (vinnie/alex/achim/eddie) in 4h 8m (no hand, no manifest!)
13. destroyers (joel/andrea/christon/ammon) in 4h 23m, with a pair of jacks (BEST POKER HAND because the top 3 poker hands had already gotten prizes)
14. (judah/clayton/henry/torrin) in 4h 33m, with a pair of 8s (DFL)
DNF: san fran psychos (masan/emmy/brandon/eugene)
AWOL: wildcard (rob/justin/travis/joe)
in the end, i had enough prizes for 13 out of the 16 starting teams, which i think is almost worse than only having prizes for only half the teams - but having 52+ out of 64 entrants get to take home something worth more than their entry fee is pretty good in my book.
HUGE thanks go out to Timbuk2, Patagonia, Under The Weather, RELoad, Dank, Chrome, The Freewheel, American Cyclery, Road Rage, Trackstar, and CMWC 2005 NYC for prizes - consensus seemed to be that i did pretty well for prizes, and that wouldn't have been possible without you guys.
also MASSIVE thank yous to Gina, Jeff, Jonathan, Nellie, Wim, Carla, Seagrave, Sierra, and John from Road Rage for patiently manning checkpoints, and to Mishka for setting up the Crowbar finish.
and of course, thank you to everyone who came out, raced, and learned a valuable lesson about the kind of alleycat i like to design. trust me, it could have been way, way worse - and ive now got a much better picture of how i want to run my 24-hour tag team alleycat idea, which will probably get implemented once i move up to portland next year.
i've not got any pictures myself, so if you're posting any, let me know and i'll link to them, or feel free to email them to me and i'll put em up here.
John Seagrave's photos of the start @ South Park - Hanx/Jak's Toy Drive
Erik Zo's photos from Lake Merced, Heron's Head and the Wave Organ
Carla Laser's photos from the Esmeralda slide checkpoint and the start
John McDonell's photos from, well, the entire race course
Achim's pictures from the Wave Organ, and Goldsprints the night before
so, december 7th is my 10th anniversary on the road, and i figured id throw an alleycat to amuse myself. id been pondering the idea of a relay for a while, due to my research on early sf bike clubs (they had more than a few annual relay events), and then the t-mobile came to town and threw one, and everyone had a grand time, and that clinched it for me.
so here we go. 4 person teams, $20 entry fee per team, read the flyer below for the full scoop.
be forewarned that this will not be all there is - i have every intention of adding little complexities to the whole thing - there may be things to do, things to find, and things to carry at each checkpoint - you never know.
i have officially reneged on my "promise" not to include checkpoints entirely on the basis of how cruel it would be to send people there. i will, however, refrain from using streets that dont actually exist. racers can expect to ride about 10-15 miles per relay leg, more if you screw up - and people will almost inevitably screw up.
the point of the event is that its all blind - no one will really have too much idea where theyre going until they start going there. i will be checking 1st leg riders for radios/nextels/cell phones at the start - anyone caught using these to communicate with their team will be DQed, with no chance of appeal. its an unfair advantage, and wastes the whole concept of this race. ill be quite let down if anyone tries to cheat this way. remember that the teammates youd be trying to contact will be standing next to checkpoint workers, and youll be nicked.
dont bother asking the checkpoint workers for advice, cause all theyll know is their own checkpoint - ill be deliberately keeping most everyone in the dark. if youve got questions, ask me - but ask earlier rather than later.
if youre in san francisco, and dont want to race, i can use some more checkpoint worker volunteers - probably about 4 more right now. youll need to be available to sit at a checkpoint for around 3 hours from 1230pm on on december 11. if this is something youd like to do, email me.
im hoping to have a pretty good prize list - i figure that if i get to torture everyone like im going to, the least i can do i make it worth your while. so far, ive got (and ill be adding to this list as time goes by):
CASH for the winning team - it's winner take all for the entry fees. 10 teams entered = $200. 15 teams = $300 etc etc.
10 brand spanking new prototype "pro series" timbuk2 bags - these are pretty much the same size as their old "tag junkie" model, with a few improvements (dimensions; lighter, stronger material)
3 bags, a top tube pad, and 6 t-shirts from under the weather
a backpack, and a gift certificate for a custom bag from reload
a "kremlin" bag from chrome
tires, blinky lights, patch kits, a wheel build (labor only), locking skewers, and a bunch of other items from the freewheel
2 r1 regulator thermal vests from patagonia
bags from dank bags
tattoo time from danny boy @ saccred in oakland
road rage and american cyclery have also promised as-yet-undetermined prizes, and im working on more.
