cause my ass got DQ'ed! :)
I got seriously lost on this one at one point and ended up riding in circles on check points 7-9 in historic St Augustine... As a result I missed one checkpoint and when I went to check in, I had 10 check point sheets instead of the required 11 (I would have came in 26th had I had all of my sheets). I started off real strong in spite of almost eating shit at the beginning of the race (more on that later). I maintained a good position through the first few checkpoints and what ended up killing me was when I rode past the bike shop checkpoint on US1 and shit just went downhill from there. Hugh and I ended up meeting up in the downtown area and tried to make the best of it from there as he was also lost and hitting check points out of order as well. What can I say, just wasn't our race this time around. Another rider I heard had some trouble was Jenny K. I heard she had a rather nasty bail and then ended up getting a flat tire at the St Francis check point. From what most peeps told me she was well on her way to taking womens first again but the flat effectively took her out of the race. Adrien also told me he took a nasty bail during the race as well, hurting his knee in the process and taking him out of the race. Metha took a particularly nasty bail as well but the man is hardcore and finished the race regardless.. Lots o' carnage this weekend...
Eric (the event organizer) wasn't joking when he said the route took you through various parts of St Augustine. It encompassed the historic district, the beach, west St Augustine and all parts in between. Logistics wise, the race ran really smooth with people manning every checkpoint I hit. My friend Heather and her daughter Mikayla where drafted to help run the Fort checkpoint and she had a blast as well. This was the first time she had ever experienced an Alley Cat and she was blown away by the experience. I over heard some complaints regarding the maps but I found them to be fine. Maybe it's because I'm used to the google maps format but I had no problem reading them. One thing that was difficult about them was that they had no numbers on the sheets indicating what the number of the check point was. This was difficult because it made it hard to figure out which checkpoints I had hit and which ones I had missed when I got lost downtown. As I mentioned earlier, I missed one, found another one by accident and then had to back track to figure out which one I had missed. No biggie though because had I not gotten lost, it would have been a lot easier to keep track of which ones I was hitting. I'm just gonna chalk it up to a split second bad call on my part...
some of my race highlights
- Eric the Biking Vikings bail: At the very beginning a bunch of us where hauling ass through the back streets on the way to King street heading towards the first checkpoint. Eric took a turn, slipped on a pile of leaves on the ground, and in one fluid motion got back up and proceeded to keep up with the front of the pack. Fukin hardcore, what can I say....
- Almost eating shit on Castillo Drive: dunno if I was inspired by Eric's maneuver @ the beginning of the race but I pulled off some acrobatics of my own, in essence saving my ass from getting hit by an SUV in the process... What ended up happening was we where all bunched up in a pack on Castillo Drive and Cole skidded hard to avoid running in to a car, in turn making Andrew brake hard which made me run in to Andrew. My front tire was caught in Andrews back tire, almost making me eat shit in front of the aforementioned SUV. I was able to get my left foot out of the strap, plant it down and in essence foot planted myself in to the air to get off Andrews tire and keep my momentum going. The best part was the driver of the SUV driving by and giving me a thumbs up as he rolled by...
- Crossing over the Vilano Beach Bridge: Talk about a leg burner! Going up was a test of your leg power but coming down was pure bliss. I swear I hit 30 mph going down that bitch! And Eric and Company doubled the fun because as soon as you hit the first check point, you had to go back over said bridge a second time. The second time around I was behind a group and someone in that group was, how can I say this nicely, rather ripe in the smell dept. It was all the incentive I needed to peddle harder to pass... :)
- Rolling thru the historic district: This was by far one of my favorite highlights as it really proved how well you could navigate through crowded streets. In addition to the high number of motor vehicles, you had horse drawn carriges, Tourist trolley buses, and clueless pedestrians in addition to the St Augustine Po-niners (aka Johnny Law). 5-O decieded to pass the time by pulling random racers over for various infractions and I heard one guy got a ticket for running a redlight that was rather steep. At one point during the race I was passing a trolley and the driver announced over the intercom that he didn't know why there where so many people on bikes that day.. I took the time to wave at the tourists as I rode by...
- The bubble gum checkpoint: When we rolled up to the checkpoint @ the fort, we where all give a piece of gum and told to blow a bubble before the next manifest was given out. While most of you may be saying no big deal, keep in mind this was about the half way point and no one had any freakin' saliva to chew a piece of gum, much less blow a bubble. This one was a hard one for a lot of people including myself. I think it took me like 5 tries.
- The Charlotte Alley checkpoint: not only was this one hard to find, they had some rather interesting tasks you had to perform in order to get the manifest. When Hugs and I rolled up to this one, our options where kiss one of the girls ass, pull down our pants and make our butt cheeks clap or have the smiling joker with the camera take a picture of our cocks. 'nuff said.....
- Smoking a cig at the Ponce De Leon Bridge: Hugs and I hit that draw bridge just as the bridge was going up so we had to wait for the boat traffic to go by. We rode to the very edge and proceeded to enjoy a smoke as we watched the two ships go by. Beautiful scenery and the weather matched the scenery making for a very nice break. By far one of my favorite moments...
- Free Pizza and Beer @ the end point: Man, what class acts Eric and company are. They had 20 pizzas and like tons of beers lined up at the end point for racers to enjoy. Very nice touch guys and it was truly appreciated by all. If that wasn't the intention, my bad for taxing you guys on the grub and the brews...
- Tall Bike joust: What better way to cap off the race than to have a tall bike joust. It didn't last too long due to St Augustine's finest but it was fun while it lasted. A couple of peeps took a few nasty shots to the dome but it was all in good fun. Too bad johnny law had to be such a bitch about it all...
As I mentioned, an amazing time was had by all I spoke to who participated. A very well organized race in a rather interesting city and I'm looking forward to the next race that gets thrown there. I had been up there a few times in the past and I had never seen some of the areas I rode through yesterday. St Augustine drivers are ok for the most part (some yelling by a few dumb asses in cars but at least I didn't get a water bottle thrown at me this time) and the few people I interacted with during the course of the race where pretty helpful with directions. A great city with a great bike scene and I'm looking forward to coming back in the future...
ez!
