Alleycats

Alleycats are always a toss up of how hard do I want to ride and how badly do I care? My first real alleycat was completed just under about a year ago. It was the Toys for Tots charity race. The idea being we go and pick up toys of people/shops that had them in their store and race them to a central location. This did not pan out as there were not enough toys and too many racers. A checkpoint alleycat ensued. All of the checkpoints... were spots I hit all the time and was VERY familiar with the route to choose.

So the race starts and Jim and I partner up. We both race with Faster Mustache so it seemed like a logical choice. The start of the race was a Le Mans run across a small park to the sidewalk and the race was off. The first intersection was a red light with cars moving through. 80% of the racers dodged and ducked their way through. Jim and I waited casually saying, we'll catch up and not be dead in the process. I like this. I run redlights from time to time, but not like a fool who has no will to live.

So we keep rolling along and this race is much longer than you'd think. Turns out it was about 22 miles. A nice distance cause it weeds out a lot of slower riders and thins out the checkpoints quick. Jim and I aren't fast. Well let me rephrase that. I'm not fast. Jim pulled me a lot and I tried to keep up. Each checkpoint the volunteers kept saying we were in 4th. Cool. Then we were in 5th. Then we were in 3rd. Whatever. Its all gravy. So the final checkpoint was about 5 miles away from the finish a long haul down a hilly bitch of a road Spring St(the one that goes south). After cursing and taking our time we roll into the finish. There are 2 guys there already, "no big," I think to myself "I'm sure there are more inside." There are no bikes around. I find the organizer. He says we got 2nd. Wait what? A casual-ish stroll through the city landed us 2nd? Sweet. We got a prize, too.

So this was my introduction. Easy, do what I normally do. Ride hard, route smart, don't get killed. I've probably ridden 6 or 7 more alleycats since around Atlanta. I have not gotten 2nd again. I did however get DFL a few weeks ago. My prize for DFL included a stack of note cards that had notes from the racers to the last place guy. It was one of the checkpoint missions.

I plan to ride in as many alleycats as I can. If nothing else its fun to meet people and ride around. I never plan on winning. I do however enjoy getting shots or free beer at checkpoints and that will keep me coming out to do more.