Revolutions 10 Year Anniversary Alleycat on the News!

I ran into the the girl that was interviewing everyone at the alleycat, and asked her if she could email me the link to the footage and she totally did! Thank you, May-Lin Biggs!

http://www.abc24.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=3551568

Mixed Terrain Recap

The great thing about alleycats is that not everyone rides the same route. I think everyone ended up doing about 33 miles with multiple variations. Here's my approximate route because I didn't GPS it:


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Kyle Wagenschutz's route and stats can be found here on Endomondo.

A not-so-great thing about alleycats is that the faster people will tend to group up. To eliminate this I paired everyone into teams, based on when they registered. Sixteen people, not including myself, registered to race so I paired the 1st person with the 9th, 2nd with the 10th and so forth. Here are the times:

1st Place - 2:07:32 - Kermit Cooper & Zoe Taylor
2nd Place - 2:11:14 - Brett Edmonds & Rem Pamornkula
3rd Place - 2:19:46 - Joel Glasgow & Brandon Thrasher
4th Place - 2:23:56 - Anthony Siracusa & Adam Hite
5th Place - 2:25:30 - Kyle Wagenschutz & Jason Doinbrava(sp?)
6th Place - 2:37:33 - Graham Notestine & John Dodds
7th Place - 2:43:45 - Tony Pass & Tony Brooks (*because the Tonys split up this time is averaged)
8th Place - 3+hours - Martin Jones & Eric Garcia

What's kind of cool about this is that each team, for the most part, had one person riding fixed and one geared. It just worked out like that. Here's the race crew and some of our volunteers:


Big thanks to the people who helped run checkpoints and set everything up: Emily Percer, Meg Kerr, Anya McKay, Cory York, Gurjot Gill, Charles Fox, Crystal Keck, Athena (?), Jenny Lederer, Ryan Carter, and Howell Evans. Big thanks to Kyle Wagenschutz for hooking it up with the Pilgrim House Hostel's deck and grill. Big thanks to Molly Kennedy for setting up a photobooth! And thanks to everyone who came and hung out after the race!




Jenny has a photo set up on facebook here.


Also, these items were left at the party:

Mixed Terrain Alleycat Checkpoints

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Mixed Terrain Checkpoints

Maybe you know where these two locations are... located. Be thinking about your route. A map with official checkpoints will be unveiled race day.

Revolutions 10yr Anniversary

Facebook page for more info. I've already heard from a few people from Huntsville who plan on coming so put in your requests now!

Just Another Day In The Park

Mixed terrain riding! It would be so much fun to have singletrack like that in Memphis! Oh well, we'll make due with what we have on May 28th!

Volunteers Wanted

So the Revolutions 10 Year Anniversary and mixed terrain alleycat is coming up and while it would be amazing to be at every checkpoint and take pictures and high five everyone, it's physically impossible. So I'm asking for your help. Please contact me if you are available on Monday, May 28th, 2012 from 10AM to 12PM. That's Memorial Day, so make sure you don't have any family plans. fixmemphis@yahoo.com Awesome.

Like Trying to Ride A Squirrel

I rode a little bit of trail before the rain came down. Not enough traction on these tires for the conditions today.

I think I've convinced myself to move the Shelby Farms Checkpoint to a location that is more accessible from multiple directions. It's all about options. Sorry, no map of the ride today.

Is 40 Miles Too Much?

At around five miles in I found myself watching the fog migrate up the bluff and spill into all the men working on Beale Street Landing. Empty barges battled the Mississippi current's headwind, pressing North and I thought, "higher ground" while simultaneously bemoaning myself for not filling up my water bottle before I left. The temporary gravel cut-through appealed to the cross tires beneath me but the man, the dog, and the thought that there would be more gravel to come kept me on the concrete path up the hill to Martyr's Park.

Wrong. The fog is better at water-level. I was in it. Now I was above it and the barges and the water didn't look the same. That, or the fog beat me up the bluff. Damn dog.


Looking at the Arkansas bank, part of a barge was aground. Circumcised sometime in the night, the rest of the journey to New Orleans with his head down; due to the fog no doubt. Dog, fog: damn you, both.

It was too early for Midtown Bikes to be open but The Arcade sure was. The waitress filled my water bottle before I even asked and I nodded "good day" to the trolley operator as I exited.

Memphis turns from ghetto to prosperous at several street intersections. Perhaps there is an interstitial area but it's almost unnoticeable. I just kept heading East under the cloud-cover. WOL to WOL (that's Wide Outside Lane in case you were unsure) until I turned onto the bike lanes at Southern. Several years ago when Russ Griffin raced the New Gears Alleycat he thought that cutting through the neighborhoods would shield him from the wind. He came in second. A straight line is always faster and I was going straight for a while.

I stayed ahead of the dust cloud my tires were spitting out as I cut from Cherry into Audubon Park. It wasn't enough gravel to satisfy my tires or myself. The lake didn't satisfy, either. Ducks aren't as interesting as barges, unless someone is chasing them with a fire extinguisher. That's for another day.

Traffic wasn't too bad so I sprinted across Poplar at Perkins and made North for the Greenline. Perkins overpasses the Greenline so I hopped the curb, shouldered the Surly and slid down the leafy bank to the asphalt below. The Greenline was mine and for the first time I noticed the wear: cracks forming in the asphalt. A year and a half is all it took. This summer will wreck it.

Should I make the Wolf River Trail part of the course? No, better to ease everyone into this mixed-terrain race. I was approaching 24 miles and I still wasn't at the 3rd checkpoint. The path around Patriot Lake would probably have been faster if there weren't any runners but they were there. Let them have it. I leaned into the grass and connected with that dirt line and in my head the runners are saying, "How is he going off-road on a road bike?" It was in that 25th mile, that gravel mile, that the first bead of sweat swelled on the brim of my cap. It dropped somewhere on the incline. So did the second one. They seemed to stop after that; my vision pinpointed on the checkpoint.


The sweat dropped steadily tan on my hands as I put on my gloves. Dusty sweat. I refilled my water bottle and made like a barge down the Greenline, pressing towards the 4th checkpoint through my own headwind. My phone talks to me at 30 miles and again at 35 and lets me know I'm getting tired. I pass the 4th checkpoint, Gnome Home, without so much as a glance. The Old Forest Trail is satisfaction for myself and my tires after 38 miles of mostly pavement. Shower, food, beer, and cupcakes made from scratch. I didn't even have to use my A-K.


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