It was the final of a 7 race series called “Racing to N’Awlins”, put on by Gulf Coast Adventure Racing . Adventure racing is simiar to a triathlon, except fun. We bike (mountain only), run, and canoe. It isn’t bike 25 miles, then run 8, then paddle 5. It’s mixed up. Do a little running, then biking, then a challenge to find the next checkpoint, then bike to the canoe, then run, etc. etc. etc. I guess I’d have to say that hashing is to a marathon as adventure racing is to a triathlon.

I did it with my friends Scott and Meghan/Orleans Perish/Sazerac Attack last year and had an absolute blast. We mixed it up this year. Team Broken Racket had 3 coed teams of 3 this year, and we basically all rode/paddled/ran as one team. While it did slow us down as a whole, it was still fun. Since we had three teams, and I more or less ‘captained’ (ie registered/prepaid for the three of us), I got to name our ‘subteam’.

What did I come up with? Broken Racket’s Galactic Monkey Squadron. Yeaahhhhh…

Anyways, here are all nine of us, doing the ‘ant walk’ for a challenge outside of the Audubon Insectarium on Canal:

More photos available here.

Prologue (up to Friday):
We (Bea and I) didn’t actually do a whole lot of training. Unless injured, I ride every day – and yes, it is only a few miles in general. Bea? not so much. Bea rode an on-loan Zonal Scattante which had dumped her twice already and dumped its actual owner in a violent enough manner to require that her jaw be wired shut.

So there’s that.

Friday night found us at Scott and Beth’s house (our team captains), enjoying a glass or two of wine, inhaling some wonderful Eggplant Parmesan, and roughly fitting our newest member Brent (he joined up at our Mahony’s Fundraiser) to the bike he’d be riding – my KHS Flite 500 road bike named ‘Blanche’. While he bought his own gloves and shorts, everything else was on load. Helmet and shoes from Scott, pedals from Jason, bike from me. We gave him a quick run-down on shifting and how to clip in/out of the pedals, and I gave his what may have been a damning warning: everyone falls on their bike when they first use clipless pedals. I’ve done it, numerous riders before have done it, and even more will do it after me. It’s just how things go. We broke up relatively early as we all had to get up quite early, and I believe we all had yet to actually pack. I don’t think sleep came until midnight or so.

I chose to ride Molly (with green monkey Julius), my single-speed track bike instead of my road bike. I know that the gears would have been nice, but I just feel more comfortable on the track bike, and there’s something to be said for that.

Stage 1 (Saturday):
00:dark-thirty came entirely too soon, as it usually does and with it came all the sorts of last-minute packing and preparation that we all know. We each ticked through our mental checklists a number of times, and I’m glad to say that the only I forgot was chapstick. I think that Bea got everything.

We met up with the rest of our team at a gas station, right on schedule. After a quick and error-free caravan (aren’t those the best?), we arrived at SLU in Hammond – the start and finish point of our ride. I donned my kilt (a portable and stylish changing room), and made the final preparations – number pinning, bike check, iPod setup, final clothes change, and luggage drop-off. We didn’t want to start at the very front with the super-serious people, so we lagged back and took out time starting out.

Our team eventually found our own tempos and broke up. As promised, I for the most part stayed with Bea, trying to give her advice and/or pull for her as much as possible, without sounding condescending. The hills were fun (both ascending and descending), the rest stops were placed at decent intervals, and the next thing we knew, we were at the lunch stop.

Lunch was roughly the same both days: ham or turkey sandwiches, pasta salad, rest stop food (cookies, bananas, oranges, granola bars, etc.), cokes/gatorade/energy drinks, and the soggiest, gooiest, most delicious PB&Js I think I have ever had the pleasure of consuming. This was also the point in my weekend that things were the oddest. While walking back to get something (more food, most likely), I got rickrolled. In the middle of Louisiana/Mississippi. I could not believe it, and Never Gonna Give You Up was stuck in my head until we hopped back on the road again and made our way to the destination for that day, Percy Quin State Park.

We continued along at about the same clip we had all morning, stopping at all the rest stops but the last, for that all-important refilling of the waterbottles, a quick snack, and the application of Florida Water-soaked paper towels to the backs of our necks. The last mile or so was in the deliciously cool and shady Percy Quin, where we climbed up a hill to the endpoint and were greeted by a man on a mic, plethora of riders and supporters, and perhaps the most important thing of all: beer.

The announcer, amongst others, had noticed that I rode on a single speed, and proceeded to either ask me about it or mere look/point and talk from a safe distance. At that point, I had a few critical items on my agenda (in no particular order):

• swap out the lycra cycling shorts for my kilt
• beer
• food
• beer

We made it to our cabin (our ever-resourceful leader Scott had fenagled that one somehow), showered, changed, and headed back out for dinner and drinks. Needless to say, we called it an early night and once in our cabin our moods mysteriously and quickly devolved into some sort of ridiculous middle-school style gigglefest. Deep sleep followed the theatrics, and was a welcome segway to day two.

Stage 2 (Sunday):
Everyone was in surprisingly good spirits Sunday morning – not a whole lot of complaints of soreness, which is always a good thing. While the ride back was similar to the ride up, it did take a different route. Somewhere after lunch (I think) Bea and I hit the first of three snags, all rooted in the same problem: a rear tire pinch-flat. It wasn’t caused by glass/nail/etc, but by a light shift of a protective piece of tape that lines the rim of the wheel. On the third occasion, we had run out of spare tubes, and considering that the next stop was almost literally a mile away, Bea flagged down and hopped into the SAG wagon (Support And Gear) and had her wheel attended to.

This would luckily be the only failure, mechanical or physical, that the two of us would encounter for the entire duration of the ride. I will certainly take that any day. Our teammate Brent however, would suffer a bit more of an embarrassing fate. I had warned him about the distinctly possible and almost inevitable fate of hist first jaunt with clipless pedals: he would fall while clipped in. And it would almost certainly be at a slow speed.

Well, I was right. After we finished the ride and had again traded lycra for kilt, we ran into a group of people we know through rollerderby – the Krewe of Rolling Elvi. Yes, they wore Elvis paraphernalia. One of the group, the only fellow single-speed rider and husband of RollerGirl ‘duMaine Attraction‘, told Bea and I how a guy had fallen on him at a traffic crossing (they had to stop). He had ice strapped to his knee at that point, and everything with it would luckily turn out just fine. When we caught up with our team and Brent embarrassed, said that he had fallen on another rider, I immediately knew who it was and proceeded to laugh. Hard.

Well, after inhaling food and Abita, we signed up for next years ride and proceeded to drive home.

Here is our route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2100034

I look forward to this challenge again next year, and wish to thank everyone who sponsored both Bea and I, our team, and the MS Society in general. So thank you very much, and I hope you will help out again in 2009.

– Will, Team Broken Racket

Team Broken Racket:
Jason:	Brent:
Bea:	Beth:
Scott:	Yours Truly:
And finally, the burn/tan line:

To help raise money for the cause, Mahony’s has offered to donate 10% of sales next Wednesday, September 24, 2008! Also, there will be a drink special just for the night! Come to a happy hour party while also supporting a great cause! The more you eat and drink, the closer the Multiple Sclerosis Society gets to a cure! (Please see the following web link for more information about the ride, the society, and our team).

The event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at Mahony’s which is located 3454 Magazine Street. Have a po-boy and a beer with us while meeting some folks from the MS150 program. If you come join us and want to donate directly to the cause as well, we will have a few laptops there for online donations and we will be accepting direct donations as well! Also, come by any time that day and pick up information about the event and how you can help out! If you are supporting another team or would like to donate to another rider, we will be happy to help you with that donation getting to the proper place as well!

We will be having some of the MS150 organizers stopping by to give you more information about the ride, donating, and joining the team!

We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday and forward this message to everyone you know! All are welcomed to support this great cause!

Team Broken Racket & Mahony’s Po-Boys

To make a not-very-long story short, she spilled on Lee Circle and biked home. I drove her to the ER to get stitched up – while I can treat cuts and scrapes, this was a bit above my head.

The same doc who took care of my knee was assigned to Bea, and took good care of her. Two weeks later, here’s her leg:

My, how she has healed. Well, looks like it’s now my turn again to get hurt. Dammit.

In October however, we’ll be participating in the Tour for the Cure – a 150 mile ride spanning two days to help the fight against Multiple Sclerosis. I paid an entrance fee and have passed my initial $250 mark. Right now, our team has raised $1,545 of our self-set $5,000 goal.

If you want to help out, you can donate to our team as a whole, or to me (which still helps out the team) which you can do on the following link: Sponsor my MS 150 Ride!

It doesn’t have to be much, but don’t let me dissuade you from giving more. :)
If you know of a company that would like to sponsor us, please contact me – we’ll be making a custom cycling jersey with sponsor’s logos on it.
I’m not sure on the specifics, and may be wrong on that. Feel free to drop me a line and I’ll get some more info.

Below is a link to and a graphic of our map. We start at the bottom, and go counter-clockwise. Our overnight is at the very top, in Percy Quinn State Park.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2100034

 
If you wish to read more on MS, you can do so here:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/index.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sclerosis

Anyways, New Orleans has a bike lane! I had the opportunity to use it today – it runs down St. Claude Avenue (on both sides!), and is quite spacious. Hopefully as streets are repaired, more will be added where appropriate.

Thank you, Metro Bicycle Coalition!

 

 

Too bad, so sad.

me: i walked into a fire hydrant yesterday. it hurt. bad.
harley: hahaha
harley: dunbass
harley: er, nevermind
me: way to spell.
me: heh
me: almost had me.
harley: so close!!

I left my office at Lee Circle and rode up to my friends house by Jefferson and Magazine in a nice 13 minute trip. Not quite drenched, she let me in to cool down (was overheated – one top layer too many).

On the way back, my rear tire was feeling a bit low, so I stopped at another friends house (dripping again) to borrow his bike pump. In the process of trying to improve my setup, I inadvertently made it worse. While pumping up the front tire, the presta valve broke. Laaaaame. Turns out, my little repair bag was all but empty. Laaaaamer.

So, Scott (the friend), gives me his car keys. While he is a blossoming bike nerd, his gear is limited to mountain bikes. No 700c tubes for this monkey. I drive down to GNO and pick up some super-hot 80mm smooth presta valve tubes, return to Scott’s, change it out, and hit the pavement.

And the rain! Oy such rain! Whatever uptown krewe was scheduled to roll stayed safe and dry in their buses on Napoleon. I rode by them weaving across lanes like a little kid – access by car to the street had been blocked of for the parade and its staging area.

In retrospect, riding down Tchoupitoulas isn’t usually the best idea, especially when it is cold and dark, and I was wearing (rain darkened) green shorts, a black bag, black jacket, and forgot my rear light. However, I’m me, so I don’t usually care.

I did however have the presence of mind to pull over at Tchoup and Jackson to pull over and watch the high-speed police car parade.

By the time I reached the CCC overpass, my jacket had gained a good bit of weight, but I was still comfy. Unfortunately, I flatted. Still with an incomplete repair kit, I had two options: 1) get a ride and drip all over everywhere or b) cry about it and walk.

Me being me, I now have a sore right shoulder/collarbone. I walked to the bike shop on Frenchmen. While the shop was closed and the gates locked, I had the (relatively, at that point) good fortune of hollerin’ in to the guys staying late. After shedding most of my layers, I had a few sips of Jameson’s and changed out my tube. Tim had ordered me an awesome new Surly Karate Monkey t-shirt and it was gratefully added to my bag.

Some of the guys and I rode around the corner to the R Bar, where the title of this now epic (in length only) post comes in to play.

Jeremy was working, and I asked a favor of him. Since the R Bar is a bed and beverage, they have a washer/dryer on site, and a plethora of soft, fluffy towels. He let me in to the back, where I promptly put my soaked shorts, socks and beloved SIDIs into the dryer. I returned to the bar wearing nothing my shirt, hat, boxers, and a towel.

One thing I will always hold dear about this city is that you can walk into a bar, see a guy in a bath towel drinking a beer, and think nothing of it.

Anyways, while I didn’t go all-out, I put an old-style stink on it last night. Whiskey, beer, Dirty Guatemalans. R Bar, Molly’s, the Abbey, the Dervish.

I was lucky enough to spend time with friends that no longer live here, and Alita of Brooklyn Bike Gang fame.

All in all, a good night. And it is oh-so-nice to be dry.

Where do I start? Howsabout a rough outline of some major-ish events since my last post (that should be individual posts themselves):

• Reffed the first Jackson MS / Biloxi MS derby bout
• Retired from rollerderby refereedom. Am now known as Don’t Panic or perhaps Mr. sKiddo.
• (Over) Enjoyed two office parties, back-to-back.
• Rode the spillway with Bea. She did the teeter-totter on her bike.
• Went to 5 Christmas Parties ( my family, her family, friends )
• Spent 5 relaxing days in Waynesville, NC with Bea.

And now that I have freed up a substantial amount of time that was previously occupied by derby, I present unto you my 2008 Resolution:

Read 26 books in 2008.

This works out to an average of one book every other week. I’m going to count re-reads in this one, not just new reads. I am also going to count two books I read over vacation towards this list: Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box and Richard Bachman (Stephen King)’s Blaze – two shorter-length novels that I quite enjoyed. (Liz, you should at least read Heart Shaped Box). I’ve even bought a much-needed new bookshelf for the occasion. While I attribute the idea to Liz, my motivation may be different. For me, it’s a forced downtime. I do really enjoy reading, and miss sitting down with a good novel. I’m using it to just sit down, relax, and escape (instead of perhaps going to the bar). Little mini vacations.

And a quick sidenote: while I love old New Orleans houses, I loathe their drafts. It’s goddamn cold in here.

2007 was a pretty good year for me (despite the physical injuries), and I greatly look forward to 2008. And I can’t believe that Mardi Gras is a mere month away. This year, the Ramblers roll from my house.

P.S. – We rule the street. The rest of y’all are Monkey Meat.

Bat For Lashes addresses the issue in terms of awesome: