Goin’ Down the Rabbit Hole
On Saturday, August 4th, race organizers Alan Zian-Chen and Wade Schultz brought us their second race of the season, entitled “Rabbit Hole.” Due to a few factors, mainly being the day after the Dead Baby Downhill and record high temperatures in the Seattle area, only the hardest of core turned out for this. Or, on my case, gluttons for punishment.
In fact, Alan and Wade politely agreed to move the starting time back an hour to accommodate racers that were recovering from the previous night’s festivities.
As start time rolled around, there was another hitch. Apparently some of the checkpoint markings had been taken down overnight by the concerned citizens of the Emerald City.
So that set us back another half hour or so as the guys had to reset the check points.
Everyone huddled under the only tree in Cool Guy Park that was was not occupied by a homeless person to escape the baking sun. We’re fragile up here in the northwest.
The race consisted of a dozen or so unmanned checkpoints. The first stop was given to us on the manifest. From there, you had to find a sticker, write down the name of the corresponding Alice In Wonderland character and then proceed to the next stop (also written on the sticker). Keeping with the theme of the book, there were often two choices as to which stop to go to next (i.e Red pill, Blue pill….you get the idea).
With the exceptions of the start and finish lines, the stops were clustered around the downtown area….two were even literally right on top of each other. This made for a fun, and challenging ride given the topography of downtown Seattle. I don’t know that a short ride has tired me out that much in a long time. But then, it was my own stupid fault for bringing a single speed with an 80″ gear……”hey dummy.”
My legs blew up while climbing Capitol Hill for the second (or was it the third???) time of the day. That will teach me to run errands before a race. As I neared the finish line, I heard that all too familiar hiss of a leaking tire. Being that I was only a few blocks away, I decided to hoof it across the line, securing my spot for DFL.
All in all, the guys put on a great race with some creative stops. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
Thanks to ZLOG, The Polka Dot Jersey, Sure Shot Cafe, Mobius, ASUW Bike Shop, Trabant Coffee, Namsayin and all the other sponsors that I’m sure I’ve forgotten.
Big thanks to Wade and Alan for putting on a good race!
