Boulder Alley Cat Race 11'

So over this past weekend I decided to finally try one of these Alley Cat races. Although I have been a professional bike messenger for the past 3 years I still have never competed in a race..The whole idea around an alley cat race is that  it pretty much mimics the typical delivery loop that a bicycle courier would make in a shift of work.. There were four checkpoints that you had to reach, and at each one you were given a task, slam a PBR at one station, complete an obstacle course at another..The race started at Folsom and Colorado on the CU campus..You could ride the loop in any direction you thought would be fastest and hit different checkpoints at different times. All that matters is that you got your manifest checked off, and that you drank the whole beer before riding off to the next check point..I really like that checkpoint.!The loop I took began from leaving the start point and riding up toward Chautauqua park.. I was pretty surprised when I was the first rider to make it to that checkpoint..Started to think my old ass had a chance in this thing..Oh ya, and did I mention that it was pretty much a constant down-pour of rain for most of the race..Due to the conditions I decided to flip the hub on my bike from single speed to fixed because I wanted to be able to stop my bike quicker..(My experiences in riding in bad weather have taught me that brakes are useless when its wet or snowing.)..After leaving Chautauqua Park I decided to treat the race like a normal loop I would ride while working for DBC..North Boulder park was the next checkpoint. All we had to do was take a picture of one of the wheelchair exercise stations..Pretty easy..After that I rode out to Iris and Folsom to Elmer's Two Mile park where you had to slam a beer as the checkpoint..I asked if I could take a beer for the road but they didn't think that was a good idea..The last checkpoint was all the way back across town at the post office on Table mesa and Moorhead..My old hood!! At this point I was still trying to crush it and ride fast but the fatigue of riding your hardest for 30-40 minutes straight, kinda started to feel it..After taking a picture of the T-mesa post office it was back up to the start point of the race at Folsom and Colorado..Totally soaked from head to toe with a nice puddle of water squishing in my shoes I dug deep and rode my hardest back up to campus..For the results: I ended up finishing 6th out of 33 riders..The first fixed gear bike to finish..Ended up winning best fixie. The riders that finished before me had geared bikes and spandex..I had a blast! and I will definitely be doing more races in the future..Thanks Nan for all the motivation, and getting me out racing..

                                                       Riding to the race with Nan..Nice whistle!

                                       Josh, DBC dispatch, showing off his track -standing abilities..

Nan giving the race promoters her generous donation of a deep dish "Nan sighting" pink rim for the first female finisher..

                                                         Everyone hanging out before the race.

                                                                   Lot's of cool hipster bikes!!

The two youngest racers, Nan's daughter Avery, and her friend Emily (Ron), who rode a mountain bike to all the checkpoints...Nice work!!

                                        Avery, Nan , and Albert hanging out at the end of the race..

Unfortunately I didn't get too much video of the race other than the start and finish..Working on editing it now and it should be up soon..

Peace,
Jason