Agro in the streets of Boston

Event: Legend of Zelda Replay Race Type: Alleycat bike race Date: 7/15/06 Team reporting: E, J, C, C, and Me Location: Boston and Cambridge Number of times crossing the bridge by Science park: 6 Race Report: Imagine all the nastiness of criterium bike racing: the breakaways, the nasty corners, the aggressive, relentless pace. Now imagine doing it in the streets of Boston on a Saturday afternoon. Add urban orienteering, and that should give you a taste of what this race was. It all started the night before when C, C, and I, promised both a). cheap beer and b). info about the race showed up at a downtown bike shop for a "bike porn" show. No, gentle reader, no mechanical sexual deviance actually took place, just a lot of tatooed, grungy, bike messenger guys showing of their pimped out fixed gear bikes. We voted on our favorites, got the race info (a cryptically marked 1960's map of Boston) and a start location (the Hatch shell) and headed back to C's, seeing as between the three of us we had too few tatooes to hang with that crowd. We arrived at the start around 3:20, and got "registered". Just before the race start we were told we would be given the list of checkpoints at Winter Square. Some of us thought that was Winthrop square, but in the end, that didn't mater. At go the 100 odd racers jumped on their bikes and the madness began. We rode right across Storrow drive and onto the streets of Boston. It became immediately obvious that the strategy was to follow people who knew where they were going. So, I jumped on a big group with C, E, and J and we rode to Winter square, wherever that is, and got the list of checkpoints. There were 8 corresponding to the 8 dungeons in the "Legend of Zelda" video game. Here they are: Pierside, 3 Dolphin Way, 02210 St. Johns, 9 Moon St. 02113 Step Inc, 31 Beverley St., 02114 The Dirt Pile, 23 East St., 02141 Ampitheater, Terry Ring Way, 02109 along Quaker Lane, 02109 the end of Carver St., 02116 the Kings Castle, 10 Scotia St., 02115 We busted out maps, which I unwisely didn't have, thinking all maps save the one we got the night previous were forbidden, but then just decided to follow a group to the first checkpoint. Riding with these people was a harrowing experience. Basically, you sprint through the streets, traffic (and traffic laws) be damned. It was a challenge. In looking for the actual check point, C crashed pretty hard, but got back up and continued the race, torn and bloody. We finally got to the first checkpoint, a warehouse on the waterfront that looked the start of a GTA mission, and got our first USPS priority mail envelope, this being a bike messenger race and whatnot. I threw this in my messenger bag, and jumped back on the group. They busted off towards cambridge, but soon I lost them, being simply not able to ride that speed and getting cut off by impenetrable traffic. I got to the bridge by the science museum, and then ended up pairing up with a woman named R, who, as it turns out, is a pro mountain biker and triathlete. She was awesome enough to let me tag along for the next 5 checkpoints. Her style was absolutely fearless: she would take lines into gridlocked oncoming traffic, riding between the cars. It was all I could do to keep up. At Moon st. we hit our second checkpoint, and had to do a shot of tabasco and whiskey to get the envelope. It was unpleasant, but never the less, we did it. We then bike back to the science museum and hit up East st., the checkpoint at which, we were told, had been broken up by security. Undaunted, we headed to 31 Beverly st. where we had to dance around in Too-toos to get our prize. We then hit up the ampitheater on Terry Ring Way (in the naval ship yard), where a wasabi fig and spinning 10 times were the price of completion. Quaker lane, we learned from a fellow racer, was off congress street, so, that way we went. Along that way, we met C, C, J, and E, and road with them for a while, though we took different ways to the checkpoint in the end. We stopped at Quincy Market to ask a policeman where Quaker Lane was. He looked at us, and laughed, and said he was on his way there to break up a group of bike messengers. He then said he was in no particular hurry, and gave us a wink and directions. Dude, you rock! We found the alley, and did 20 pushups for our prize. On the way to the next checkpoint I lost R in traffic, but picked up C, C, E, and J, and we rode together to the end. Carver st. was an alley near the common where we had to meditate and eat cashews, and the final checkpoint, Scotia st., was right by C's house at Fenway. They had no challenge for us, so we proceeded to "Death Mountain", which was a three lap circuit of Boston Common. By the third lap of cranking at maximum velocity, I was very tired. J and C broke off to get a final checkpoint C had missed, and the rest of us headed to the finish, a bar over by Longwood. Here's a map with all the checkpoints. According to the GMAPs pedometer, we rode 15 miles...as the crow flies. What that is in actual miles, nobody knows. The race took about 2.5 hours, and I was never riding any speed less than all out. The race was as exhilarating as it was dangerous, but that's just kind of how life works. I definitely learned a lot of traffic tricks, and maybe even became a touch more agro myself, so, it was definitely worth it.

Swimming with the Beavers

Event: Holliston Lions Triathlon Date: 7/9/2006 Location: Stoddard Park, Holliston, MA Weather: Sunny, temps 75-80 degrees Course: 800m swim, 15 mile bike, 5 mile run

Report: This was an unusual race in many respects. For one, the distances were really strange for a “sprint” tri. Never-the-less, it turned out to be pretty fun. I woke up at 5:30 a.m., and drove over to pick up another MIT triathlete, M, and then we headed to Holliston. There was no parking at the race start, so we parked on the street like ¼ mile away. Registration was easy. I told them my name and they handed me a bag with everything in it. K, the MIT captain was hanging out near registration, and gave me my sweet ass MIT jersey. I then set up my transition zone, which was in prime real estate close to the run/bike interchange, put on my wetsuit and headed to the beach. The water was warm and murky, but not overly weedy, so I warmed up and waited for the start.

Right before the the race start, the Lion's Club guys (who organized the race) played the national anthem, the version of which they had chosen was only slightly better than the one with Rossanne Bar. It was HARD not to laugh. The 40+ men got to go off first, and then the sub 40 men, and finally the women all with 3 minute intervals in between. The swim was typical: grabbing wetsuited legs and getting kicked in the face for 200m and then open swim for the rest. In the absence of current and 3ft swells, swimming in straight lines was pretty easy. I was out of the water in about the middle of the pack, which is about my speed these days. I suspect that the 14-year-old version of myself, country club champion no less, would be faster, but, whatever. I ran out of the water and had my suit half off by the time I reach my rack. I then peeled the rest off, jumped into my bike shoes, and started out again much, much, much faster than last time.

The bike course was sweet: 3 laps around a 5 mile loop with short, steep uphills followed by long gradual downhills (link). There were no flats and the course ran fast. The first lap I was feeling the swim, but by the end I was cranking pretty well, turning decent gears. I got in with a group of dudes and we worked off of each other. The second lap was pretty much the same, but I was feeling much better on the uphills. On the third lap, all racers were out on the course, and it was crowded. In places it was like being in a peleton, and the yellow line and no drafting rules got violated like the prime directive. Still, we were moving along well. With two miles to go I noticed another MIT racer pass me. It was M. I climbed the final hill and slipped my feet out my shoes. This proved well, as the people in front of me Mau-Maued the transition zone and took each other out after jamming the brakes and slipping on their cleats. I dodged and jogged through. Racking my bike and putting on my racing flats took all of about 20 seconds and I was back on the course.

The run loop was the bike loop, only in reverse. Think about that for a second…do you see a problem? Yes, that’s right, we were running against bike traffic, which was a bit scary as the main group was coming in when I left. Still, there were no close calls, so, all turned out well. My legs didn’t feel dead, just not terribly fast. Also, I should not have worn my 8 year-old cross country waffles. They now have several blood stains, and I think its time to grab some road racing flats. Anyway, I soldiered on as best I could. The course was actually pretty challenging with long, gradual climbs and short steep downhills. The first 1.3 miles took something like forever, but afterwards I sped up a bit and passed a bunch of people. At around mile 4, someone behind me yelled “go tech!" It was M. She passed me, and we ran together to the last hill where I pulled ahead again for my kick to the finish. We finished around 1:33:25 on the clock, a final time of 1:30:25 for me 

So, in the end I finished around 40^th out of 250. I was hoping to finished sub 1:30:00, but I was pretty close, and I’m psyched about my bike split and my transitions. If I’m going to get back to being as fast as I once was, I’ve got to work the run and swim more (my run split was 35ish and my swim was 12ish). The MIT triathlon people were really fun, and we hung out for a while after the race waiting for awards; M took second in the women’s race, not bad for her first ever tri, and another one of the women, C, took an age category award.

Overall, a fun morning and a good race!

My next tri will be the Boston Triathlon, which will certain be an adventure, what with the swim in Boston harbor and the bike on Mem. Drive.

That’s assuming I survive the Jay Challenge MTB race :)