Snot and Tears- Nic's bike race

Nic ,the head mechanic at Performance, organized an alleycat bike race and called it "Snot and Tears" because he assumed on Dec. 13 it would be cold enough to bring snot to the nose and tears to the eyes. Turned out to be around 70 degrees for the race, fine by me! Alleycat races are usually in town with checkpoints around town. Nic had 7 checkpoints, at each checkpoint, the racers found out where to go for the next checkpoint. The race started and finished at the Drungo Ice House, it's a new sports bar near campus that has a fun laid back atmosphere and great food. They also have a big patio, which was perfect since the weather was so nice.

Shawn, Jeff, Nic, Vince, Brandon, Dave, Mark, and Josh all volunteered at the race.

The blow up doll was taped to the bike used for the bike toss
Mellow Johnnies donated these wheels as prize. They match my bike. My wheels are better, but still...

There were a lot of interesting bikes that people had built up themselves, some really nice, some not so much.

Mark was the "floating checkpoint" if/when someone found him riding around town, they had to pull the sheep off his bike and bring it back to the finish and they won $50!Jeff and I were at the Home Slice Pizza checkpoint. I thought we would be there at least an hour and have time for some pizza (I ran 18.6 miles that day, I could have eaten a lot of pizza) but we ended up only being there about 30 minutes.

This beautiful tree is across the street from Home Slice

Jeff and I handed out the papers with the next checkpoint on them. I couldn't believe how fast people got to Home Slice and how bunched up some of the riders were. After half an hour all the riders had come through our checkpoint so we went back to Drungo's.

Mike, the owner of Drungo's, made some great chicken wings and vegetarian quesadillas- YUM!

The top 3 finishers. The 2 on the left (2nd and 3rd place) own a pedicab company

Nic also had some crazy games with prizes, first was the bike toss. Who ever throws the junk bike with the blow up doll the furthest wins. It was fun but a little scary when a couple of drunk guys threw the bike! The entire crowd backed up about 5 feet.

Next was the track stand competition, balance on your pedals, then with no hands, clapping, etc. Last one standing wins.

Last was bike in a circle tighter and tighter, again last one riding wins. People got a little crazy with this one, pushing riders out of the circle and trying to rub tires. It was fun to watch but I'm glad I wasn't trying to ride in the circle!

Nic's first bike race was a big success, everyone had a great time! We're hoping he'll do another one soon.