Sadie Hawkins Race Report

Val and Brean sporting their winning bags, by Seagull.

Val and Brean won the Sadie Hawkins Race. Again. They're 3 for 3! Here's Brean's race report:

"Val and I won the first two Sadie Hawkins Races, so we teamed up again to try to continue the streak. The wait at the beginning was cold, and we did our planning quickly. There was a bit of a false start because we couldn't hear Kisha, and we wound up jumping the gun a bit. But we waited for people to catch up to us before starting the train.

The first stop was 1960 N Milwaukee, but I was out of practice (Val is the stoker, and I am the navigator) and we wound up looking on the wrong side of the street, even going around the McDonalds parking lot. Uggh. Then we found the CP just as Coyote and Christina got there. Up MKE, made a wrong turn (wasn't even sure we were going in the right direction), and started to realize that we were beacons in the night with our blinking tail lights to those following --next year, no rear lights. We made it to all the pickup CP's at about the same time as Christina and Coyote.

Val was being much more aggressive than me this year, which was a surprise, but maybe it's because I am getting older. I even stayed in my small chainring the entire race (why don't more people ride road bikes for these things?). And, of course, since it's a team race, skitching is out. But we worked hard and started increasing the gap on the drop CP's. There is a bit of an inherent penalty for being the first to a CP in an alleycat since the people don't quite have the system down or their pens ready or whatever, but it's just something you have to deal with. Here is how they went:

Blow up balloon and pop it by sitting on it --I couldn't tie the balloon shut with my gloves.

Chew bubble gum and hold a bubble for 5 seconds --gum was frozen and not the best for bubbles. It took forever, and Val was not amused. Eventually, I just stuck my tongue in it to make a cavity and made a tiny bubble by hand. Wound up chewing the gum for a few more miles.

Put candy on a spoon and walk it into partner's mouth --Easy.

Write four places for a bike date --Easy, we've done that.

Then, it was mostly a straight shot down Ogden. I really pushed it as fast as I could on this stretch, with a nasty headwind. Val is a seriously fast woman. And we won! Coyote and Christina came in about 7 or 8 minutes later, mostly due to a navigational error, and that is the closest margin yet. Either we are getting slower, or the competition is getting faster.

Good course. Thanks to Kisha and Ruby and all the volunteers. See you all at Cranksgiving."

Thanks to Brean for the race report!