Our City of ReMO team kicked ass. When Don and I talked about Movember at the end of last year, we had a few things in mind:
Better planning and organization: Plan things in advance, spread the word, and try to make things run smoothly.
Bigger focus on the actual goal of Movember, and put the fun and good-looks on the second plane.
Raise a lot of money.
Reach out to more people in Reno.
Get local businesses involved.
It’s a big source of pride and accomplishment to be able to say that we can check all of those.
At the end of September, we laid out a list of things that we’d like to do, and we set our minds to make them happen. Before Movember officially started, we had a pretty well outlined calendar of what was going to happen, when and where. This helped us spread the word. This was a much better approach than planning things on the go, since most people make plans far in advance… So this year, we gave them notice, and the plans they made were to attend our events. Fantastic!
Talking about Men’s Health issues was easier than imagined, and it came naturally. When people asked us about Movember, it was the first thing we talked about. (The second thing was about how sexy we looked). I think this was in part because of our “experience” in the subject, and the conscious decision to focus on getting the word out.
Certainly, humor had its part and no talk about the actual reason behind Movember went without crude mentions of balls and assholes.
Our goal for this year was to raise $5000. At first, that seemed like a huge number, considering that last year we’d raised right about $1600. We figured that it was a good goal, a nice round number, and something that would definitely identify us as a “serious” group committed to the cause.
To our surprise and joy, the $5k mark was met before half of the month even passed, and this was before most of us even had decent moustaches to be asking for donations!
The first thought was to call it good and declare “Mission Accomplished!”, but we were just starting to gather steam and MOmentum, so we decided to step it up, and declare a new goal: $10,000. Ballsy move, one could say, but this was after all very much about the balls.
On the day 30, the $10k mark was met with much rejoice. The final number is yet to be computed, because of cash and check donations, but the accomplishment is there, and it’s a wonderful feeling to know that we made it. If $5000 was a lot of money, we raised two lots of money.
Last year, we felt that our efforts in reaching out were successful when Anthony joined our team. We didn’t know him, and he joined because he thought it was a good cause. Our “campaign” had transcended the circle of people that we knew, and I took that to be a very good thing.
This year, that effect snow balled. The members of our team kept growing and growing. I received an email when someone joined the team, and I remember being excited when it showed that we had 25 members in our team. Quickly after that, our total was up to 40 people. And fifty… and a hundred.
Who were these people? Some of the names sounded familiar, but there were many Anthonies. We even got David Bobzien to join. Way cool!
Eclipse Pizza joined us last year in our official team, and we knew we could count on them again for this year. But what we didn’t know was how well other businesses were going to receive the idea of teaming up, and the response was a very positive experience. KRZQ (100.9 FM) gave us a lot of airtime with ads, and even put us on a show in the middle of the day! One of the owners of The Sierra Tap House, Zach, became very involved and helped us put together some very successful events. Shannon from SOAK Lounge invited us to her business which caters mainly to women, and organized a very creative and fun occasion. The Biggest Little City Club hosted us on a couple of different nights, and made us feel really good. We went to Butcher Boy for lunch, got Rockstar haircuts and had tons of fun bowling with a lot of the ReMO team at Starlite Lanes. The local restaurant Amendment 21 organized the Reno Beer Crawl with proceeds benefiting our cause, and promised to be a big helper next year.
Long story short: local businesses rocked our world. I’ll be making a longer write up about it all on the City of Remo website soon, so I’ll spare the details for that post.
On a personal note, none of this could have happened without Kelly’s support. Despite almost crying after seeing my clean shaven face after many months of sporting a goatee, she encouraged my efforts to make our team a successful one. As if putting up with a prickly upper lip wasn’t enough, she had to tolerate my distracted attention and need to be involved in a lot of things.
That is the job of a “Mo-Sista”, and she did it well without much reward. Rest assured, I’ll be making sure she knows how much I appreciate her.
Even more personal, and somewhat geeky: I was more or less “the” photographer of the things we did. I won’t be asking for money to take pictures anytime soon, but I’m pretty happy with the moments I captured in still images. Most of the pictures ended up on Facebook, if you’d like to see for yourself.
For the Stache-Bash (aka end of Movember party), I got to play with some fancy photo gear I borrowed from Mo-Bro Kyle Walker. The pictures from this event look specially good thanks to the lighting equipment and the improvised photo booth that I put together. It kind of made me want to have a flash and fancy umbrella to be able to do it more.
At any rate, I took pictures of my moustache growth on a semi-frequent basis, so if you’re ready to see how it all went, check it out right here:
Finally, I’d like to say thank you on a personal level to those who donated to Movember and “sponsored” my moustache. Thank you Kelly, Joan, Elinor, Kathy, Zach, Willie and Roger. My prostate and testicles appreciate it!
Today, Don and I went to one of our local radio stations in Reno (which also happens to be one of my favorites), KRZQ FM. They invited us over so that we could talk a little bit more about MOvember, and it ended up being more than just a little.
Don and I were there for more than just a little bit. We were on air for almost 24 minutes!
At first it was awkward knowing that my voice was being broadcast over the air, but after a bit I got over it, and it was just plain fun.
Did you miss it? Are you sad about it? Don’t be anymore, because you can listen to it below.
For the 3rd year in a row (see 2007 and 2008), I’m going to do this:
On the 1st of November MOvember, I will shave all facial hair.
During the rest of the month, I will only allow hair to grow above the lip. Well, maybe just a tiny bit under the lip, but not on the chin.
I will be asking for donations to “sponsor” my ridiculous appearance.
Make a difference, and raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer.
Just like previous years, this is all happening in the Biggest Little City, the City of ReMO. My friend Don and I have been talking about this year’s Movember for a long time, and it looks like our efforts are paying off.
As of this writing, it’s not even MOvember 1st yet, but we have 56 members, and over $500 raised to benefit the Movember Foundation’s partners: The Prostate Cancer Foundation, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (aka LIVESTRONG).
Our goal before this whole year started was to put Reno in the map by raising over $5000, but at this rate our hopes are shooting at double that figure.
Why am I doing this? It’s not about being irresistibly sexy anymore. I’m getting older, and 1 out of 6 men suffer from prostate cancer. This scares me, and I want to do something about it. Sure, I can eat right, exercise, and keep rodents away from my behind… but that would only go as far as making sure I’m one of the 5 guys out of the 6 that doesn’t get the cancers.
In other words, I do this so that the chances of a guy suffering from cancer hopefully diminish, and soon.
There’s certainly a fun factor to all of this, and that’s why we’ve planned lots of events with the City of ReMO that will keep people entertained. They are also secretly designed to have non-participants wonder why a group of 20+ men with moustaches are hanging out, with the ultimate goal of getting them involved by either raising awareness or funds -or even better, both.
A noble goal, with many pleasant side effects… all for the price of a shave, and looking like an ’80s porn star for a month.
Do you want to help? Awesome! Here’s what you can do:
Join MOvember. If you’re a guy, grow a Moustache. If you’re a lady, you can register anyway, and raise funds in honor of your favorite man.
In Reno, the option is obvious. Register with the City of Remo: http://us.movember.com/register/799.
Make a donation (which is totally tax deductible, by the way). A dollar, ten, or a hundred, it all makes a difference, and gets us that much closer to a cure or a better treatment. You can donate with a credit card or paypal: http://us.movember.com/mospace/1753
If you’re interested, stay tuned to the City of ReMo’s feeds on Twitter and Facebook. I will post my daily shots on Flickr, and at the end of the month, I’ll share a sideshow for your enjoyment.
I’ve been thinking about MOvember 2009 a lot lately.
The other day, I had an idea that some might consider grand.
On October 4th is the Run for the Cure, a 5k running race. I’ve done this a couple of times, because my work sets up a booth and tells people about what a great job we do with mammograms (which we do, by the way).
I’ve shown up, ran the thing and then hung out at the booth for a bit.
Now, here’s my idea for this year:
Citizens of MOvember sign up under a City of ReMO team.
We don’t have to run, just participate. Lots of people walk the whole event, and chat with people. Say hello to getting people to sponsor your Mo! (We should have things to hand out, flyers or cards)
We wear a tshirt with our awesome logo.
We rock out with a lovely hair ribbon, aka Moustache.
I mean, we have time to get ready for this event! First of all, there’s enough time to train to at least be able to jog the whole thing (check out the couch to 5k program!). More importantly, it’s plenty of time to develop some respectable whiskers. Hair growth can happen in any shape, and doesn’t have to be a Mo. It would only become a Mo on race day.
For example, I’d keep my goatee until the day of the event. Easy to do, no body laughs at me. On the morning of October 4th, before putting my socks and shoes on, I shave to leave the Mo.
With my fancy tshirt, I show up to the event with a nice brown ribbon on my lip, where I meet my Mo-bros and we accomplish many goals:
We support women in their fight against breast cancer. Because we care.
We spread the word about our own cause, because we want people to care about us.
We get some exercise, fresh air and -hopefully- compliments about our lovely moustaches.
My new year’s resolution has been fulfilled! I wanted to do a triathlon, and I now have done so!
It happened on Saturday, August 1st 2009. The event was put on by the Reno Area Triathletes group, and it was a great experience for my first triathlon ever.
The race started at 8:30am, and the first stage was a half mile swim on Pyramid lake. The water was not cold at all, and it took me 18:30 minutes to finish it. I took it easy on this part, since I hadn’t really trained for swimming, and there were people that were going to swim all over me if I dared to pass someone. I attempted to freestyle, but the adrenaline and the inability to see exactly where I was going made it feel futile. I swam most of the time in a very peaceful breast stroke. By the end of the swim, my arms were quite tired.
Right after that, I had to get on my bicycle to ride for 14 miles. The course was on the road that goes around the lake, with a few rolling hills but nothing impossible. I managed to finish in 50:28 minutes, with an average speed of 16.6mph.
Quite a few people passed me on this stage, particularly on the uphill sections. I made myself not think about that, and I set my sights on a guy who was in front of me. My goal was to pass him by the half-way point, and to never see him again. And I did that.
It was hard for me to put a lot of weight on my hands because my triceps were burning. But I HTFU‘d and kept on trucking. The second half of the ride I apparently found my spot, because I only passed a handful of people, and I only got passed by two.
The last part of the Tri was the run, so I rode my bike into the transition area, changed into my running shoes and headed out to the trail.
My legs felt like potato bags. I listened to my body and jogged. I didn’t run, but I certainly didn’t walk (because of HTFU, you know).
Slowly, my legs came back to me, and less than a mile in, I was feeling like I could run again. And run I did! I picked up the pace, and before I knew it I was catching up to people -and passing them.
The circuit was a little dirt trail that looped around. It was around 10am and the sun was already making things very hot. I was thirsty, I was sweaty and I was tired. But there was only a little bit more to go.
At the very end, just yards before the finish line, a lady was sprinting up to pass me. I wouldn’t have it, and I literally finished the race running as fast as I could, on a full-on sprint. The lady didn’t catch me, but neither did my breath, and I finished with a major side ache.
Oh well, that didn’t matter. I was done! After wiping some sweat of my brow, I looked up and found my time. I had beat my goal of finishing under 2 hours, and the pain was immediately replaced by feelings of accomplishment and self-pride.
The run course was 3 miles long, and I finished in 28:52 minutes. Not bad for having swam and ridden my bike earlier.
My official total time was 1:41:57.2. I finished 142nd (all the results are here), and I felt damn good doing it.
Some things to note for the next one:
I really should train in swimming. It had probably been years since I’d swam for more than 15 minutes without stopping.
I should invest in a wetsuit. The extra buoyancy would make the swim easier, and it’d keep me warm if I were to participate in Tris in places like Donner or Tahoe.
My bike sucks. I recently discovered that it’s not a “custom bike” as I was sold, but it’s instead a GMCDenali. My bike limited me, and it’s time for me to upgrade to a real road bike.
Notice that I said “the next one”. I decided I’d be doing this again right after finishing this Triathlon. I loved the feeling, the challenge and the adventure. And now, I have a time to beat!
I’d never been to a big concert before, but a couple weeks ago, my cherry was popped in double, by Snoop Dogg and Incubus. Here’s a tale of how it all went:
Snoop Dogg played at the Grand Sierra in Reno, on July 9th 2009. Kelly, her brother Kyle and I went, and since we got in early we planted ourselves only feet away from the stage, hoping to be able to see a super-famous rapper from up-close.
The opening act was Stephen Marley (son of Bob). He put on a good show, with lots of people on stage, a little kid waving a Jamaican flag the whole time, and playing for almost an hour. By the way, he does sound a lot like his late father.
Since I didn’t know how things worked out, I expected Snoop Dogg to just come out as soon as the Marley troupe was gone from the stage, but I was told that they had to set up, and that it usually takes a good 30 minutes or so for the main act to come onstage.
Thirty minutes went by… four times. That’s right. A whole two hours later, Snoop Dogg showed up to do his thang. In the meantime, a lot of pushing and shoving went on in the crowd, and some drunk skanks got kicked out of the venue for getting in fights.
Regardless, as soon as Snoop showed up (he apparently was delayed because they were driving from California and got stuck in traffic), the crowd went wild.
Since he started so late, his setlist was cut in half and he ended up playing for less than an hour. He left the stage, and the crowd cheered for an encore. Staff started taking instruments down, and the cheering quickly turned into booing. It got so bad that they just closed the curtains to the stage.
I’m guessing this came from the GSR cutting it short, and it was pretty disappointing to have stood shoulder to shoulder with several hundreds of people for 5 hours, to only see a couple of hours of spectacle.
On Sunday, July 11th, my mediocre experience was absolutely redeemed. We flew down to Las Vegas for the weekend. Besides doing the Vegas thing -walk around with a huge adult beverage in hand- we had one major reason for being there. Incubus was touring, and this was the closest they’d get to us, so we were going to see them!
On our way to the venue, the Hard Rock Hotel of Las Vegas, we walked past a door where Ben Kenney (bass player of Incubus) was hanging out, smoking a cigarette with a security guard. We came up to say hi, and we was very friendly, and Kelly even got a picture with him.
The venue (aka the Joint) at the Hard Rock was far superior than the GSR’s ballroom. It was clean. The staff were friendly, and I didn’t have to smuggle my camera in my underwear, because they allowed them.
Incubus put on a great show, and I enjoyed it much more than Snoop Dogg’s antics. The sound was fabulous, they had a very cool light show that went with the music and there was an LED screen in the background that played clips to go with it all. Fantastic:
Now, I was able to say I’d been to a concert. A real one, with a band that shows up when they should, provide great entertainment, at a venue that knows how to accommodate concertgoers.
However, my favorite part of it all wasn’t the awesome show. It was having Kelly next to me singing her heart out. I felt so lucky to be able to share with her, as her favorite band rocked her socks off.
This all makes me very excited about Outside Lands, which Kelly and I are planning on going to this year. More concerts!
Last week was the 2009 edition of the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey. This is that crazy 178-mile running race that I did lastyear, and I enjoyed so much that I signed myself up for to do again – and probably will do again next year. The RGJ has a decent article on it, which even includes a small interview with my team’s captain, Joe Dito.
This year, I was runner number 5 (out of 12). The course is divided in 36 legs, so each runner gets to run 3 legs of about 5 miles, on average. My leg assignments added up to 13.4 miles, and here’s the breakdown of how it all went.
Leg 5: 5.8 miles – Moderate rating.
The weather was great. Overcast skies, and the wind that an hour earlier was making me concerned was now a gentle breeze. I don’t think I’d ever ran such a long distance (even in my training!), but I was ready for it. My goals were to finish it in less than an hour, to never stop to walk and to avoid getting passed by someone running behind me.
I accomplished all of my goals, and ran this bad boy in 48 minutes, putting me at a pace of a mile in 8 minutes and 16 seconds.
Since this was such a long haul, and there were a few hills to climb, I brought along some Luna Moons for a little energy boost. They’re designed marketed for women, but I got them in my goodie bag for the race, and I was sure I’d put them to good use… and I did. I’m not sure how much they helped in my actual performance, but they certainly took my mind off of the task at hand when I had to go up a steep grade. The flavor was good, but the best part was that they’re so chewy that they got stuck to my teeth and gums, and I was too busy trying to clean up the mess inside my mouth with my tongue to wallow in the effort I was putting in.
For the last couple of miles, I had a horrible side ache (aka Side Stitch). I wanted to walk it off, but I also wanted to perform well, so I exercised a little bit of focus, controlled my breath a bit more, and kept on pushing.
Soon enough, my leg was over, and I was finally able to catch my breath and rest up. I was dead tired, but as soon as I found out that I beat my goal by 12 minutes, a feeling of accomplishment overwhelmed me, and I wasn’t in pain anymore. Or at least, I didn’t feel it.
Leg 17: 4.2 miles – Easy rating.
I thought this was going to be my strongest leg, but I feel like it was my weakest of the three. It was a pretty flat course, without much traffic. My goals were the same as before, and I was shooting for 25 minutes.
I finished in 30 minutes, but I didn’t get passed, didn’t walk, and I also didn’t get eaten by a bear… which was a concern while running through the woods by South Lake Tahoe, at midnight.
Maybe I was going fast (after all, I was doing a 7:08 – mile pace), but I felt like I was just cruising along. I blame the beautiful starry night and the silence, the feeling of being so small when you’re running in the darkness with a tiny headlamp lighting up only 20 feet in front of you, the lack of sleep and the fatigue from the earlier undertaking.
The temperature was around 50 degrees, but I once again finished my leg nice and sweaty. No side ache this time, which added to my feeling that I didn’t push it hard enough to make my goal. Oh well.
Leg 29: 3.4 miles – More Challenging rating.
Saturday. We woke up at 4AM, south of Carson City. Our Odyssey was almost over, but we still had quite a few miles to go.
I was nauseous, sleepy and starting to feel tightness in my muscles. One by one, the runners in my van did their legs, and my turn was coming up.
My leg was going to be the toughest one yet, going up from Highway US 50, into Silver City. A whole lot of uphill. And even though it wasn’t even 7am when I started running, my shirt came off less than a mile into it, thanks to the sun and the toughness of the road in front of me.
I was tired. I was going very slowly, yet I never walked. I just kept on going, hoping to finally pass someone. I hadn’t been passed by anyone, but I hadn’t gotten any “roadkill”, and some of my teammates had gotten to pass more than a handful of people.
Halfway there, a lady in her late 30s (I guessed at the time) ran right past me. Holy smokes, she had energy, and she was going at least 2 mph faster than me. I try to go a bit faster, and I see her passing someone else, not too far ahead from me. I think to myself that I might not catch the lady that passed me, but I made it my goal to catch up, and pass, the other person that she’d just passed as well. At least to break even with the roadkills: get passed once, pass someone once.
On the steepest part of my leg, I caught up to this other person. It was another lady, with a tattoo of a maple leaf on the right calf. I was right behind her for a good 5 minutes, slowly but surly closing in, and feeling like if I kept up the effort, I’d pass her.
Sure enough, I passed her. Damn, I felt good. But I also noticed how tired I was right after I passed her. I wanted to give her a high five, say “good game” and walk the rest of my leg. But to hell with that, I kept on pushing, making sure she wouldn’t catch me. If I maintained my gain, I would finish the race proud of my performance, and that was my motivation to not give up.
Less than half a mile to go, my teammates are cheering me on. They’re telling me I’m almost there.
Eric hands me some water and tells me that if I really push it, I’m going to pass a guy right before finishing. And then, he starts running next to me, even though he’s dead tired and he’s all done with his assigned legs.
I turn up the effort to “balls deep” and I see the guy. Eric tells me that right after a curve about 100 yards away, I’m done. I think I can give it my all, but I’m really hoping that he’s not lying so that I turn up the heat, because I’m really running out of juice.
Turns out, he wasn’t lying. I’m doing my best impression of a sprint after going 3 miles uphill, and I pass the guy. In less than a hundred strides, I’m also done. Once again, covered in sweat. But also, with a huge smile on my face, feeling like I truly did give it my best shot.
I ask what my time was, and they tell me that I finished my leg in 32 minutes. Slow, but I didn’t care, because I really didn’t feel like I could have gone any faster. I also don’t care because I’m done, the race is over for me. And I finished with a positive roadkill ratio, 2 to 1!
However, it wasn’t just about me. A big part of the fun of this race is the teamwork, the encouraging of your teammates as they run for miles and miles. I was very lucky to have an awesome crew, which definitely enhances the experience.
I’m not a hardcore runner, I do this kind of stuff for fun. I can’t imagine being in a team where everyone is dead serious the whole time, and I’m very thankful that that wasn’t the case.
Josh, Eric, Karin, Bryan and Amy: Thank you for making the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey about a lot more than just running. You are all wonderful people on top of being speedy runners.
Nevertheless, this was a race. Sure, we had fun. In fact, we had a lot of fun. But we also kicked ass. Our team, Venetian Skunk, ended up placing 7th overall, and there were 110 teams signed up. Oh yeah, we kicked a lot of ass.
Now, I leave you with a picture of me at the finish line, after having taken a shower and a quick 20 minute nap. If you click on it, you can get to the album with the rest of the pictures that I took.
Today is the official Bike to Work day in 2009. I hope you rode your bike if your commute is less than 10 miles one way!
As for me, I started the day early. I took off at around 6.45am, and headed to one of the participating coffee shops, the PurpleBean. I showed my helmet, and they hooked me up with free coffee! Yeah!
The barista was very friendly and attentive, and asked me what I wanted. I told her I had no clue, since I never drink coffee… so I asked her to make me something sweet, and she served me a Mocha. It was delicious! I sat outside while I drank my coffee -it’s kind of hard to sip on a very hot beverage and ride in traffic- and watched the day roll by. A lot of people in their car checked me out as they got their coffee at the drive-thru, but at least there were banners everywhere that explained why there was a silly guy sipping on coffee next to his bike. I nodded at those that established eye contact as I chilled out.
After finishing my coffee and leaving a small tip, I moved on to the Reno Bike Project.
Just like last year, they were doing free breakfast, which included pancakes, bacon, hash browns, fruit and coffee. However, this year was better than last. It was at their new location, which is a lot more visible, welcoming and easy to find. There was also a DJ, who was playing some very cool chill-out music.
The RBP staff did a great job at keeping the food available, and there wasn’t even a line to get food! They opened their garage door and set up a small kitchen facing 4th street. It was perfect, and it showed that they thought it out very well. The RBP continues to be a kick-ass place, and I’m really glad that they’re only a couple of blocks away from work. I hung out at the Pancake Feed for about 30 minutes, and chatted it up with a few strangers. JP Zunini (whom I met when I was an exchange student) from KRNV was there and interviewed me, so I might be on the news.
A great way to start a Friday, and now I have a lot of positive energy from having had such a good start to the day. If you’d like to see how my ride went, you can check out my bike route here.
Last night, someone broke a window in my car and stole a bunch of stuff. The stuff is just stuff, but the two biggest pains that this has caused are:
Kelly’s purse from Fiji is gone, and it’s irreplaceable.
Our trip to Southern California is delayed, because there are no places that do car window repairs on Sundays – specially Easter Sunday!
So anyway. Reports have been filed with the Reno Police Department, and now we’re hoping they catch the guy when he tries to sell either my camera or my iPod. If anyone sees the following, please be weary and contact me ASAP:
80 Gb video iPod, color black. Serial number 8K730DA0V9R.
Alpine IDA-X200 car stereo. Serial number D80332449. Which I doubt will be re-sold, since they broke it and left half the circuitry in the car’s dash.
Canon Rebel XT camera. With a Tamron 18-200mm lens, a 50mm Canon, a Speedlite 430 EX, in a nice Canon backpack, with a bunch of other small accessories (8Gbs worth of flash cards, remote, filters, manuals, a no-brand flash and wireless flash triggers). The serial number is either 2420701145 or 1874266151. I’m not sure which one, since Lightroom and Aperture are giving me different numbers in the EXIF data.
We’re still going to Southern California, so if any of these items pop up while we’re gone, I’m hoping someone can buy them, and get a picture of the guy selling them, and a phone number or email address.
Hopefully that’d lead to finding the rest of the stuff, and more importantly, getting a criminal out of the streets.
If nothing happens, oh well. Kelly and I will still have an awesome trip, and we’ll eventually recover all the stuff that was stolen. Including a purse from Fiji, which we’ll just have to go shopping for… in Fiji.
Last weekend was ScalleyCat. A bike “race” that’s more like a scavenger hunt of random things in Reno.
It works like this. First, you find a partner who likes to ride bikes as much as you do. Lucky me, that one is Kelly!
Second, you show up to the event. It started at noon on Saturday. Your team gets a “bible”, a booklet with all the objectives of things you have to find. They range from innocuous acts like getting a picture by a landmark -such as a statue- or riding long distances around town… and then there are things that border the lines of law or ethics, such as nudity or trespassing.
Since you have to prove that you did fulfill the task, and there are too many to have witnesses, you have to take a picture of you in the act of everything.
Finally, you have 24 hours to get as many things as you can from that list. Some are worth a lot of points, some are worth just a few. You and your teammate can do as many as you want, and in whichever order you prefer to. It’s strategy!
However, there’s more! Before the main event, there were smaller ones, which built up momentum and excitement.
On Wednesday, the opening night, I took part of the Time Trials competition. We started at the LincolnLounge, and raced all the way to ChapelTavern, and back!
A short course, and at 8pm there wasn’t a lot of traffic… I was lucky and got mostly green lights the whole way, and I was able to complete the 3+ mile course in about 12 minutes. But that was too slow, because the top 3 teams (which included a couple of the awesome Bootleg Couriers) finished in about 9 minutes.
Thursday had an event taking place at the Hideout. The band “White Mice” was playing… and if you clicked on that link, you’ll know that they’re not exactly my cup of tea. That, and the room being the size of my office, combined for my ears imploding and making us not last very long at this shindig.
I will also take the opportunity to mention that although this is a dive bar that allows smoking, the smoke was not offensive. The body odor of the party goers was. I had to wash my nostrils with drano.
Anyway. Friday had us back at the Lincoln Lounge, where all we did was chill out and drink. There was a bluegrass band playing, which was a much better background music, but I was too busy having a good time with Kelly, Cory and Mikey.
Saturday came. We got our Bible. We got on our bikes… and we went! We tried to stick to our plan, which was do as much as possible without getting sent to jail. And we did! We had great time, and ended up gathering a bit above 75000 points, after riding somewhere around 45 miles in total, after 24 hours.
The pictures that we took show exactly which challenges we did, so to get to see what Team Skanksquatch went through, you should click here. Beware, some of the pictures include me with few clothes, or no clothes at all!
All in all, it was a great weekend. That’s what happens when you combine hanging out with your dream girl, riding bicycles, drinking Joose and doin’ hoodrat stuff. I’d definitely do it again. But hopefully I’ll have a nicer bike by then, and we’ll be able to go further, longer and crazier!
Oh, you can also see other team’s pictures over here. This is cool, because not everyone did the same challenges, and there are pictures of random people sleeping with bums, getting tattoos, doing karaoke at the Cal-Neva and making out with total strangers.
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