The race went off this morning, and 27 brave souls showed up to test their navigational skills against the course. As folks were pouring over maps during registration, I wandered around asking about potential courses through the checkpoints. Some folks were going to brave the hills and unmarked streets between the North Side and Shaler, which made me quite happy as that was my intention in laying out the course, but others had decided to simply do and out-and-back along Mt. Royal. It seemed that there was going to be a variety of paths taken, which would make for an interesting outcome, and good stories for after the race.

This was probably the most diverse crowd I’ve seen at an alleycat, with a handful of roadies, kitted out in full lycra, a messenger or two, and a random bunch of cyclists. The split between fixed and geared bikes was nearly even, and there were even three women in attendence. At 10:30 AM I sent the racers on their way, and I expected that the roadies would be back in roughly an hour and half, with a steady trickle of other folks following.

And I was right. The five of them came in almost extactly 90 minutes later, all very happy with the course. Since they were going to take the five prizes for the geared division, they said they’d be glad to split the spoils up among themselves, which made my job of distributing prizes much easier. A few minutes later, Dave showed up on his fixie, missing the North Side checkpoint info. I told him he was first fixed in, and he took off again, trying to get to the stop and still land in prizes. Whatever happened, he was flying, and his finishing time was quite impressive.

Soon after that, there was a steady flow of racers returning, all with completed manifests, and all with smiles on their faces. Everyone had a good time, even those that either: A) got lost or B) missing the Vinial Street checkpoint the first time (apparently my directions were unclear, and for that I am sorry). It took roughly an hour for everyone to roll in, but no one abandoned, which made me happy. The fixed gear riders held their own on such a long hilly course, with several filling out the top ten overall.

The prize places were:

Geared
1. Jared Babik
2. Jake Lifson
3. Mike Stubna
4. Ed Krall
5. Charlie Chulak

Fixed
1. Dan Goldberg
2. Dave Krach
3. Dan Wilson
4. Dave Gingrich
5. Joshua Seibert

Women
1. Amy Garbank
2. Thanita Adams
3. Lauren Sloan

Thanks to Surly, Timbuk2, and Crumpler for the prizes. I had so much stuff, I was able to raffle off two Crumpler bags for folks that didn’t finish in the top 5, and, overall, 15 of the 27 people walked with something for their efforts. And, better still, the prizes will allow to donate roughly $115 to Bike Pittsburgh. Everyone wins!

Photos from the start are here.

Posted on 1 July 2006