| Hrs. Sleeping: | 6 |
| Pulse (waking): | |
| Pulse (rising): | |
| Difference: | |
| Weight: | |
| Body Fat: | |
| Time of Day: | 9:00 am |
| Distance: | UAR - 19 miles
total - 31 miles |
| Time (total): | UAR - 2:30 |
| Time (moving): | UAR - 1:29 |
| Time (stopped): | |
| Speed (moving): | UAR - 13 mph |
| Speed (overall): | UAR - 6 mph |
| Total Ascent: | UAR - 891 ft |
| Weather: | Damn nice is what it was! 60 to start and 75 by the finish. Sunny and calm. Oh yeah, and dry! :) |
| Workout Type: | ride |
| Breakfast: | 7:00 am - yogurt, granola |
| Lunch: | 11:30 am - 2 pieces pizza, 2 beers
2:00 pm - toasted bagel, Boca burger, cheese, ketchup |
| Dinner: | |
| Workout Food: | water |
| Course: | Urban Assault Ride |
| Results: | DNF |
| Comments: | Now this was a wacky event... "It's a Pedal-Powered Urban Adventure!"
The concept is that you ride from checkpoint to checkpoint and along the way they give you a clue to two mystery checkpoints. At each checkpoint you need to perform some 'task' and when you both complete it - did I mention that this is only for two-person teams? - they give you a colored bead and you get to move on. They key is planning out an efficient route that will take you to all the checkpoints with a minimum of wasted effort.
The web site says that mental muscle is just as important as bike skills and they aren't kidding. The clue to the mystery checkpoint was totally vague and unless you just know the place they were talking about your ride was done. Not to mention that in order to get this clue in the first place you had to figure out where this first mystery stop was.
We got to the first mystery checkpoint but the clue to the second was TOUGH (read: we never figured it out). :( But what a blast! We ended up with six out of seven beads and a killer time. If only we could have figured out that damn clue... On the bike we were way faster than any other team.
We started in Fremont at the outdoor cinema. From there we be-lined it to REI and proceeded to waste a monumental amount of time running around all the trails looking for letters that were supposed to allow us to complete a word puzzle. Finally, after what seemed like an hour (it actually was about 30 MINUTES!) and after figuring out that it was something to do with New Belgium brewing Shelley guessed that the words were, "Skinny Dip" as in one of their beers. Good Christ, I figured we were so behind because it seemed like we had seen about 10 teams leave the first checkpoint already...
Number two (for us anyway) was 2020 Cycle and the first 'mystery' checkpoint. They gave you the clue for this one two days prior to the start. There were quite a few people here and all we had to do was get our bead and figure out the clue for the other mystery stop. Impossible. I even called a friend and Shelley called her sister and with all the web searching power we only got some coffee shop, maybe one out in Ballard...? Thinking this was a possibility we took off as our last planned stop was in Ballard anyway. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut.
ASIDE - did I mention that I have never seen so many people riding their bike and talking on the phone? It seems this is the preferred strategy - ride your bike and call your friend to Google shit for you.
From here we bombed down Capitol Hill and blew into Recycled Cycles for some BMX jousting! Shelley stood on the rear pegs with a plastic 'lance' and had to scoop up four Aerobe Pro disks set on traffic cones. We got two on the first pass and the other two on the way back. Nice.
Next we pounded up Brooklyn to Gregg's where we had to both complete a keg walk down to a cone and back. I think I fell about three times on the return trip. At least it was on soft grass.
It was here that we had time to talk to another team and were told that the coffee shop we should have gone to was on Broadway and Roy. Crap. Going all the way back up Capitol Hill was theoretically possible before the time cut-off but not fun sounding so we opted to just ride it out and go for the official DNF.
Next we rode down Stoneway and hit Gas Works Park for what was for us probably the hardest stunt. One of us (me) had to hold on to a BMX wheel with pegs while Shelley grabbed my legs and pushed me wheelbarrow style. We were supposed to slalom around some cones and then race to another cone and back. Ha! My arms gave out so many times and Shelley dropped me a few times... we were pathetic. These two guys that did the entire ride on BMX bikes showed up and absolutely aced the course in about 15 seconds. I think it must have taken us like five minutes. One of the times I bailed out of Shelley's hands I also managed to scrape up the inside of her forearm.
Now we were off to what was supposed to have been our last stop - a bike shop in Ballard. Since we were out of the running we kinda ambled on down. Here I rode a tiny bike with ape hanger bars and basket full of rolled up newspapers around a circular course and each time I would pass one spot I'd toss a paper to Shelley and she had to try and catch them in a cardboard box. Once she caught three we were good. It took us six laps.
Then back to the finish and wouldn't you know it, we were the second mixed team to show up! Oh man, we could have won this thing! But, I guess the mental part is important and we did not succeed there. Then again, tons of teams were guessing right and swapping info with other teams so hey, you just need to play the game and get lucky. And know Seattle like the back of your hand. Did I mention that on the way back from Ballard I got stung on the chest by some insect? That's right, the UAR is dangerous! Good thing I did not lose control of the tandem. :|
At the finish we both had to ride two laps of a race course on Big Wheels. That was a BLAST. You could slide them around the corners and I even managed to pass one guy. :)
It's nuts that a 20 mile ride would take you two plus hours to complete! If we had figured out the REI clue faster and had not missed the second mystery checkpoint it would have been some sort of record time I'm sure. On the bike we were killing it. We passed people going up hills, left them way behind on the flats and absolutely left them for dead on the descents. Tandems rule.
At the finish each competitor got THREE (New Belgium) beers for free and two slices of (Domino's) pizza; also for free. Thumbs up for the beer anyway...
ASIDE - try as I might, I could only drink two. It was hot, I was kinda beat and we still had to ride home!
There was also loads of New Belgium swag and as usual, they were raffling away a New Belgium cruiser bike.
What a gas. We are so going back to this next year. |
| Equipment: | Co-Motion Robusta with Shelley |
Here are all the pictures with video.