Metricoclock

So tonight i ran my first alley cat, safe to say I was the last one to actually finish, i'm not the strongest, most hardcore or experienced rider but i finished it.

aprox 20 miles, ever check point we had to do something for a treat (candy) which was our token from each check point, unfortunently I got the worlds worse placing due to a light at the beginning which resulted in 5-10 minute waits at the first 3 check points I went to, but dammit i rode my ass off and had a lot of fun, it took a good 8+ drinks and a meal afterwards to bring my body from the "pain and I hate you state" to happiness but F it i had fun


what was your first alley cat like?



and by the way, it was the ann arbor "Night of the Living Tread" , it was a blast, afterwards I went and got drinks with a few fellows and it was great!

awormiscoming

physically degrading.

Metricoclock

amazing isnt it?

awormiscoming

A beautiful thing.

Igneous Faction

My first I rode on a 12-speed Univega and finished DFL.

akaio

I rode my first one and came in a disqualified 3rd (I read the wrong page in a book, oh well). It was kind of a weird one because it was open to everyone and advertised in our free weekly left wing paper. So I technically ran the whole course, just messed up a task. One of the most fun things ive ever done. The only two to beat me were the two very lean/strong messenger types that ran it, and they obviously deserved to beat me.

The second one I ran which was more of a normal alleycat I believe and I finished 13th, which was half way down the pack. But I also did not know that area for **** and didnt have a map (and I learned to always bring one from now on). So that hurt my time, but it was fun and then we had some beer and prizes afterwards.

Tangsooyuk

My first was almost exactly a year ago. The first check point was more than 10 miles from the start into a 30mph CONSTANT headwind with 45+mph gusts. The only thing that kept me from quitting was the thought of losing to this woman that was riding an old 50lb bike with a basket while wearing some UGGs. I went from almost last to catching up with the lead pack, which surprised the hell out of me. I later got cramps in my quads and calves though, legs locked up, I fell off my bike in the street, laughed hysterically, and told my partner to keep going.

Entire race was more than 30 miles, we all got chased out of cemeteries, almost run down by a dude in a pickup, and got extra points for hauling pumpkins to the finish.

andre nickatina

first one took like 3 hours and was a points race, not a placing one. definitely a big adventure.

dijos

I am getting faster; my first was 4 months ago? and I was DFL, but I finished all the checkpoints (a pattern that hasn't really changed).

ryand

A Vegas themed going away alleycat for a courier (Dan G.) that moved from DC to NYC. It was based on points and I had all of the possible points, winning the race by 1 point.

I won a ton of booze, but I don't drink. So I handed out all the beers.
(registration was $1 and 1 beer, I won all of the beers except like 5 or something)

queerpunk

my first alleycat was MSNGR's "alleykitten" on new years eve 2005. it was dark, it was snowing, it was raining, it was cold, my bag was heavy. i hadn't done much riding in manhattan. i was in a pack tearing down the west side highway, through battery park, trying to find the ferry terminal, and we definitely went down a bunch of stairs. then, i got pretty lost trying to make it through the cluster**** of city buildings just north of the ferry terminal - even now i don't think i know a fast way north from there. i finally got up to either first or third ave, tore uptown, and finished at the bar, placing a respectable 13th.

Specs531

My first alleycat was a blast. It was in Cincinnati, so the hills killed me! I think I finished somewhere around 45 out of about 60. Pretty terrible. Afterward...I drank a lot of good ole' fashioned PBR and scarfed some Skyline Chili. It felt amazing...and I was addicted after that point (not to the alcohol...the racing). So far I have done somewhere between 7-8 races (I would have to count the spoke cards to be exact) and made me a fixed gear. My second - I finished DFL at Columbus' Jumpinships and got some really sweet prizes...and got my first 'first female' at Chicago's Cuttin' Crew (after being hit by a car...we all go through that at some point). In the mean time I have also managed to almost run into the back of a car and somehow ram into a concrete poll, but I keep racing! It is such a wonderful high...

orbThorn

Theres an alleycat tonight at Purdue. Too bad your car didn't break down in west lafayette again.


My first race was in dayton, where I think I placed 20th or something. I was fine afterwards since downtown is totally flat.

curiousincident

I was supposed to ride 'the night of the living tread' but nobody could go from here because it was a tuesday. Oh well, we still have one coming up here on sunday.

Anyways, my first was the 7/7/07 race in Ann Arbor, and being from out of town I got majorly lost coming back into town from the Old Country Buffet, the gluttony checkpoint, where you had to eat 10 saltines without water. All the other checkpoints had something to do with the other 6 of the 7 deadly sins. Anyway I finished towards the end of the pack but it was still an awesome time. Jimmy does a good job with his races.

colnago57

I raced my first one seven years ago and lucked out and finished third. Had a blast, I wish we had more alley cats around here.

Metricoclock

DFL = Dead f-ing Last ???


Yeah that was me, but then again, I might of been the last to finish, but there were a lot that didn't make it all the way, woot!

asherlighn

I cant wait to get out of the sticks so I can race

johnprolly

My first Alleycat was the Dumbo alleycat. Chombo killed us.

****ing Brutal. Even to this day, guys that have raced in just about every race keep talking about how the Dumbo race kicked their asses. I rode it on my jenky-ass poo-go conversion with 20c tires.

[Dumbo is an acronym for 'down under Manhattan bridge overpass]

It's all cobble stone roads with old subway rails embedded in the roads. It was probably about 18 miles or so... Needless to say, I "missed" the second Dumbo race this year.

hanjin

I just competed in my first alleycat last week here in Houston. came in 7th out of 10 people. About 2 1/2 hrs of nonstop riding, but had a great time. Next one is on the 22nd of next month, I'm training right now.
(skid stops, and smoking while riding).

Philatio

I ran my first one on a team with a buddy of mine. We were in the lead, but didn't know there was a real "finish" after the last checkpoint (wasn't marked on the manifest) so we just kind of ****ed around and went home.

str8flexed

I'm riding in my first one in several hours. Track and Treat in downtown Charleston. Ooh-rah!

sluglug

Man, I hope you're not talking about moonlight ramble. Got any info on the one coming up?

JackWGroves

My very first alleycat was the Hallowheels last week in Raleigh, NC. I was in the top 5 until the second stop where one of my spd pedals snapped in half. I finished the race with 1 and 1/2 pedals but still made 29 out of 37 so I felt pretty good about it. I had a great time and it wasn't very physically exhausting for me. I commute between 100 and 200 miles a week so this was easy.

SD Fixed

Better DFL than DNF..

TRaffic Jammer

On a SS MTB with slicks, the only non-messenger to hit all the checkpoints in the time allotted. Next alleycat found me in the top ten. I messed in the 80's, so I feel great about the results being 41 and retired from messin'. We've been having sprint nights recently, and I'm stoked to be winning against guys literally half my age.... makes me wanna work harder/get faster. Might hit up citizen's class at a cross race in the next couple weeks.