Well, another year has come and gone, and the 9th annual west side invite just ended. In past years, the West Side has been held in Portland, but for this year, Seattle stole it. A good thing too. It’s been a long time coming.
I mostly missed fridays events cause I had to work, but the core hore, a womens only alley cat centered in the core was the main event of the evening. The riders were based at Wa-Leg, rolling dice to see what stop they would have to go to and how much they would get paid for it. Of course we just stood around, got in their way, and drank beer.
Saturday morning, cool guy park.
Pre time trial jitters were being smoothed out with energy drinks like rainier and pabst. The hill side was littered with bikes and people awaiting their individual start times. From Cool Guy, the TT went to Gas Works, then Queen Anne, along the way, many of the racers got caught at at least one of the bridges. After Queen Anne, a stop at Qwest field, then make your way south to the hat and boots before finishing at Anarchy Point on the Duwamish.
The afternoon was spent working on two kegs of Elysian beer. Skids and track stand competitions happened on 8th ave S, covered in gravel and full of potholes and cracks, it had to be the worst street I’ve ever seen used for a skids competition.
By early evening, once we are all tired from the TT, the sun, and the beer, the alley cat is due to start. My TT time wasn’t the best, I got caught at the Fremont bridge for well over a minute, and maintained an alright pace. The alley cat took us into South Park, then West Seattle, before heading to the Central District, Queen Anne, and finishing in Belltown. It was windy as hell, and hammering along west marginal way required pacelining just to break wind.
I was hot, dehydrated, and I bonked after climbing california. In both the TT and the alley cat, I lost my water bottle by the first check point. Slugging across the waterfront, I had to stop in the ID and pick up a bottle of water and take a break before climbing Jackson to the CD. I’m sure it didn’t help that you had to shotgun a tall boy of Rainier at the first check point, and down another in the CD. All in all I think I finished 17th in the TT, and 15th in the Alley Cat. With around 50 racers, I’m more than happy to take the two top 20 finishes.
Sunday morning, colonade park.
First, I met with some friends at Cafe Venus for breakfast, and to discuss possible routing for the race. The course was centered around eastlake, in a big oblong loop going north south. Colonade park was base, and there were 6 checkpoints. A total of 7 possible manifests with 3 picks and drops each. Routing was crucial in this race. If you didn’t route correctly, you found your self zig zagging up and down the hill, retracing your steps, and wasting lot’s of time. This is also a part of the city where local knowledge helps. Whether it’s cutting the sidewalk through Fred Hutch, or the alley entrance to the Boylston stop, routing made all the difference.
It was hot. The race kicked off right on time, a few hours late, in the heat of the day. I drank 4 liters of water, and a liter of cytomax during the race, and I still cramped. When I turned in my 6th finished manifest, I could barely stand up due to my quads cramping. I still had 11 minutes left, and depending on which manifest I got, I may have been able to get another stop, but it was futile. I fell over backwards in the grass and reveled in the joy of being done. The cramps were worth it. I finished 5th place.
A great weekend, well organized, and well executed. As with most messenger events like this, I had to wash the beer off of everything I owned the next day.
West Side!!!
