Monday, June 18th, 2007
The family and I often make the walk along west Minnehaha Parkway to 54th and Lyndale when it’s time to booze it up or pick up some groceries or stop at Starbucks for loaf.
The parkway runs along the bluff that overlooks Minnehaha Creek. Right around Bryant Avenue there is a storm sewer and every time I walk past that sewer grate I hear the sounds of a large volume of water flowing past. It hasn’t been raining, no one is draining sprinkler or car wash run off into the drain, just lots of water flowing.
So last Friday when Baby Smithers and I were on our walk along the south side of the creek we stopped under the Bryant Avenue pedestrian bridge and I took a look. What I found was a constant flow of water into the creek from some kind of drainage pipe. I assume it was water…
Where would all this water be coming from? I’m sure it’s not raw sewage. I hope it’s not anyway! Could the city have tapped into a natural spring when they were digging out the storm sewers and are draining off the spring into the creek?
Another thing I noticed was a large number of children playing in the creek during the hot weather we had on Friday. I know the origin of the creek is Lake Minnetonka but the creek basically serves as a storm sewer in itself for every community it flows through on the way to the Mississippi River.
Since I will have a couple of my own yard monkeys that will be old enough to want to play in the creek someday I have to ask, is that creek water safe to come into contact with? My inclination is to say no.
(sent mobile)
Posted by Smithers at 6:24 pm in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, June 18th, 2007
I just ran the Code Ready report on what I would need on hand to maintain things around here for just one week:
– 21 gallons of water
– 102 servings of protein
– 133 servings of grain
– 35 servings of fruit
– 49 servings of vegetables
– 56 servings of dairy
Some questions came to mind: Where the hell am I going to store 21 gallon jugs of water? How long before the food supplies are past their expiration date? Who is really going to actually be ready to handle a disaster for one week?
I think the reality is, and I am afraid to say it, if there was a disaster where it was required that everyone needed a weeks worth of supplies on hand almost no one is going to be ready. And Katrina showed us just how prepared the federal government can be to help out the citizens of a crippled state.
Basically, we are all screwed.
If you want a really good laugh run the report for a months worth of supplies. Who has room for 90 jugs of water?
Posted by Smithers at 3:30 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, June 18th, 2007
(click for larger image)
I spent most of the morning on Saturday worried about the weather wondering if we were going to get rain but instead of a wash out the track was more like a dutch oven. But you can race in the heat so I was happy to have it as opposed to rain.
The format for the evening was all circus races and for the most part I think everything went well.
For the Category 1–2 the first event I had on the schedule was the 3–15 laps Unknown Distance. As the name of the race describes, we did not know the total distance of the race, and some riders went off the front early in order to take advantage of what they hoped would be a short event. I can’t remember the total number of laps but we did close to the maximum. I was in a good spot behind Bing the finish second in the event. I had spent so much time as the race promoter making sure that everything was going well with set up and registration that I had exactly zero warm up for the first race. But in 90°F temps I was pretty much already warmed up so there was no problem.
The next event was the Snowball Points Race. The format of this race was a sprint every four laps with escalating points to the winner of the sprint. All I remember about this race is that it was really hard and I finished 5th.
Next was the Devil’s Win and Out. In this event the officials reduced the field by half by pulling the last rider across the finish line every other lap and then running and Win and Out event with the balance of the field. I used my tested and proven strategy for the Miss and Out portion to make it to the final four riders and then relied on my hope that Bing would want to win this race to use him to escort me off the front for another second place. Worked great.
Next up was the Australian Pursuit. This race was an experiment as I had never done this event in the past. The format of the Australian Pursuit is that a maximum of 4 riders were spaced evenly around the track. At the gun the riders would start chasing each other and once a rider was caught by the rider behind they were eliminated from the race. This race can be over quickly or it can be a grueling test of endurance if the riders are evenly matched. In my first heat I drew a good starting spot and Bing was able to chase down Skibby so that I was able to get into the final. Skibby got the jump on me and for a number of laps I thought he was going to catch me but I was able to dig down and hold him off. In the final I had Bing behind me but he admitted to me that he is not a big fan of the pursuit and was only looking to hang out and keep from getting caught. It came down to a battle of wills between Kruser and myself and Kruser had the benefit of being a better pursuiter to carry the day. Another second place for me.
The final event was the Unknown Points Race. We combined the Category 3’s with the Category 2’s to make the field a bit larger. This was the 5th event of the evening and I was feeling pretty cracked. Never-the-less I was able to get up there for a few point sprints and even won a point sprint while being off the front for a couple of laps. It was all for naught in the end as a group of 4 riders went off the front and lapped the field assuring that one of them would win the event.
In the end I wound up in second place overall for the evening which I am very happy with.
I think the evening went really well. It was my first time promoting a race at the velodrome and it was really a piece of cake. I thought about some things for the future:
– The Australian Pursuit was interesting but it may be a bit too taxing to have as part of a 5 event program. In addition, between the fact that multiple heats had to be run and the length of each heat I think it may not be very interesting to watch as a spectator. I will probably bag this event for RADIUS #3.
– I need to perhaps do a better job at promoting this series. While I was happy to get 38 riders out for the event I was really hoping to get over 40 and maybe 45. Last Thursday night there were over 55 riders racing.
– I am concerned about RADIUS #2 and the fact that it is a two person team event. I am worried that a team event is going to keep the number of participants down too much. Maybe I will make the team event only for combined Category 1–2–3’s and make the women and Category 4–5 races individual events.
– I need to get a sponsor for this series for 2008 in order to have a decent prize list and attract riders from outstate. Maybe tie it in with a road race the following day or even make it a two day event.
If anyone has any input on the events and format of racing last Saturday or any ideas for the future events please do not hesitate to send me a message. I want to make this series something that people look forward to and that attracts a lot of attention. We’ll work out the bugs this year and then in 2008 try and make it a really big event.
Posted by Smithers at 1:09 pm in Race/Ride Report | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, June 18th, 2007
OK, four months into the season here is the question on everyone’s mind:
Grey shorts - huge mistake or intentional post race conversation topic.
Posted by Smithers at 10:47 am in Local Cycling | Permalink | No Comments »
