Sadie Race Recap

A couple days late in coming, but better late than never. So Sadie has been and gone; the drama with the fliers at work has passed (without too many more incidents occurring that aren't really worth mentioning here), and with much fun had by all. In a message to my work vandal though, no thanks to your efforts, the event was proud to have raised about $2200 for their charity, and attracted over 200 riders which were essentially evenly split between male and female. Again, the point was to get women to come ride, and that was achieved with the help of men who either had friends and lovers they wanted out, or were just too cheap to fork out $40 to go alone; either way, I feel the ends justified the means. I am also happy to say that two friends of mine from the museum, John and Lindsay, took 3rd place over all - congrats to them! As for the race/ride itself, Dan and I had a blast. We attempted to go last year but had to quit in the first 10 minutes because his chain snapped. This year we went all the way, and I am pleased to say we finished 49th out of about 100 finishing teams. Even more enjoyable than having a good ride was feeling a strong sense of camaraderie and purpose with my man; he and I are both competitive people, so it was nice to have that energy channeled together, rather than against each other in an sporty setting. It was also great to be able to meet all kinds of new and interesting people - Sadie attracted riders not only from Chicago, but from 8 or more different states. Getting to know everyone at the ride was fun, but getting to know them a bit better at the afterhours was even more of a blast. Thank you to PBR for donating 30 30 packs of cans to the event - because this was an event full of mangy bikers, that didn't last much further than 9:30pm, but it certainly got the party started! Thanks also to Julie, Kisha, and others who were crucial in making this night a reality; hopefully we'll all be getting together next year for another evening of riding, imbibing, and friendship. On a side note, I am happy to say that I didn't hear about anyone getting injured during the ride, though apparently the ride home from the party seems to have been full of some minor scrapes and bruises. Let me just say that a couple PBR's and remembering to clip out once you've stopped don't mix. I have a nice, appropriately heart-shaped bruise on my knee as a souvenir from the trip home. Yay Sadie!




More photos HERE on my flickr site.