Happy Cranksgiving!

Last Saturday I participated in a bike race that benefited the Utah Food Bank. Ok, it is not the kind of bike race that you are thinking about. No spandex or overpriced bikes. It was the SLC Cranksgiving Alleycat. The racers were made up of:

Bike messengers,

Bike fanatics,


And a poser trying to build street cred (Me),


So, what is an Alleycat race, anyway? Well, it is an informal task based race that was started by bike messengers in Canada back in the 80's. For a real explaination, follow the link - Alleycat Races. Anyway, It was really fun and I actually did okay, but only because I bought some help. The race worked like this: We started at Gallivan Plaza. Then we rode up to the avenues Smith's where we received the manifest (task list). We had to buy one food item on the list from each grocery store on the list - seven stores in all. However, if you bought a turkey, you could skip two stops. So I did. Of course, I skipped the two furthest stops, which allowed me to place third. It was rad. I would highly recommend that anyone with a bike take part in one of these. Whenever the next one comes up, it will be posted on SaltCycle. Here was the bounty (8 turkeys in all):



I almost forgot to tell you the most exciting/sad part. Amy and her sister and sister's husband came to see me off and to see what this was all about, because it was our first one. Well, as we all took off, one racer accidentally cut off another, and that racer hit a pole and broke his wrist. Because Amy and friends had a car, they were the ones to take him to the hospital and wait for his mom (he was a teenager). Hopefully he made out alright.

-Jeff