Global Gutz

July 17 2004
Organized by Marc MacLean

FINAL RESULTS

It might have been a small turnout for New York's contribution to the worldwide Global Gutz race on July 17th, but the results still speak for themselves. Global Gutz is an alleycat that happens all over the world at the same time. Courses are designed to be approximately the same distances (13 miles/21 kilometers) and have the same number of checkpoints (5, not including the start and finish). At the starting point, you'll get the first checkpoint, but you won't know where checkpoint 2 is until you get to checkpoint 1. No manifests, no signiatures, no stopping.

At 5pm on the dot, the nine riders took off from the Lower East side and headed up First Avenue at a furious pace. For the next two checkpoints, we were scattered in small groups, working off eachother. We suffered a minor setback at 78th Street (checkpoint 4) when four of us (Felipe, KR, James, and myself, Ken) rode by without finding out where we were supposed to go next. We got 3 blocks away before accepting the fact that we really had to go back. Fortunately for us, Squid was right behind us, and he knew where he was going. Taking that as his own personal advantage though, he refused to tell any of us. We were forced to follow him to the next checkpoint. As a pack of five, we pacelined down Central Park West, rode against traffic through Columbus Circle, shot down Broadway, navigated through Times Square, and bombed down 7th Avenue towards the next stop. Felipe & James got in a minor crash at 37th Street when a stupid car happened to be driving in their way (?!?!?!), but it didn't hold them up too much, and no one got hurt.

After Greenwich & 6th, it was open road again. No one had to depend on Squid anymore. Felipe disappeared down 6th Avenue, while the rest of us headed east, taking the front of the line to give Squid a much deserved break. When he cut down Mercer before the rest of us hit Lafayette, he had almost chosen a great shortcut if it weren't for that car he took a nose-dive into 300 yards from the finish line. Again, no serious injuries, but it definitely took some time away from him.

Felipe retained his Kingdom by decisively winning this race, but second and third were excruciatingly close (excruciating for some people, at least). The top five came in at just under a 3 minute mile - averaging over 20mph through the whole race. While nice and fast, we couldn't compare with some of those kids from Warsaw, who came in around 30 minutes. Check out all the results at globalgutz.org. The New York crew mostly came in about half way through the worldwide list. But, New York Traffic being New York Traffic, we know we kick ass overall.

home || events