Because I lead a Tuesday and Thursday night hilly ride and manage a popular internet bicycle climbing site, some have assume that I am a climber. And they are correct, at least by some measures; if you compare me to the average fifth grader, I am quite the climber. Compared to the people that I ride with, not so much; we hit the base of the hill, I tell them where the top will be, and they ride off.
The 6’2” frame that I got from my parents has been good to me over the years, but it is not especially optimized to cycling, especially when compared to the undersized runts that I ride with. What I need is a way to handicap them in some ways, to even the odds. A way to get them to handicap *themselves*.
And thus the Food Bank Challenge was born…
By disguising the event as a fundraiser (foodraiser?) for Northwest Harvest, I could get the riders in my group to self-handicap themselves.
The rules are simple.
- Show up to the ride with a backpack (or panniers) filled with food.
- Ride carrying all the extra weight.
- At the end you put all the food in the back of Eric’s car
- Go out for burritos.
Unfortunately, the weather was not as clement as hoped and many of the lighter climbers that I targeted did not show up, but we still managed to collect about 75 pounds of food.
My backpack held the 20 pound bag of rice on the left plus 5 pasta boxes for a total of 25 lbs.
So, what do you think ?