friday...
5pm to 8pm - Registration at Mother Hubbards - 5 W. Hubbard. Then from 8:00-kick us out o'clock we're moving it to Av-Aerie at 2000 W. Fulton where we party until you're sure you have ruined your chance to qualify.
i usually get off at six but got lucky this friday cause i've been dispatching the car board a bit and was given the option of leaving at five. i jumped at the opportunity with the intent of checking out who was in town...
6745...yo, you coming out tonight? there's messengers everywhere out here.
j.dot...o.man.not sure yet...i'll get back to you later.
6745...yeah, there's a some sort of race tonight.
...apparently there was a last minute alley-cat race set up. i bumped into five-o the next day and he told me the race was fast and quick but alot of fun. something about five bucks...winner takes all. apparently most cats took it light because they knew they had all weekend long to get silly and a race to represent their city was at stake the next day.
saturday...
?-10am - Figure out what you must do and do it. We recommend a hearty breakfast.
10am- 4pm - Qualifiers in Garfield Park. You will be able to register until qualifiers are done.
4pm-5pm - Worst stopper! Balancing on a bicycle without going anywhere! All that other stuff you like to yell at! (aka Skids, Trackstands, Footdown, Bunny Hop. Shit, you guys know the deal.)
8pm-2am - 4th Annual Chicago Messenger Prom at the Bottom Lounge
only two of the things on the schedule took place...why? racing took all damn day...not saying anyone is to blame for this all im saying is that i think the organizers didn't expect the races to last as long as they did. not a big deal...the day was still a blast.
pic by simon...
top 50 from the qualifiers got to race the following day...
check out more pics here and here...also, although boring, here's a vid of the first day of qualifiers...
...at about 24/25 seconds you see me pull up to complain about my flat that i talk about in my race report. i didn't quite make it to the messenger prom cause...well, i am old and weak and could barely move from racing but i hear it was the usual fun times chicago knows how to have...
pic by kym p...
sunday...
10am-3pm - Finals!! Gett Hott!
3pm-5pm - Open Forum/Labor Forum. Let's talk about next year's NACCC and figure out what we can do to make our working lives better. Members of 4 Star (Chi), Cupid (SF), Magpie (PDX), and Cycle Hawk (NYC), and more. Click here to get a copy of the flyer for the Labor Forum
8pm-2am - Awards ceremony back at the Bottom Lounge.
...i took my sweet a** time getting up for sundays events. i figure it would take the finalists a long time to finish up...much the way the qualifiers were. again...no big deal. the main reason for me attending wasn't so much for the finals, skids, tricks, and so on...i really wanted to be part of the forum and hear what other cities had to say and/or talk about. before i get to that...the finals were intense. i saw cats sweating, cramping, cringing, burning, but in the end, having a good time. the finalists had to finish up 5 total manifests...wtf?! sh*t...i was suffering trying to finish up two and that took me over and hour and a half...now imagine 5 of those f*ckers. no thank you. mad love to those who were out there representing their city, company, crew, themselves. after the finalists were done going around in circles it was time to get to what was missed on the schedule for saturday...
footdown...
trackstand...
skids...
sprints...
and tricks...
it was nearing six p.m. and i couldn't stick around any longer. i heard the forum still went down but am sorta glad i wasn't there for it. let's be serious for one minute...cats have been out in the heat for a long a** time and many of those cats have been drinking. sh*t...i don't blame them but what im trying to say is that the forum would be pointless. instead of having an intelligent conversation i know how those things end...everyone bitching and swearing and saying how much they f*cking hate the industry but in the end...well, time to wake up and go to work again the next day. i've seen it happen many times so i decided to skip that part and just head home to chill cause th weekend had been long enough...thank God for labor day cause i needed a day off from the weekend...ha!
as you know...i didn't make it to the final party on sunday night. im sure everything went well. haven't heard any bad reports from the event. prizes were given out and this years champions were named...
Top Mens Messenger: Austin Horse from New York. Top Woman's Messenger: Kimberly Perfetto from New York. Top Men's Non-Messenger: Stan Schultz from Chicago. Top Woman's Non-Messenger: Anzie Nelson from Portland, OR.
...congratulations to all who participated but especially to those who won. that sh*t was brutal and you cats get mad respect for winning. a personal thank you to everyone involved in putting this event together and making it happen. so many things could go wrong with an event this big but somehow or another the chicago crew got their act together and made it happen. a huge thanks to augie for making this happen and bringing the naccc's to my backyard. i had a fortune cookie today and it gave me this fortune...
"if you fail to plan...you plan to fail"
how appropriate...everything was just right with the event. the weather was great, the company was great, the racing was great...i'll leave you cats with one final vid...
...peace.
1 comment:
dude how did kym p take that photo if it is her in the photo?!? self-timer? or did someone else take it?
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