Last weekend I drove up to Arlington, TX for the city's very first Alley Cat Dash. Before a month ago, I had no idea what an Alley Cat Dash was or how awesome the bike community of Arlington is. A fella named Morgan Patterson and a group of his buddies put the whole dang thing together, around 40 bikers showed up, and the Dash was a success. Below is how the whole thing broke down...

The Alley Cat Dash Breakdown (two ways to win the race)

-1st rider to visit all of the checkpoints (9 total) and get back to the starting line.

-Rider with the most points (more points given if you participate in activity at the check point)

There are 8 to 10 checkpoints

-Each checkpoint will have a point value attached to it depending on its' distance from the starting line

-Each checkpoint will have a small challenge or skill worth extra points

(a rider will have the option to ride through the checkpoint for speed or stop and do the challenge to gain more points)

-The rider will receive one token for hitting the checkpoint

-If a rider stops and completes the challenge they will receive anothertoken (small toy, ring, etc.) proving they completed the challenge

Rules:

1 - Obey all traffic laws

2 - Be friendly and courteous to all vehicles and other riders

3 - Riders must be back at the starting line before 6 PM or they will be disqualified

4 - It is the riders responsibility to bring all tokens backto the starting line

Points:

When a rider finishes the race they will turn in alltokens to be added up for points.

The entry fee for each rider will be $8.00

All proceeds from the race will go to benefit F.A.C.E.S. the Foundation for Autistic Childhood Education and Support. http://facesforkids.org/

They race started/finished at a new bike shop in the downtown Arlington area, Acme Bike co. Then all of us volunteer people collected our supplies for the checkpoints and split off prior to the start. I was paired up with my college room/best bud Christina.

Seriously digging their signage :)

My beautiful partner, Chris

This is Stanley's backside. I want that fanny pack!

Meet Paul. All sorts of danger breaks out when this man puts his hair back in a ponytail. No lie.

Mason

reenacting Starwars

Morgan came to visit Chris and I at our checkpoint

He brought this little beauty with him.

Christina and I were at a pretty sweet coffee shop, Health and Harmony House, and our challenge/activity for the passing bikers was 'draw your favorite dinosaur.' Yep, it was as much fun as it sounds. GEEZ, the doodles these people tried to pass as dinos...tisk tisk. Christina made a couple of people redraw their dinosaurs. It was a freaking blast!

some other checkpoint challenges:

carry an egg from x to the finish line

put your forehead on the baseball bat, spin around 10 times (?) then run and touch a tree

make me laugh (two memorable jokes came from this and a moon, but we won't talk about that)

create a haiku (these were HILARIOUS)

post race behind the bike shop

FUN STORY: I took off my shoes for a minute a got a bunch of tiny stickers in my feet. there's still some left in my heels.

Morgan had planned an egg toss for all the Dash volunteers and I dropped the egg super early. I don't really remember paying attention...

I forgot who won.

fellow documentarian. Gibby, I believe

The bike shop is now the home of all these wonderful, very adult, dinosaur illustrations. Can you guess which one is mine?

check point flags

Since this first Dash was such a success, I hear there are going to be more from here on out. I can't wait to see this Alley Cat Dash grow!