Riverwest 24

Now that the race is over and we have had a little time to get back to real life, it is time to calculate the final results.  This entails going through around 400 team envelopes and counting manifests and bonus points.  Micheal and Micah from Bot&Rose are building a new leaderbord for the site that will include the totals.  Expect the results up in the next day or two max.  Until then, here is a photo sent over to us from Erin Stoekl.  It was shot from the top of Reseviour Park on Saturday morning.  Thanks Erin!

The race is over, but the community never ends.  I think I mean that in less noun-y and more a verb-ish sort of way.

UPLOAD your photos to the interwebs.  PLEASE, PLEASE tag them with RW24.

EMAIL me your impressions, your memories, your stories. I would be humbly honored if you would allow me to read them, excerpt them, share them with the rest of us.

Please DON’t STOP visiting the website.  We are going to be posting LOTS of fantastic data about the race, average laps, bicycle race related data that we were able to mine this year.

We are going to be trying to help continue aggregating non-bicycle information as well.  There are hundreds of stories that need to be shared.  There should be literally thousands of photos.  Hours of video.  Tag it all RW24 2009.

Thank you thank you thank you.  I’m exhausted.  Good night.

Everybody ready?

We have been meeting, organizing, printing shirts, making waterbottles, planning your meals, getting permits, spreading the word, talking to our neighbors, building our community.  I think the first RW24 2009 meeting was in March of this year.  We’re now approaching T-minus 20 hours.

Thank you for your relentless Riverwest-ish-ness.  You continually inspire us. Let’s celebrate that tomorrow.

Right now we are looking at 340 registered riders, and we will still be taking same day registrations.  WIll you force us to work extra hard and push that up to 500?  (I’m personally not working the starting line so… I dare you!)

Only a few things to keep in mind:

1 - This is a living, breathing neighborhood. Some of us (myself included) raise our kids here. Build clubhouses and backyard gardens and dogs and cats and neighbors and memories and barbecues and relationships. Get here as early as you can. It’s typically beautiful.  The laughter, the photos, those reminding glimpses.  

2 - BE A FRIENDLY HUMAN.  Say hello, introduce yourself, ask questions, smile. That’s how we roll.

3 - DONT BE A JERK. (SEE ALSO #2)

4 - There are wonderful businesses IN THIS ZIPCODE that are helping us with this race.  Don’t forget what that means. (See also #1) 

5 - If you are the first person to arrive for your team, you will be given ALL your team’s materials. Help us distribute, please.

6 - What we heard most after the race last year was that in so many ways (fear of "crime", personal health milestones, bicycle endurance, shy neighbors learning each others names for the first time) so many people thought that what connected them more than anything else is that we were all able to be more, ride more, stay awake longer, form so many new relationships… 

7 - DONT BE A JERK. WE MEAN IT.

Fan-Belt has published a couple of articles about the race and the 24 Hour Band Why I Must Be Careful, you can see them here and here.

thanks!

Molly from OnMilwaukee.com posted another great article about the race, you can see it here.

Thanks Molly!

Bot&Rose Design have not only put together this awesome site for us, but have built a live leaderboard for riverwest24.com. 

See who is in the lead, and who is taking their time enjoying Riverwest.

As soon as the race begins, we will post a link to the live results leaderboard.

Thanks again Michael and Micah!

 Hi.  steve@riverwest24.com here.

I am dutifully trying to catch up on all email responses.

Registration confirmations are coming.

Questions will be answered.

Your patience is appreciated.

There are too many of you for me to do this by myself next year.  Nice problem to have, eh?

RW24 is overwhelmed by the community response to our race.  I’m only half-sorry to say that we are OUT of t-shirts.  We are OUT of water bottles.  Our agreements with area businesses providing food are TAPPED.

 We want you to sign up.  We want you to ride with us. We STILL think you can’t find anything better to do with your $20.

We had 188 riders last year and right now have 320.  There is no way we could have realistically planned for more.  THANK YOU for your enormous support.  THANK YOU for your generous volunteerism. THANK YOU for being an ACTIVE member of this community.

See you at the starting line!