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02/29/12
Late to the Utilitaire Party
Filed under: general, record keeping, bike commuting
Posted by: The Cyclofiend @ 8:31 am

About a month ago, MG over at ChasingMailboxes outlined a fun early season challenge - the Utilitaire 12.  Unfortunately, that was in the final days of my all-encompassing work project, and the energy/time for reading anything outside of the immediate scope of “need-to’s” was nonexistent. 

As I’ve slowly righted myself and trimmed the sails this month, the hash tag #Utilitaire kept popping up, and I finally got around to catching up on the excellent writing which MG shares on her blog. If you work the math and follow the instructions, you’ll realize that I have about two weeks to do 12 rides at the rate of 2 per week. I’ll admit, I was not a math major, but I’m pretty sure that’s a tough trick to pull off using standard numbers.

Which means the gang is well up the road and I’m just rolling away from the start. Nothing to do but smile and wave, smell the flowers, lean into the headwind and see what comes of it.

Anyway, here’s my first official Utilitaire 12 Controlle Stop:
(every time I’ve tried to place my faux-html command here, it has disappeared…so, please forgive the incorrect syntax)

Number Five
“The Market”

Controlle #5 / Dawes / Market
According to the rules of the Utilitaire 12, I need to document the ride with a photograph (above) and confirm with an informational/observational insight:


“9. To show evidence of your ride, you must take one photo during your
utilitaire and submit at least one thing you learned or observed during
your trip.”

What I learned (other than the fact that it is impossible to resist Girl Scout Cookie Sales Tables) is that after years of toting them around, my awareness of precisely how much can fit into my various messenger bags is well honed. At the checkout, the helpful bagger kept asking if I needed a bag, eyeing my pile of purchases with doubtful glances.  Everything nestled into my bag (the original Timbuk2 from yeeeeearrs ago…) with just enough room left over for the aforementioned GS cookies.

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