the wheel... she turns.

No, not the bike wheel, but that does too. The wheel of the seasons. The years. The cycles of hoosey-whatsey.

So here we are in 2008, and I'm already having silly ideas about Cranksgiving. You see, it's not just a food drive, it's not just a race, it's an "experience™".

So I'm thinking about how to make it fun for all... We want to bring in lots of food, so that means lots of people, but it needs to cater (heh, get it? "cater") to the varying riding types out there. So in the interest of attracting not only the usual motley bunch of bike fanatics and hammerheads, I'm introducing a new format. Feature. Way of life.

This year, we'll have 2 courses to choose from:

• Appetizer Course - a modest course with a few checkpoints. Not as long as last year, and I think the prizes will go for amount of food. Maybe a timed, specified grocery load division and un-timed, unlimited weight division. Maybe for furriest bunny suit... something like that. I haven't quite figured how that will work yet, but it'll be good.
• Super-Size Course will be long and fast. It will be grrr-reat. When Brady, Sean and Dave came blasting into the parking lot last year, they had the finish-line shakes. You know, where you've been pushing the pedals hard enough and long enough that when you stop and try to get the receipts out of your pocket, your hands are shaking too hard to separate them and you can't stop coughing because you've been sucking wind hard for the past hour? That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. Not everyone killed themselves like that, but not everyone came in 7 minutes before the next finisher, either. But the food matters too, so we might up the weight bonus just to keep things interesting...
  

And so since I'm getting a start on the shenanigans early, I thought I would start planning the prize pool early too. I know, it's early. But I was awestruck when I heard back right away from Stevil Kinevil over at How To Avoid The Bummer Life that they'll chip in to the prize pool. For those that are unfamiliar - Stevil is the biking, beering, blogging, mustached sensation over at Swobo. I was a fan of HTATBL before, but now I see it as what it really is - a Big Heaping Pile of Awesome. Thanks, Swobo.

(On a more somber note: you might have heard in the news - one of the myriad of consequences of the recessi-... er, "economic downturn" is that donations to food banks are way down. Please consider giving in your local neighborhood. If you live in Washtenaw County, that's Foodgatherers. Their annual summer fundraiser where they raise a big chunk of their annual budget, is coming up, so mark your calendars.)