in the spirit of "take the power back", a local group of do-gooders went to reclaim a down-trodden, trash adorned, gang member hide out, and restore it to its former glory, when it used to host live brass bands, and was the center of a neighborhood. the place in question is a (probably manmade) hill, with a road encircling it, sporting a number of hundred-year-old trees, a stepped terrace flanking its sides, and an old band shell / bungalow, which, altogether, is lovingly called "arnold circus." this coalition, calling them selves "friends of arnold circus", have since organized its clean up (the gardening team sweeps through on tuesdays, the clean up crew on saterdays) and hosted a number of community oriented events, the latest of which was the "sharing picknick" day, hosted but a few days ago. of the events planned, one was "100 laps arround arnold circus."
at about 16.30 gmt, i get a call from rose, informing me of the ensuing race, and recommending that i come down to watch. within minutes i was standing at the byway, wondering "what and why." minutes later, there i was standing IN the race, waiting to begin, not knowing why i just signed up, but sure i would drop out after a few laps.
about an hour twenty after that, and i finally got to stop pedaling, knees aching, back soar, and alltogether worn out from doing 100 laps of .12 miles, at about 10 mph average. i couldnt find any good photos of the circus it self, so i scanned a little flyer that communicates both the neighborhood-like environment that encircles the circus, but also the loving sentiment these neighbors attach to it. they gave everyone these A5 paper things that had a big 100 on them, said "one hundred friendly revolutions of arnold circus" and then had your entry number tastefully scrawled on them; after mine got a bit worked by my back wheel during the ride/race, i thought it might look good semi-preserved for posterity (and anyone else who might look at my back wheel), so i swung by work and had that sucker laminated - spoke card!
