Teleidoscope

Sat, May 05, 2007

Kinetics Day

Posted at 11:10 pm MDT to Weather

In Boulder Colorado there is an annual event called the Kinetic Conveyance Race (referred to as Kinetics). Teams of people design costumes and vehicles on themes and race them on a course that goes over land and water at the Boulder Reservoir, while thousands of people party on the beach and listen to live concerts and supposedly . There is also a 5 K running race and a pancake breakfast and various other events.

The Kinetics teams get judged on things like design and engineering and creative bribing of the judges, and there are a number of prizes for the different individual categories. In many cases the over-all winner is not the first across the finish line -- back in the 80s I attended a couple of Kinetics races, and the fastest times were posted by the 'Kawasaki Ninjas': two guys in black with two bicycles and a kayak, but the over-all winners were teams with much more elaborate designs.

This is the first Saturday in May, so it was Kinetics Day. But Kinetics seems to be a weather jinx: either the race or the associated parade the previous week has horrible weather. The weather at the Farmers' Market, a moderately sheltered location, was chilly, breezy, and occasionally drizzly after noon. The weather in the open at the Res, a few miles away would have been worse. I felt sorry for 'Los Lonely Boys', the band whose set was scheduled to start at 1:00 pm, about when the rain came in. And even sorrier for the people who were getting dunked in the Res. Makes me shiver just thinking about it

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