The Connection Runners

51 Miles of Pure Michigan

Just returned from one of the year's biggest and best events - in my meager average book of sporting events - the Zoo-de-Mack!

The 51-mile ride starts at Boyne Highlands; riders follow a route that dips, ducks, dives, and dodges through the northwesterly coast of the Mitten. The majority of the route runs right along the bay/Lake Michigan through an area known as "the tunnel of trees" - totally gorgeous - before it finishes in the heart of downtown Mackinaw City.

The weekend started out strong as Kev, Savoie, Kim and I rolled into Petoskey early on Friday night and snagged some dinner downtown. Our meal (complete with a pitcher of Oberon) was highlighted by calls/texts from Sprague who, through the magic of job changes - was going to make it for the ride and would be up early the following morning. It's never a true party until Sprague's in town.

Later, we met up with Chris and Liz to hit the pre-party at Zoo Bar. Always a rockin' good time, the Zoo Bar was filled with tricycles, 42 Below vodka drink specials and plenty of cougars moonlighting as serious bike riders. Nice.

The ride kicked off early on Saturday, but luckily it features an open and ongoing start time, so we didn't actually hit the road until 11:30ish. The weather was perfect - 60's and sunny - and with bikes and gear on, we rocked on. Total ride time (including lunch and a few other minor pit stops) was a little over 5 hours. Not bad considering that last year we staggered in near dark, half drunk and exhausted.

We shacked up on the Island for Saturday night. Needless to say, we were slightly ridiculous after the ride and dinner, and we managed to rack up a few noise complaints during the first two hours of our stay at the Harbour View Inn. Guess a place meant for families and anniversary weekends wasn't the place to sing Black Eyed Peas at the top of our lungs or run around barely covered by towels.

As always, the weekend was a smashing success. We got into our cars today with aching quads and sunburned faces while leaving behind in Mackinac just a little bit of our dignity.

Here are a few pics from the weekend:

The Zoo-de-Mack Moose: One bad ass biker. I didn't know the jersey came in Size Moose.

Riding tricycles for charity at the Zoo Bar pre-party. Kev's sustained massive injury here as Savoie caused several entanglements on the track.

The guy blowing up this start line balloon looked pretty tired but we really needed it to look official in this picture.

Lunch time: Do they make GU in Oberon flavor?

By far, Gunther was the best rider on our team.

On the ferry to the island where Kev pulled out the move and some guy correctly guessed that I didn't just have Gatorade in my Camelbak.