Club T recognizes effort

Club T isn't easy. Especially on days like today when rain is going sideways in sheets. I fully expected(and being totally honest, didn't mind) a total cancellation. JD got me on the phone and reminded me that before this became a neighborhood social hour push, it was a place for real men to get together. He was totally right, and a little ashamed, I headed out into the pouring rain.

I'd like to dedicate this post to Liam, Rosie and JD who haven't missed a scheduled push since Club T's humble beginnings. It was a lot like those beginnings today when the 4 of us rotated pushing for 1/2 hour in stormwatch conditions. In that lonely, wet, freezing cold back lot, a few good people pushed their endurance to new levels, while the rest of you sat home in front of your TV, with your bunny slippers, your ladies scented body wash, gained a few extra pounds eating ice cream and slipped just a little bit closer to senility.

So this is for you, you pansy fair weather pushers. Put down your starbucks triple vanilla extra foam baby mocha girly frappe, put on some old spice, take a look at these 3 and be inspired.




Rain or shine, you can count on the Iron Three. Push on Comrades, push on.

More Car Pushers

Post-worthy

Chad is a new recruit and double record holder here at Club T. Farthest distance traveled for a push,(Atlanta, GA)and 1st member to vomit behind a nearby tree. Tim and I had a good laugh about that while I tried to get an official statement, unfortunately I can't reprint the immediate answer here. I'll have something later when he's talking to me again.

Post incident




Pushes have been pretty large lately but most people opted for a Saturday am push tomorrow and the crew of 5 tonight kept things moving at a very nice pace.

It was also nice to welcome Katie to Club T, pushing in tandem with my sweet sweet wife to a very respectable 27.5



Next Push Saturday(tomorrow) 9AM.

Push on comrades, push on

Club T is getting too big

We've reached a point where I just can't keep up with everything going on haha.

These will probably become more spotty and just feature photos, new records and essential information. I might do a long writeup here and there, but it's starting to get too much like work to record everything and that's a big no-no here at Club T.

Monday important stats:

Record Turnout: 21 people

4 new members: Zach, Joel, Lia and Kason

Men's sprint record: Broken by Zach with a blistering time of 24 seconds flat. (somehow I didn't get his picture- next time)

Personal records broken: Girls sprint team of Rose, Maddy and Addie 31.0

New Event: 2nd lightpole sprint JD 63.5 seconds


Family push with Joel, Kason and Lia




Kason couldn't quite keep pace..




Casual




Pushing




Scott gets the dedication award for a 4 day trip flying into Mexico and back, then coming straight to the push and sprinting in his Pilot uniform




Lia's first effort was a group push








Then went for it on her own



Next meeting Wednesday 5:00.

Push on comrades, push on.

Saturday, Sunday evening pushes

Our newest members Jan Michael and Hilary, drove down from Duvall, WA Saturday evening with one thing in mind. Pushing a car.

They had very respectable first sprint push times of 26.83 and 34.56 respectively.

These two really dominated the distance push. Hilary went twice around the block(a new club record, men or women) then Jan Michael took it up another level with three laps.
Between those two and Jenny(who yesterday set the previous record of around the block) saying they could just keep going, and the rest of us slowly catching up, we're going to have to come up with a new distance event. It takes 15-20 minutes for those guys to be done and the car just can't be tied up that long with everyone else waiting for a turn. Ideas? Timed distance to the first corner?

It was intriguing to run into Jenny in the back lot late Saturday night. She made some excuse, but we are pretty sure she was out there getting mentally prepared for her next sprint. That's the kind of heart and dedication that makes Tercel pushing champions.

Anyway, welcome to these fine pushers.





Sunday, my buddy James stopped by to chat and catch up. The Tercel push was of course alluring, and he signed up. Being a bridge engineer, he put some thought into the actual push and was going to draw up some technical diagrams, but I shut that down quickly. Brains and car pushing might very well mix, but I doubt it. He can draw diagrams on his own time.

His quick hypothesis was that starting backwards with both legs and back into getting the car moving, might make for a faster start. There was of course the possible time penalty for the spin around to front push. He posted a 30.6 so I guess the thinking is that the time savings of the backwards push was negated by the spin.

I don't have any photo proof, as I was driving and timing, but he is official and will be back with diagrams and spreadsheets

Another record turnout, more new recruits and other stuff

Welcome to new members Jenny, Jaime, Cody and Katie.

I had a nice long post written about the record turnout, excellent efforts, new recruits, broken records and just overall good times that were had Saturday morning, but something happened and now it's gone. My blood pressure is now too high to write up another post, so this day will now be documented mostly with photos. It's too bad because many memorable events occurred, and due to the crazy growth of Club Tercel, I'm having a hard time keeping up with everything photographically(and otherwise). If you were there, you know what happened. If you weren't, it might be time for a visit. New records will be posted to the leaderboard on the right.

















I do have to mention the last push of the day, in which Liam, Addie, Natalie, Rosie and Maddy pushed my car ALL THE WAY HOME(their idea, not mine and with full sanction from parents). I got more than a few dirty looks from motorists, but the gas savings was totally worth it. We got to the house and I fully expected everyone to crash in the lawn. Tim arrived to pick up Natalie, also thinking they would be too tired to walk home, but somebody mentioned ice cream and they all sprinted down the road to tasty treats.

Ready to roll with hydration available.




I like that people are now eating lunch while pushing. Nice work Maddy

Starting the weekend right

Steve and I both posted personal records in the sprint push with Steve jumping into 2nd place club overall with a smoking 24.9 and I just missed nudging Mike out of 4th by 1/20th of a second with a 25.1

Nobody even noticed though, because Peyton once again made an appearance. This time proving he wasn't just another pretty face by not only by being the youngest pusher to reach official status, he showed remarkable skill as a driver AND he stepped up to the longboard tow challenge.

First things first - Peyton is official.




Rollin with Katie, our second new member of the evening.





Like father, like son.




Time to strike out on his own.




Steve added the longboard sprint tow to his portfolio.

Mush




Peyton wanted a piece of that too.




He's very well rounded, showing remarkable skills as a driver.





That's a wrap people.




Until next time - push on comrades, push on

St Patricks day push(updated with some photos from Heidi)

There was definitely some Irish in the air for our midweek push, as new records were posted, and 3 new recruits joined.

Matt was our first newbie and showed up in workboots. There was also a miscommunication with one of the steerers, and he smacked his nose on the trunk starting his run but STILL managed to pull out a 2nd place club record in the men's sprint at 25.00. There was a secret vote after he left, that next time, we also tie a small engine around his neck to make things somewhat even.


Matt getting low



I didn't get pictures of JD or Tim tonight but JD set a personal best sprint time of 25.7 and Tim trudged to a club record 1st in distance, making it all the way to the 2nd road to the right before falling into a quivering mass of humanity.

Scott posted his personal best on his first run at 27.5. His second run might have been even better, but he blew right by the finish line without hitting the trunk to end his time. I think he would have kept going until he passed out, but someone ruined the fun and spoke up. His official excuse was "I didn't see the light pole" This is a bit disturbing, as, being a light pole, it's fairly visible. It's not like he was looking for his car keys in a field. It's even more disturbing when you consider the fact that Scott is an airline pilot. You can do whatever you want, but the next time I fly somewhere I'm going to peek in the cabin, just to make sure Captain Scott isn't hanging about.

Scott is a good friend, so I can say that without getting a visit from Club Tercel's enforcer(see club rules, previous post). He's actually is a really good pilot, except for the fact he's apparently blind as a bat.

Joking aside, I feel lucky to count him as a friend and his safety record is impeccable.

Seriously though - how do you miss a light pole, especially when you know it's coming?

My good friend, No Peripheral Vision Man (see if you can spot a light pole)




In order to keep Club Tercel on the cutting edge, I unveiled my latest idea today. The longboard tow sprint is the exciting new event that we offer. Most of the adults were focused on bettering their current times/events, but promised to try it next time. I like that focus people.

You can always count on kids to jump on something new though, and I like that too.

Rosie getting set to pull Addie for the inaugural run




Rosie reported that this was "too easy" so we loaded up more people



They took turns on a few more runs, came back and set a new kids team car sprint record at 33.6. Impressive, ladies!(photocredit Heidi)




I clocked in my own personal best today of 26.1 on the car sprint, then loaded up JD on the longboard and towed him around. You get further with the longboard tow than with the car sprint, but you get just as wiped out on both. Sweet.(photocredit Heidi)




My buddy Neil heard about the club and made a deal with me. He'd come push a car, if Scott and I would come and ride bikes behind his house today. He bought a fixer upper and decided that the backyard could use some changes as well.

Now Neil is a bang up carpenter, but I made him go first because his lead in ramp doesn't appear built to code and wasn't exactly inspiring confidence. I had to put my helmet on just to watch him climb up that thing.




The freakiest part is climbing that ramp, followed by the uneasy feeling of sway and creak beneath you as you ride down. Then you're so relieved that you survived, you forget there's a jump at the end of it. It's not really that bad...... come join us!




He held up his part of the deal.

Neil.




If you'd like to push without fanfare, that is an option you get. However, we are more than happy to boost you along with words of encouragement. JD is a marine though, so you want to get past him as soon as humanly possible and you definitely don't want to appear to him as if you aren't giving it everything you've got

Robin, one of our favorite, regular ladies. With cheering.




I'm pleased as punch to report that my sweet sweet wife's first push resulted in a ladies sprint record of 33.5.



Daniel had a rough day, banged his elbow in a car door and spent most of the evening sitting quietly playing in the dirt and petting the dogs. It's hard not to catch the fever though, and when we were wrapping up, he charged up and said he wanted to push by himself NO HELP. Nobody thought he'd be able to get the car rolling by himself, but he proved everybody wrong and proved an inspiration to us all.

Daniel and his support crew.




I want to take this time to thank Maddie, Rosie and Addie. As well as pushing cars themselves and pulling eachother on the longboard, they run along with every pusher, and as a team, push the car back to it's starting location. Every time. We owe those girls.

We ended the night as we always do, with a team push. JD, Matt, Neil and myself set a new record of 17.1(photocredit Heidi)



Or thought we ended it... Becky came motoring down the road, last minute because she works hard, but hasn't missed a push yet. A long day at work, then straight to pushing cars down the road. That's dedication and we love her for it.

Push on Comrades, push on.