Faster Mustache Santa's Little Messenger Race 2008

Some guys/gals came together a few years ago to create "Faster Mustache". This is a very cool group of cyclists who commute, ride for fun, race xc-track-road-cross and love everything cycling.

Their interests are varied, but each one that I have met has been incredibly fun to ride with and talk to.



So, one of their guys, Jason, has created this awesome Toys For Tots alley cat race in Atlanta. The info is here: http://toys4tots.fastermustache.org/

The race starts at Hurt Park on Edgewood Avenue. Jason hands out manifests and the guys/girls all race to pick up the toys.

Jason had everyone head to Outback Bikes for their first pick-up. Then, they could pick up the rest of the toys in any order.

The riders carried the toys back to the Elliott Street Deli & Pub, where a complimentary, frothy beverage was waiting for them.

Mike, at the pub, makes a mean turkey club sandwich and loves to share the history of the 100+ yr old building with you.

(pay no attention to the scary mermaid)

The cool thing is that people can buy toys to donate and they don't even have to take them anywhere.

They shop, enter their toy on the FM site, then sit back and relax as a messenger stops by to pick it up. Very cool idea, especially with this busy time of year.

The boys and I have not done one of these races, so we just scoped it out and rode the toys, we brought to donate, over to the pub. This was in the same area as the ING Marathon, so I did recognize some of the streets.
Once we rode around a bit and saw the sites, we chilled out at the pub and visited with the riders. I have seen Ben at so many races, and finally got a chance to talk to him. Very cool guy.

These two guys are really nice. Guy on left: I got to race single speed with him twice this year. He was fun and extremely nice! (hope we get to duke it out again next year!) Guy on right: bought a 2 feet tall stuffed penquin for the event and said he rode by someone who had the penguin's feet sticking out of his bag and over his head. He was nice enough to give us the low-down on all the in-town cool happenings, so we may head back that way soon to check it out.

All in all, I was glad that we skipped the cross nationals this year and headed in-town for this event. I hope we are able to help these guys out more, next year and increase the number of toys.