I touched on this in an earlier post: next weekend I am participating in the inaugural Seattle Disaster Relief Trials. The DRT, while partially a cargo bike race, is primarily an event to increase disaster preparedness in the city. There is a route through several neighborhoods in South Seattle with six way stations along the way. The way stations are meant to simulate community hubs – a place to distribute supplies and share emergency information via volunteer ham radio operators.
The race version of the event is meant to simulate a disaster situation as much as possible. The course includes obstacles, and the racers are required to carry and distribute up to 100 pounds of cargo. There are five classes of participants:
- Responder—30 miles, 100 lbs of cargo, all checkpoints/no workshops, race
- E-assist—same as Responder, but with an e-assist on their bike, race
- Resilient—30 miles, up to 20 lbs of cargo (water and food for volunteers), all checkpoints/all workshops, not a race
- Family—10-30 miles, up to 20 lbs of cargo plus at least one child, minimum 3 checkpoints/workshops, not a race
- Citizen—free, no cargo or checkpoint requirement; enjoy as many workshops as they want, not a race
Initially I signed up for the Resilient class. At the time I registered R was not large enough for her helmet and we didn’t have a bike seat for her yet. I wanted the challenge of participating, especially since disaster preparedness has been on my mind lately. Then, a couple weeks later, R had grown enough to fit her helmet. I’d put on the bike seat and she started riding. I really liked the idea of having her participate in this, so I changed my registration to family. While I may not make it for all 30 miles of the course, especially with a 16 mile round trip to the event, I am certainly looking forward to whatever I can handle.
Next year, when the event happens again, I hope to be in shape enough to do the full, competitive race. I’d love to enter the e-assist class and compete. This year, though, we’re making it a family ride and Lurline is bringing her Soma to keep us company. I’m really looking forward to it.