(That’s 10 lbs. of head in a 5 lb. helmet if I’ve ever seen it.)
Go kart racing was awesome. It is also very, very different from driving my car.
Those little go karts are fast. The brochure said they can get up to 35 mph which feels like 200 when you’re whipping around the inside of a warehouse. There wasn’t a part of the ride that I didn’t like. They give you a little sock (balaclava) to wear under your helmet and then a neck brace to fill the gap between the bottom of you helmet and your collarbone. You know, so your head doesn’t snap off when you hit a wall at 20 mph.
I was surprised at how physically tiring the whole thing was. You work up a healthy sweat in that helmet and my arms and legs are a little sore and stiff this morning (some of that might be due to the beer-and-wings part of the evening). We ran 2 races, the first was a qualifying-type race to determine who the better drivers were. It was supposed to be 14-15 laps but I only got 8 in because I kept spinning out. Apparently I wasn’t properly taking my, um, mass into account when I was barreling into and out of turns. Once I adjusted to that it was pretty smooth sailing.
Once they had our average lap times they paired us off for a “race”. We were supposed to work out pit stops with our partner for the 61 lap main event. 61 laps. We decided that we would just split the 61 in half. I took the second shift. 30 laps in a row was a bit much for me. By the end my arms and legs mere jelly and my hands were killing me from the deathgrip I had on the wheel. The pain didn’t really set in until the adrenaline had worn off, and let me tell you, it’s one hell of a rush. I’m looking forward to taking another run at it sometime soon. I need to get a work outing organized.
Probably the weirdest part was the drive home after racing for 2 hours. I looked at the traffic on the highway in a different (and very unsafe) light.
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