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on March 5th, 2010
First, let me apologize for letting the regulars down on the Thursday poll this week, and thank you for letting me know that you noticed. You’d be surprised how quickly Thursdays come around when it comes to dreaming up poll questions. In exchange for your patience, I have generated a neat graph.
This one goes out to the pushers. There’s no doubt you need all 5 to get this race done, but depending on who you ask, not all hills are created equal. Which hill do you think really captures the spirit of our crazy sport? Which hill is the key to victory? Which hill can you screw up on enough to sink your whole team? For which hill is it the hardest to find the perfect athlete? Wrap all of those together and pick the hill that you think best represents the glory of a buggy race.
Click through to vote and see the results
Which hill holds the glory of buggy?
- Hill 4 : As long and steep as 1 but without all the attention. The home of unsung race winners (24%, 16 Votes)
- Hill 1 : Long, steep, hardcore, and swamped with cheering fans. Kings and Queens are crowned here (21%, 14 Votes)
- I'm a mechanic and I refuse to acknowledge the contributions of pushers. The freeroll is the most important (21%, 14 Votes)
- Hill 2 : Top speed, skill, and the shove that determines the fate of the freeroll (15%, 10 Votes)
- Hill 3 : No hill exposes more under-trained and inexperienced pushers, it's also the steepest (14%, 9 Votes)
- Hill 5 : Course record, house record, d team record - Hill 5 is there when it happens, responsible for the pushbar and pure flat land speed (5%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 66
Loading ...Clicking one of the options is really just part of an answer for this one. Let’s hear some explanations in the comments.
March 5th, 2010 at 8:16 am
Since I was a Hill 5 pusher, it pained me a bit to vote for Hill 1. The reason I did, though is because I took my husband to Carnival a few years ago. (He grew up out west and had never been to CMU. Try as I might, he never understood the concept of buggy until that morning.) The awe on his face when the gun went off for the first race said it all. We watched the races from all hills, but to him, nothing compared to the excitement and sheer brute force of Hill 1. Hats off to you Kings and Queens!
March 5th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Personally I think that there are different answers to each of the above questions.
Which hill is the key to victory?
Hill 4(Has the greatest gap in time between the top teams and the also rans)
Which hill can you screw up on enough to sink your whole team?
Hill 3(especially if the pushbar won’t come back up)
For which hill is it the hardest to find the perfect athlete?
Hill 1
Which hill do you think really captures the spirit of our crazy sport? Hill 2(Top speed, optimal last shove timing, letting gravity and the driver take over)
Which hill holds the glory? Hills 1/5(Much easier to compare your performance to the other teams-you either beat them up Hill 1 or you didn’t and Hill 5 has the suspense of the whole run)
So, if you want the glory, push Hill 1. If you want to determine whether you win, push 4.
March 5th, 2010 at 10:54 am
While I respect all the other hills and concede that you may need to be the most fit for 1 and 4, I couldn’t not vote for 3. I pushed it on raceday 4 years. And the first race of the first year I got totally smoked! Then the next day I was too far up. (Or maybe it was the other way around.) Anyway, the succeeding years I made sure to get it right! Plus, in general, the back hills get no love!
March 5th, 2010 at 11:54 am
DeVos analysis is a good one. Each hill brings different value. Hill 4 is the lynchpin of the pushing operation. It’s the only hill with 2 exchanges and combines uphill strength with flat speed. It’s the fullback/left tackle of pushing (for those who like football analogies).
But Hill 1 is the most critical and will most effect the outcome. If hill 1 does his job, you are in the lead for the rest of the race. He sets up the driver to succeed in driving an unencumbered (read: no passing) freeroll. The effects of hill 1 actually linger into Hill 4. If all goes smoothly, Hill 3 gets a shorter hill due to a great line and high speed thus making his run shorter leading to a great 3-4 transition.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Hill 3 is where you show whether you’ve actually been practicing with your team and buggy. Watching some guy who dropped by push practice twice hustle after a buggy that’s overshot him on raceday? Breaks my heart for the rest of the team.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Hill 3 is really where its at. The combination of having to be at the perfect spot for pick up, being able to adapt to major potential for change in the drop point depending on what happens on the free roll, and some of the worst potholes on the course makes it a real pusher’s job.
March 11th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
The best teams have the best 4’s
April 20th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
[...] races. In my dad’s days at Carnegie, he pushed his fraternity’s buggy on hill three (want to learn about the hills and their glory?), so it brought back so many memories for him. Somewhere in his fraternity archives there is a [...]