It’s not entirely clear how the whole debate started but it took place over noodles and ghar ka khana (home made food) in the lunch room of our India office. In the way that lunch time conversations meander, this one started from Chelsea’s impressions of Delhi (she was visiting from Seattle), tips on good tourist shopping places in Delhi, and then somehow arrived at the topic of hilly cities. Basically Chelsea said Seattle was hilly, and James chuckled “Hilly? Seattle is not Hilly.”, while Ankur, Narendar and I looked on. The conversation was summarized in an email as follows:
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From: Anand
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012
To: James Chelsea, Ankur; Narender
Subject: Queen Anne Challenge
Recording the terms of the wager between James Moore (hereafter referred to as the contestant) and Chelsea Minkler (hereafter referred to as Wagee(??))
The challenge is for the contestant to climb the Queen Anne road as indicated in the attached map (http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=zyktdkkczybudqmx) in a manner that may henceforth exemplify Seattle as a “not very hilly city”
Route of 2.7km to be done on two wheeled human powered bicycle
Stops allowed only for compliance with local road traffic laws and customs
Ride to be done on or about May 15th 2012
If Mr. Moore completes the above mentioned ride without excessive perspiration – Ms. Minkler to provide bottle of drinking water and 25 cents to contestant, and box of doughnuts from Crispy Crème or other superior doughnut producer for contestant and third party arbitration committee – namely Narender, Ankur and Anand.
In the eternal fight between man and gravity – may the best party win.
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As the date of the ride got closer, it got clearer that neither side would climb down from the wager. James said he felt bad about taking the doughnuts and Chelsea’s hard earned quarter – “nolo contendere…” but that he would do the ride. Chelsea complained that we had concealed the fact that James was a professional cyclist who’d climbed the Andes, Himalayas and Rockies and was not likely to find a hill in Seattle much of a challenge. But she was going to stick to her point - Seattle was hilly. The three judges meanwhile made preparations to eat doughnuts.
Eventually at the end of Home Week in Seattle the wager was staged. James showed up in his cycling shorts and complained about the cycle that Chelsea had organized - it was cheap, was small and meant for a short rider, badly maintained etc, but James apologized later on when he learnt that it had been borrowed from her boyfriend.
The duellers shook hands in the presence of judges and security.
And the ride sort of started, with James stopping along the way to ask directions and/or chat with friends.
Chelsea and I went ahead in the car and indeed the route was steep and hilly.
But James made light work of it. As he emerged at the top of the climb he had a puzzled look – “Is that it??”
Chelsea accepted defeat graciously, and James was forgiving
But a wager is a wager, and the quarter was duly handed to the victor
Followed by doughnuts,
And everyone agreed that Top Pot was indeed superior to Crispy Creme
A big thanks to James and Chelsea for being good sports and seeing the wager to the end.
And in the end Chelsea – it doesn’t matter how easy James may make it look, we all know that Seattle IS a hilly city.
