East Coast Courier Championship 1999

When photographing a messenger race, there aren’t many ways to get a good cross-section of images. As soon as the race starts, everybody scatters in different directions. You could camp out at one checkpoint and wait for the riders to come in packs of 3 or 5, but you’ll be spending a lot of time just sitting, most likely drinking beers with whomever is “manning” that spot.
You could try to guess the path that most riders will take, but you’ll still get to most of the spots after the pack has already been through.
It has become obvious to me over the years that aside from having a large team of photographers to station at each checkpoint and major intersection, the only way to get good coverage is to pack a bottle of water, get on your bike and tag along for the ride.
I followed a mixed bunch: a Philly local currently working as a messenger (Roland), an ex-local ex-messenger (Ian), and one out-of-towner from Boston (Jim AKA Dead Guy). The course laid out for us by Blake, the race organizer and mastermind, had us travelling to the four corners of Philadelphia. From as far North as Grays Ferry, we rode all the way south to the Ben Franklin Bridge and into New Jersey (alright, I waited on the Philly side for the riders to come back). At some checkpoints
In addition to the usual checkpoints where a person signs your manifest, we also had to stop in local restaurants to write down the price of a particular meal, search statues to write down the inscription, ride over gravel along traintracks (and then climb over a chainlink fence topped with barbed wire), and other urban feats common to the everyday cycling messenger.