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Wheelchair Races in the Plaza

October 17, 2006 at 2:23 pm
By Margaret Taylor '10

Wheels spun and motors hummed as residents of First Nourse held an electric wheelchair race last Monday in the plaza between Carleton's auditorium and Arena Theater.

Despite the drizzling rain, most of the floor and a few bystanders were there. The event was organized by Matt Fink '10 and Sean Noonan '08, the floor RA. The course was set out by traffic cones borrowed from the Rec Center, scattered all over the plaza. Matt went through the course once slowly to demonstrate the for the contestants. It was a confusing route that ranged all over the plaza, looping around light poles before coming to what Matt called "the fun part": a tight S-curve of cones that racers had to navigate to return to the race's starting point.

Matt owns three electric wheelchairs that range in speed from 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 miles per hour. (To put this in perspective, the average human walking speed is about 3 miles per hour and the fastest speed on record that a human has ever run is about 23 miles per hour.) The chairs are fast, and at such speeds can be difficult to maneuver. Racers used Matt's two slower chairs to run through the course. Not many of them were able to do it without knocking over any cones.

Said contestant Alex Fisher '10 of the first time he tried to steer an electric wheelchair: "It was like, I'm going to die."

The chairs don't have any footrests (Matt has no feet), so the racers had to either hold their legs out in front of them or brace their feet on the wheel guards. "It's a leg workout," said Sean Noonan.

Most of the students completed the course in just over two minutes. Because there was a time penalty for knocking over cones, Alex Fisher and Ian Merkel '10 tied for the best score and each had to run through the race again.

When Matt Fink went through the course himself, he finished it in one minute 21 seconds--without knocking over any cones. He was ineligible for the prize because of unfair advantage, however. He has had fifteen years of experience using an electric wheelchair.

When Alex and Ian went through the rematch, Alex ended up winning the grand prize, a $15 gift certificate to Hogan Brothers. He planned to go to Hogan Brothers with Matt that evening.