Crystal Ride

[DaveK]

@Megabeth 21886 wrote:

Wait a minute! We were right next to you! I’m the stunned one wearing a pink shirt and white hat at the end of your video. You can see I move my hands off the rail because I thought, too, “Oh, s(*&t! Did I stick my head out too far?!?”

Ha!

Yeah we were standing one person away – that’s Megabeth in the hat and I’m the one in the blue shirt looking concerned at about 18 seconds. Or clearing my throat. Anyway, small world… I’m really glad the microphone didn’t catch me screaming like a girl.

[Mark Blacknell]

PotomacCyclist – are you the guy with the very un-aero beard?

[PotomacCyclist]

Nope, no beard. I don’t think I could grow one like that guy even if I wanted to.

Because I was so concerned about turning the camera to keep the focus on the leaders, I don’t think I would have noticed if Alexi Schmitt was heading right for me. His bike could have come flying up at my head and I wouldn’t have even seen it. I barely noticed him sliding by until I saw him about 15 feet down the road.

[vvill]

@txgoonie 21880 wrote:

29mph? I suppose it’s possible, but highly unlikely. Just b/c of conditions, route, other riders, etc.

Anybody else’s results wrong? My first and second laps were nowhere near 58 and 57 minutes

Mine seemed pretty accurate. Where did you have your timing chip?

@PotomacCyclist 21872 wrote:

A quick scan of the results page shows that someone posted a time of 18:51 in the 7th lap. But I’m not sure that’s correct. That would be an average of more than 29 mph for the lap. Since no one else managed to approach that time, he would have had to ride that fast without the help of drafting. Is that even possible for an amateur rider?

They probably just looped back around without doing the whole lap – I don’t think the timing system’s that smart. If they had mats in Rosslyn and the Air Force Memorial then they could get some pretty cool timing breakdowns. (But still, I’m impressed with the setup – this is the first time I’ve been in a timed cycling event.)

I’m always amazed at how much faster I can ride with other riders around (to motivate/draft off)… I started maybe midpack and didn’t actually get to get going until after Rosslyn on my first lap. About 100 yards after that turn, someone’s mostly full water bottle rolled towards me and other riders were calling “water bottle!”. I slowed enough to let it roll in slowly onto my front wheel and picked it up but I guess not as slowly as I thought as the rider behind me fell off his bike. Oops. Then I looked around for a gap to throw it off the course but it was hard to find a good spot as I was on the far left.

I think it would be good if the event was NOT a mass start. They could simply have groups based on previous year’s finish times (and newbies would just go into the back group).

@PotomacCyclist 21884 wrote:

Here’s the video I shot

Ouch! I saw Mark’s photos but the video looks more painful somehow (I guess because you can see the limping OUCH gait.)
“That is a lot of road rash…”

[eminva]

@Tim Kelley 21794 wrote:

A photo from Mark of me, Dave and Megan bombing the downhill. See how composed Megan is!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1181[/ATTACH]

Mark, did you manage to get a photo here when I came down? Would it be possible to see it? Thanks. Not that I expect to be composed looking or anything.

Liz

[Mark Blacknell]

I could have sworn I had your email somewhere, but apparently I don’t. And anyway, who cares, because this is a great shot:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1187[/ATTACH]

(Not, of course, to imply that any privately emailed shots *aren’t* great . . . )

I’ve also got shots of Kathy, Will, Chris (CR – not very good, alas), Dana, and . . am I missing anyone here on the forum? In any event, I’ll get them to you. To be clear, I’m not competing with Jenny Ruley Photography (event photog). I *highly* encourage checking out what her people snagged, and buying it if you like it. If people want reliable event photography to survive, they need to support it.

(Also just realizing that it was you, Elcee, that I walked past on Saturday thinking “Hmm, I totally know this guy. Who’s this guy? [kept walking] Ah well.” Sorry about that.)

[txgoonie]

@vvill 21904 wrote:

Mine seemed pretty accurate. Where did you have your timing chip?

On my shoe, where it was supposed to be. I’ve done a dozen running races with D-tags and never had any issue with them. My 5th and 6th laps were recorded accurately, but 1/2 and 3/4 were combined. Odd. ?? Oh well. It’s not like prize money was on the line. I just wanna feel like I really earned my medal!

@vvill 21904 wrote:

I’m always amazed at how much faster I can ride with other riders around (to motivate/draft off)…

This. I hopped on some pretty fast-moving pacelines, which I pretty much never get to do. It rocked.

[Mark Blacknell]

@txgoonie 21933 wrote:

On my shoe, where it was supposed to be. I’ve done a dozen running races with D-tags and never had any issue with them. My 5th and 6th laps were recorded accurately, but 1/2 and 3/4 were combined. Odd.

They’ve got timing issues every year. Sometimes it gets sorted, sometimes it doesn’t. I was just happy to see that – for once – people didn’t feel like the course closed early on them.

[PotomacCyclist]

Last year, I won the 90+ age group in a 5K, or at least I was competitive in that category. Funny. I don’t feel a day over 89 1/2. About 20 or 30 people were automatically moved into the 90+ AG while a dozen or so top runners seemed to have morphed into 12-yr-olds.

[vvill]

@txgoonie 21933 wrote:

On my shoe, where it was supposed to be. I’ve done a dozen running races with D-tags and never had any issue with them. My 5th and 6th laps were recorded accurately, but 1/2 and 3/4 were combined. Odd. ?? Oh well. It’s not like prize money was on the line. I just wanna feel like I really earned my medal!

This. I hopped on some pretty fast-moving pacelines, which I pretty much never get to do. It rocked.

Did you bunny hop way over the timing mats? Maybe they have some sort of automatic smoothing algorithm for detection that was a little too aggressive in your case. Or maybe there’s some limit to how many riders go over the mats at once at the same time? Clutching at straws here…

Yeah it was fun with the pacelines. I should’ve probably started further up front though as I think my pace ended up having me pass other people most of the time (I didn’t expect that though – I thought I was going to be scraping in to get 6 laps). That was probably the fastest 50+ mi ride I’ve ever done.

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 21961 wrote:

while a dozen or so top runners seemed to have morphed into 12-yr-olds.

Don’t under estimate a 12 year old. They have a great power to weight ratio.

[PotomacCyclist]

I’ve seen some 10-yr-olds beating my hide in 5Ks (although I think I managed to beat all of them in the race on Saturday). But the race last year had several supposed 12-yr-olds among the leaders in the race. While some of them are fast, they usually aren’t as fast as the local elite runners. (I do not belong to that group. I belonged to the proud 90-yr-olds instead.) Also, I didn’t remember seeing that many fast kids that day. Maybe a couple, but not as many as showed up in the standings, along with all the supposedly fast 90-yr-olds. It was the oddest results page I’ve ever seen.

[PotomacCyclist]

The big weakness for most of the kids I’ve seen is their inconsistency and lack of pacing skills. They have youthful speed but they don’t show any restraint. They will sprint almost all-out for half a mile and wear themselves out. Then they start walking. Then they get their 2nd wind and start sprinting again. They repeat the process until they finally wear out completely and walk it in the rest of the way. But there are a couple local exceptions. Once they figure out proper pacing and proper endurance training, then they start beating most of the adults (like me).

[eminva]

@PotomacCyclist 21999 wrote:

The big weakness for most of the kids I’ve seen is their inconsistency and lack of pacing skills. They have youthful speed but they don’t show any restraint. They will sprint almost all-out for half a mile and wear themselves out. Then they start walking. Then they get their 2nd wind and start sprinting again. They repeat the process until they finally wear out completely and walk it in the rest of the way.

You are describing my 11-year-old. Much to my alarm, I have realized he can outsprint me. On a mountain bike. But throw in any distance, and the result is wild inconsistency.

Liz

—
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?gepsl4

[22209]

@txgoonie 21880 wrote:

Anybody else’s results wrong?

My total time and first lap time were wrong. I crossed the timing mats on my way to line up for the start, and I’m pretty sure that’s when they started timing my ride.

[Author]

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