Pointless Prize 2024 – #Flag

[bigredboiler]

March 15 update – IMPORTANT UPDATE — TIEBREAKER — NEW RULE for March 16-17 ONLY

For one day (rider’s choice) – either Sat or Sun, March 16-17, you can get as many flags as you see on your ride.

Details:

• You can only do this one day (your choice; either Sat or Sun).
• You only need to post one flag to forum.  Tell me how many flags you are claiming though.
• I will check your Strava to verify.
• I will add all valid flags to your total in the Google tracker spreadsheet.
• Same rules as always…needs to be a “real” flag
  • Basically at least 3’x5′ rectangle…can be other shaped sometimes
  • Generally on a pole (my discretion  for other mounts)
  • The goal is making sure it’s a “real” flag (not a banner, tiny yard sign, etc.)

Hit me up with any questions.  I’ll try to keep monitoring the forum…..Kris

March 14 update — check the Forum Friday late afternoon/evening for tiebreaker details.  I’ll post here and in-line as a new post.  Everyone has done such an impressive job riding & finding flags each day.

Jan 23 update — I’ll keep up the “tracker” tab of the Google Sheet (every day or two typically), but I can’t keep up with the “detail” sheet given all the participation (thank you all….happy to see the interest!).

The detail sheet was my way to make sure a person only posted a certain flag once, but it’s too time consuming to maintain daily.

Jan 9 update — Sorry formatting is poor now.  New forum doesn’t allow me to edit and preserve prior formatting or use color 🙁  I didn’t even make a material update.  Just reminder to include date & flag name in the post.

A New Pointless Prize – Go find some flags!

In a nutshell:

• Take a photo of a flag on your ride (only 1/day will count)
• Post the photo to this thread in the forum (identify the date + flag (especially if the flag is not obvious)
• Hashtag your Strava ride #Flag

Rule update Jan 3: Flag must be on a flag pole (vertical pole or angled mounted to a building)….already posted “other” flags count…but let’s make this more “traditional” flag size/style going forward (e.g. no more little yard banners, etc.)
Rule update Jan 4: My discretion to count any flag not on a traditional pole (rule update above).  Generally, I’ll count “real” flags (think full size, representing a generally known entity/cause)

If / When forum is down –> Just post to forum (with date of ride/photo) when it’s back up. I’ll update everything after that (…and keep adding photo & #flag to your Strava as normal)

More Details:

• A particular flag type will only count once per person (e.g. only one USA flag, one MD State flag, etc.)
• You can only count up to 3 flags from a specific place during the competition (e.g. max 3 flags from the US Capitol, or a specific Embassy, or Gov’t building, etc.)
• You need to be able to identify the flag to me (if it’s not obvious)….again, so we know it’s not a duplicate
• Any flag is fine (must be in flag” form…e,g. not a bumper sticker, sign, etc. ….but a physical flag). I’ll be the sole decider of what counts or not if something is questionable.  ***Note rule updates from Jan 3-4…more details on “real” flags
• Here is a Google Sheet I’ll use to keep track and all to see/follow along
• You must post the flag the day of the competition (e.g. no sandbagging a week, a month, etc. and posting all at once).

Winner: The one with the most #Flag rides

• Prize is likely a bike related gift card (unless I think of something better)
• Jan 3 update: Looks like I might need to come up with a tiebreaker 🙂 ….I’ll brainstorm something…thanks to all for the ideas/suggestions

Let me know questions and I’ll edit this post to clarify details as needed.

Kris

Topic

[AlanA]

@cbganimal – I wanted to end with that, too.  But, I went ‘all in’ on that final day.  I wasn’t even close.  But my last flag on that was the US, so it sort of counts.

[CaseyKane50]

3/18/2024 Flag University of Kentucky

[CBGanimal]

Well i just read about the tie breaker…congrats to those who read the rules and somehow find out there are updates.  Still had a great time finding flags!!

[Indiana]

3/18 flag on boat

[Boomer Cycles]

3/18 – the Red Cross 

Thanks @bigredboiler for another year of a daily pointless prize that was accessible to all, kept my head up and made me more aware of my surroundings while grinding out the miles.

[bigredboiler]

Awesome and impressive work by all.  More to come (details on winners, prizes, statistics/fun facts, etc.).  Give me a few days please.  Hopefully this coming wknd at latest.

@Cvcalhoun – Congratulations on the overall win.  You were certainly determined on Sunday 🙂

@matteblack – most impressive to find “seasonal” flags everyday this year.  I never would have guessed it to be possible.  And congrats on the big haul Saturday.  I didn’t think anyone would come close to that.

To all others who played daily (and did or didn’t realize the final twist)….thank you all for the dedication, and sorry I had to keep the “surprise” for the last minute.  I wanted to limit any mastermind route planning over days 🙂  I figured it would be tough to balance alerting everyone vs art of spontaneous surprise.

To all who played here & there along the way ….my thanks to you as well.  Always fun to see the interest and humbled to know you took the time to spot a flag on a ride, stop to photograph it, and then take even more time to share on Strava and the forum (no small task :).

Kris

[cvcalhoun]

@AlanA, I had a whole list I was saving for last.  I had avoided:

• US flag
• Maryland flag
• DC flag
• Montgomery County flag
• All flags that were within a few blocks of my house.

My thought was that if there were ever a blizzard, I wanted a flag I could get to easily or one I could find anywhere.  Of course, there never was a blizzard.

And I had a list of all the embassies.  But I decided that as much as possible, I should avoid going places like embassies where I knew I’d find a flag, and instead look for ones that serendipitously appeared on my route to somewhere else.

So I was unknowingly preparing for that whirlwind day the whole time.  That day was a tour round the neighborhood ones, a brief detour to find that snorting horse for the scavenger hunt, then down one side of Embassy Row and up the other.  I had my list of embassies organized in such a way that I did all the even numbered addresses on the way down and all the odd numbered addresses on the way up so that I’d minimize street crossings.

[karenbikes2@gmail.com]

@bigredboiler Thanks for another entertaining FS game that motivated me to get out and ride — often more miles than planned because, gosh darn it, there’s got to be a flag out around here somewhere, just another mile or two… and just another miles or two…. If you sponsor a game for next year’s FS, looking forward to whatever you concoct!

[Serdar]

Hi @bigredboiler,

Thanks for sponsoring #flag prize this year.

Are you coming to the final Happy Hour on April 10 at City-State Brewing? If you do, you can announce your winners yourself. And that’s the best way. If not, I will do it for you. Could you please let me know if you are coming?

Thanks,
Serdar

[bigredboiler]

@serdar I can’t make it to happy hour 🙁  If you can announce, that would be great.

Overall winner: @cvcalhoun

Runners-up: 7 others who also played daily throughout BAFS.

@matteblack, @AlanA, @CBGanimal, @DCAKen, @CaseyKane50, @Indiana, @rumpuscat

To all winners – Who is going to HH?  I would like to ship a small prize to everyone.  I can ship individually and/or to one person who can distribute to others at HH.  I’ll message each of you via DM on Strava.  If you see this, you can reply to forum, my DM on Strava, or email me at cyclestein and the domain is the one owned by Google for email….

Kris

p.s. expect still another message from me here with summary/statistics of the game & a thank you.

 

[bigredboiler]

Follow-up…I could only DM @cvccalhoun, @AlanA, @rumpuscat, @Indiana….everyone else, let me know how to reach you to get your address and/or email me (see above).  To enable DM on Strave, I had to add my birthdate (month/year) to my profile.  Probably same for you if you’re interested in enabling.

Kris

[AlanA]

Kris – I already let you know that I’d be happy to hand out your prizes, but I’ll also post in here to let others know.
If they don’t plan on going to happy hour, they should contact you instead.

[CaseyKane50]

Kris, thanks for sponsoring this fun prize and for providing prizes. My head was constantly swiveling watching out for flags. Grateful for windy days to better capture some of the flags. I plan to be at the Happy Hour and will gratefully accept your prize from Alan. Thanks again!

[DCAKen]

Thanks for sponsoring this pointless prize! I was trying to stick to country flags, but those are surprisingly hard to find outside of the DMV area.

I’ll be at the Happy Hour

[cvcalhoun]

I definitely had fun with this. I had a whole list of all the embassies, and thought initially I’d just go to them. But once I was on the lookout for flags, I discovered that on any long ride, there was likely to be at least one flag. So almost all the embassy flags got reserved for that one last push.

I’ll be at the happy hour.

[Author]

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