Pointless Prize: The Extra Mile

[epilsk]

Once again I am happy to sponsor the Extra Mile pointless prize because it highlights the crazy fun of BAFS.

This prize goes to the person or people who have the most compelling stories of how they overcame challenges to get their daily mile(s) recorded, or to fail while trying valiantly to do so. The prize is a donation in the winner(s) name(s) to the bike-related charity of their choice. Past winners have shown grit and determination by using children’s bikes on icy driveways, putting their whole body into reviving a dead phone battery in near-zero temperatures to record a ride, and finding clever hacks to overcome mechanicals. The winner does not have to succeed, just show the appropriate amount of crazy in an attempt to get the daily ride in and logged.

Please post your entries in this thread and I will announce the winner at or before the final Happy Hour. I look forward to hearing how crazy/stupid you are willing to be; just be safe out there!

[Nadine]

@epilsk 226872 wrote:

Once again I am happy to sponsor the Extra Mile pointless prize because it highlights the crazy fun of BAFS.

This prize goes to the person or people who have the most compelling stories of how they overcame challenges to get their daily mile(s) recorded, or to fail while trying valiantly to do so. The prize is a donation in the winner(s) name(s) to the bike-related charity of their choice. Past winners have shown grit and determination by using children’s bikes on icy driveways, putting their whole body into reviving a dead phone battery in near-zero temperatures to record a ride, and finding clever hacks to overcome mechanicals. The winner does not have to succeed, just show the appropriate amount of crazy in an attempt to get the daily ride in and logged.

Please post your entries in this thread and I will announce the winner at or before the final Happy Hour. I look forward to hearing how crazy/stupid you are willing to be; just be safe out there!

I love this pointless prize. Apart from the fact that it generates some great stories, it’s a sweet backup plan for when shit happens when you’re out riding…. [emoji16][emoji177][emoji1744]

[CBGanimal]

Yesterday I overcame the extra mile gods that were trying to ruin my day.  As most of you know it was a very rainy day, I even asked the FS Cabal if they would consider changing the date of the Happy Hour but it was declined.  It was not really raining yet when I left home just before 7am to go to coffee…only one  other adventurous soul (Casey) made it.  The rain started a bit more proactively as I left coffee and I headed to DC to do my 1st of 3 food rescues.  I had to make sure I put the food in plastic bags so it wouldn’t get wet.  The 1st rescue would not answer the door so I left my bike with 5 homeless guys and went around the building to deliver the food.  Yes my bike was still there when I got back :). My second food rescue was back in Crystal city.  Delivering Pizzas to a church in Alexandria the rain was really coming down then. I made it home for a 90 min rest and to dry out some of my clothes before venturing out in now a wind/rain event for my last food rescue in Georgetown.  I proceeded to get a flat on Wilson and walked my bike about 2 miles to the Georgetown Trek store.  They took a huge staple out of my tire as my bike and I made a large puddle in the middle of the store.  30 minutes and $100 later I had a new tire and I hurried to the Deli for my pick up of 200 bagels.  I took them to Georgetown Ministries where all the guys in line thanked me for the delivery.  In my head I thought…this day is probably not 1/2 as bad as what these guys go thru on a daily basis.  So I smiled and headed to the FS Happy Hour where I changed into dryer clothes and treated myself to 3 glasses of red wine (over a 3 hour period…don’t want anyone to think to badly of me).  Then the last piece of this “perfect” day was the 3 foot deep flood under Mt Vernon Dr on 4 mile run.  Yup will be hearing all about it from my bottom bracket soon.  Thanks for listening!

[epilsk]

Impressive!  I thought that last night’s storm would generate an entry or two.  I think you will get extra consideration because you did all of that for charity and for the greater good of FS2024.  Well done, and I hope today was dryer and more consistently inflated!

[CaseyKane50]

“Yesterday I overcame the extra mile gods that were trying to ruin my day.  As most of you know it was a very rainy day, I even asked the FS Cabal if they would consider changing the date of the Happy Hour but it was declined.  It was not really raining yet when I left home just before 7am to go to coffee…only one  other adventurous soul (Casey) made it.  The rain started a bit more proactively as I left coffee and I headed to DC to do my 1st of 3 food rescues.  I had to make sure I put the food in plastic bags so it wouldn’t get wet.  The 1st rescue would not answer the door so I left my bike with 5 homeless guys and went around the building to deliver the food.  Yes my bike was still there when I got back :). My second food rescue was back in Crystal city.  Delivering Pizzas to a church in Alexandria the rain was really coming down then. I made it home for a 90 min rest and to dry out some of my clothes before venturing out in now a wind/rain event for my last food rescue in Georgetown.  I proceeded to get a flat on Wilson and walked my bike about 2 miles to the Georgetown Trek store.  They took a huge staple out of my tire as my bike and I made a large puddle in the middle of the store.  30 minutes and $100 later I had a new tire and I hurried to the Deli for my pick up of 200 bagels.  I took them to Georgetown Ministries where all the guys in line thanked me for the delivery.  In my head I thought…this day is probably not 1/2 as bad as what these guys go thru on a daily basis.  So I smiled and headed to the FS Happy Hour where I changed into dryer clothes and treated myself to 3 glasses of red wine (over a 3 hour period…don’t want anyone to think to badly of me).  Then the last piece of this “perfect” day was the 3 foot deep flood under Mt Vernon Dr on 4 mile run.  Yup will be hearing all about it from my bottom bracket soon.  Thanks for listening!”

Wow! Quite an impressive effort given the weather conditions. The bonus for your day was the joy you brought to all the people who got some food from your unselfish efforts – thank you.

[merlin]

Among all of us we put in 91 hours riding in the rain that day.

[epilsk]

Wow!  Impressive stupidity!  Well done

[cvcalhoun]

My harrowing story of the day:

I am participating in the Flag contest. Typically, I do a 10 mile ride each day, but I’m running low on flags within 5 miles of my house. So given that tonight is a Friday night, and I don’t have to be up early in the morning, I decided that I would combine my Friday and Saturday rides so that I could get photos of flags that were farther away. I’d ride at least 10 miles, take a picture of a flag as much as 10 miles away, then stop and restart my ride after midnight and take a picture of a different flag on the way back.

The first issue was that it was pouring rain when I left. But that’s no big deal; I have lots of rain gear and am a big believer in Rule 9.

Except that apparently my electronic equipment is not a big believer in Rule 9. My first stop was the Capital Crescent Trail, where I took a photo to upload for the Scavenger Hunt. Of course, all my photos for Friday had to be uploaded before midnight, which meant uploading them on the road in the rain. But when I tried to upload, I was getting messages that said the photo was too large. (I hadn’t been getting those messages since the first day of the new forum, but of course I got them when I was in a time crunch and my phone was randomly executing functions like calling a phone number not in my contact list–the same one, twice–because it was registering raindrops as touches.) It took numerous tries before I finally managed to crop and upload the photo.

My next stop was a piece of public art. I took the photo, but again got a message from the forum that it was too large. And this time, cropping it didn’t work. So still battling the raindrops for control of my phone, I managed to find a site that would reduce the file size of my photo, go through the procedure to do so, and upload the photo to the forum.

Then I was using my phone to navigate to the Russian Cultural Center, which was supposed to be my first stop for a flag photo. But the phone was continuing to register raindrops as touches, and opening up various programs, attempting to install things I didn’t ask for, and generally misbehaving. Worse yet, it twice decided I really wanted to go to Arena Stage rather than the Russian Cultural Center. You understand, this involved the phone:

• Minimizing the map.
• Opening my calendar.
• Opening Sunday’s event (a play at the Arena) on my calendar.
• Clicking on the address for that event to open up directions there.
• Clicking on “Start.”

I have no idea how it managed to complete this lengthy sequence not once but twice. But it did. And each time, I’d have to fumble with the map (with the phone so wet it wasn’t responding well to my touch) to tell it where I really wanted to go.

However, my route took me through Embassy Row. And when I ran across an unfamiliar flag, I decided to cut my losses by just taking a photo of that one. The only problem was that I needed to identify what flag it was and where it was. The building wasn’t marked. So again struggling to battle the phone as to what it should do, I finally managed to use Google lens to determine that it was a Norwegian flag. And then I used Google maps to verify that I was in fact at the Norwegian Embassy.

And then I went to upload the photo to the forum. And again the forum told me the photo was too large and I had to go back to the site to reduce the file size before could upload it.

Meanwhile my smartwatch (on which I was recording my ride using Strava) decided to join in the fun. It decided to end my ride three times, then turn itself off entirely. Fortunately, I also had a Garmin which I was running at the same time, so I finally gave up on the smartwatch and just hoped there wouldn’t be any issues uploading the rides from Garmin when I got home.

Once I had reached a bit over 10 miles and it was past midnight, I stopped my ride and restarted. I then needed to figure out the Wordle word of the day–which involved yet another battle with the phone.

Things did go a bit better at that point. I quickly found something appropriate for the Wordle word. And while I had intended to go to the Embassy of Canada for another flag, I found both a USDA flag and a nice piece of public art (across the mall from each other) before I got there, so I was able to get both photos and start home.

The trip home was uneventful, other than the parts of the Capital Crescent Trail where the fog was so thick that I couldn’t see where I was going. But then I got home and went to upload my rides from the Garmin. And my computer wasn’t recognizing the Garmin, so I couldn’t upload. I ended up unplugging and plugging in the Garmin numerous times before the computer finally told me there was a problem with the drive, and would I like to repair it? Yes, indeed I would. And after the repair, the computer finally agreed to upload my rides.

Total rides:  24.28 miles.  Total frustration level: I probably shouldn’t try to measure that one.

[CBGanimal]

Wow Carol…technology is crazy!!!

[epilsk]

Another chapter in the forthcoming book: Carol v. Electronics.  Amazing, impressive, and sooooo frustrating!  And did you get one of the lanyard/pen things Nadine was selling at the Happy Hour?

[cvcalhoun]

@eplisk, the good news is, yes I did.

The bad news is…  Well, I swear I’m not trying to win this competition!  And tonight’s wasn’t even engendered by my electronics.

I was coming home from Arena Stage.  My ride started at 9:47 pm after the show ended, so it was well after dark.

As I was passing the Washington Monument, two teenaged males on scooters pulled over and stopped as I approached.  I initially thought it was very polite of them to let me through.  But the moment I pulled level with them they started up again, one on either side of me.  It wasn’t entirely clear whether they were chasing me or racing me, but I really didn’t want to find out the hard way.  Fortunately, I can now say with some assurance that an e-bike can outrun a scooter!

However, I was so rattled that I took a wrong turn on the other side of the Lincoln Memorial.  Instead of getting onto the Rock Creek Trail, I found myself on Route 50 heading for Virginia.  I didn’t want to be bicycling in speeding traffic, and I didn’t want to go to Virginia.  But there was no way to get to the other side of the road to turn around.

I finally saw the Kennedy Center to my right, and a little patch of grass where I could at least get out of traffic.  So I pulled onto the grass.  That was the point at which I realized that the only way to get to the Kennedy Center was to get over a high curb, through two lanes of speeding traffic, and then over a low wall on the other side.  I gave thanks right then for the fact that my bike is very well lit up, because a) the traffic was coming around a curve so I couldn’t see it until it was pretty close, and b) I knew that on the other side, I was going to have to hop over that wall and leave my bike still on the road for long enough to get situated on the other side and pull a 60-lb. bike straight up to get it over the wall.

Yes, my bike and I both made it home.  And the adrenaline is starting to recede.

[epilsk]

Maybe you should try harder not to win?  Glad it all worked out safely, but that sounds like a scary evening in all ways.  Please don’t keep these stories coming!

[CBGanimal]

1/15/2024 although I would think of this as a semi-hard extra mile, cause every time I see the homeless waiting for handouts I can’t imagine my day is that hard.  I did 30 miles in the snow today.  I picked up my food rescue at Big Bear but when I got to SOME (So Others May Eat) they were closed and no place to leave the baked goods.  With the snow I needed to go somewhere fast cause the  paper bags were getting wet!  I had another rescue going to Georgetown Ministries so I thought I could deliver this donation to them too.  But when I got there they were closed too!  There were about 5 guys outside so I left the food with them.  They weren’t all that interested but thanked me anyway.  One guy stepped forward and asked if I had any hand warmers…sure enough I had about 5 packs.  I passed them out…better than food said one guy!  Even though I was frustrated that the shelter wasn’t open I was glad I went anyway.  Now warming up in my kitchen with chicken noodle soup!!

[epilsk]

You are awesome!

[cvcalhoun]

I was really hoping for no more entries to this contest!  But last night, I was going to Sfoglina Van Ness, 4445 Connecticut Avenue, for the “pasta” scavenger hunt.  I also wanted to find a flag for the flag contest.  So I checked and discovered to my delight that the Suriname Embassy was at 4301 Connecticut.  Easy trip from one to the other, I thought.  Except that when I got to the the Suriname Embassy, I discovered that it was up on the fourth floor, and there was no flag visible from the street.

No problem!  I’ll just go to the East Timor Embassy at 4201 Connecticut.  Except that it turned out the East Timor Embassy had moved a long way away, to 1450 Dahlia Street, NW.

Okay, the Malta Embassy isn’t that far away–2017 Connecticut Avenue.  But when I got there, there were two flagpoles–but no flag on either of them.  Apparently they take their flags down for the night.

Finally, on my fourth try, having traveled from Van Ness to Dupont Circle, the Swaziland Embassy had an actual flag.

However, by that time it was about 11:15.  And I’d traveled so much extra distance with all this that I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it home in time to post before midnight.  So I had to post on my phone.  Did I mention that all of this was in a driving rain, so the keyboard on my phone was malfunctioning?  In particular, the delete button wasn’t working.  And other keys would refuse to respond for several tries, then would put in a repeated letter–which I then couldn’t delete.  Only after a long struggle was I able to make some short and typo-filled posts in order to make the midnight deadlines.

[Author]

Posts