Pointless Prize Thread 2021

[accordioneur]

Hi all! It’s time for the funnest part of Freezing Saddles, the Pointless Prizes. These are fun activities – both crazy and mundane – that add a little something extra to the winter riding experience.

First of all, anyone can sponsor a prize – you can sponsor a prize, your friend who isn’t playing can sponsor a prize, even your mom can sponsor a prize. Second, Pointless Prizes can be about anything! They can be objective (like most miles ridden on New Years Day), they can be subjective (like Sock Game). They can be embarrassing (like rider with the most falls) and they can be heartwarming (Bike Samaritans, helping others in need). Check out last year’s thread for more examples.

Here is the current list of Pointless Prizes:
Prize Name (Sponsor) – Description #Hashtag
Elevation per mile prize (QuikAF77) – Most elevation per mile on average for the entire competition NA
Public Art Finder (Boomer2U) – Any display of art (graffiti, mural, sculpture or any sort of artistic expression, loosely defined), permanent or temporary installation, that is freely accessible to the public and includes a bicycle somewhere in the picture frame #publicartfinder
CalvinBall (rcannon100) – Calvinball is a hot-potato cycling game that celebrates creativity and stoopidity
Lite Brite Prize (sarahbee) – Ten categories of cool photo prizes #LiteBrite
Photo Caption Competition (SteveO) –
Civil War History Prize (BicycleBeth) – #CivilWarMarker #CivilWarStreet.
LakeFinder (Boomer2U) – #lakefinder
Wormhole (LuisFilipe) – Ride using “Wormholes” – unexpected connections from Point A to Point B #fswormhole
Daily Photo Scavenger Hunt (drevil) – Find and photograph the object/concept of the days
4 Point Pointless Prize (Char Miller) – Visit the four corners of the DC boundary
Quaxapalooza (rumipumi) – Supporting your local small businesses on your bikes (aka Quaxing) #BAFS2021SmallBiz
Bike Infrastructure (smb9600) – Share info about the cool bike infrastructure being built to make our cycling lives easier. #BikeInfrastructure
TandemStyle (elizsnyder) – Spot tandems in the wild #tandemstyle
New Deal Landmarks (historygeek) – Find New Deal related sites
Extra Mile (epilsk) – Overcome obstacles to ride
Deflated (LuisFilipe) – Most flats during FS #Deflated
Loopy for Arlington (bentbike33) – Most Arlington Loops
Top 3 Women Riders (Fast Friendly Guy) – Most BAFS miles, pronoun “she”
Slowest Mile (Bort McFly) – Slowest average speed – 1-2 mile rides #slowmile
Parkfinder (camiller) – Discover and visit local parks #Parkfinder
Coffee Snob (Chuxtr) – Ride and drink froufrou java #FS2021coffeesnobride
STEM (bikesnick) – Show your bike at a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) site
Sock Game (Jessica Hirschhorn) – Best socks
Errandeering (BeeTinDC) – Use your bike to run errands – not commuting, not fun stuff. Sometimes pronounced Errandaneuring. #freezingerrands2021
Drop the Pandemic Pudge (Cwaggon) – Ride your bike to burn off those extra pounds you may have accumulated during the pandemic #DropThePandemicPudge
Team that rides the most days (SteveO) – Team that rides the most days, regardless of miles
Meh-diocrity (SteveO) – Prize for the individual/team who ends up exactly in the middle of the pack
Mailbox Collection (bigredboiler) – Find interesting mailboxes #Mailbox
Heroes Work Here (bikedavid) – Ride to a spot with a “Heroes work here” sign #HeroesWorkHere
Honoring MLK (tomacsh) – Ride your bike to volunteer service (thorugh 1/31)
Wikipedia 20th (snugglefestival) – One day only – ride to a site with a Wikipedia page #Wikipedia20

Topic

[merlin]

@rumipumi 203518 wrote:

Newbie pointless prize sponsor q

How do i get my quaxapalooza hashtag #BAFS2021SmallBiz added to the forum website so it creates a leaderboard?

You can just link to any tag: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/SmallBiz and post it in a thread. Getting it officially linked in the site is a bit more effort.

To reduce overhead we dropped dated prefixes from the core tags, so #SmallBiz preferred to #BAFS2021SmallBiz, but that’s only really material if you want it linked in the site.

[Boomer Cycles]

@Jessica Hirschhorn 203479 wrote:

Okay I have been crowd shamed into sponsoring this pointless prize again. Last year we had over 150 entries. I made it much more complicated that it needed to be, so will simplify it this year.

1. Take a photo of your socks. Preferably with cycling shoes but whatever.

2. Post on this thread.

3. On the first day of Spring, I will choose my 10 favorites. I will randomly choose ONE and that ONE is the winner. Prize to be determined by me but certainly sock or sock related.

4. And 3-2-1… GO.

5. BOOMER you are limited to ONE ENTRY per WEEK. The Queen has spoken.

Regards, Jessica

This is going to put the kibosh on my “sock [emoji3453] & aww” strategy!!!

Sent from Boomer_Cycles via my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fast Friendly Guy]

Jessie, thanks. Good!
Just fixing a typo that makes it clearer. Riders (not Rides)
Top 3 Women Riders (Fast Friendly Guy) – End BAFS with the most miles based on BAFS leaderboard.
Dave P

[Steve O]

@LuisFilipe 203524 wrote:

Collected the Northern Stone.

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Me, too!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]21974[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]21975[/ATTACH]

[BeeTinDC]

I’d like to sponsor Errandeering, similar to last year’s rules. Riders may count one errand per ride (if you are running three or four errands in one ride, you’ll need to make three or four separate rides). Errand rides may NOT include commutes to or from work, coffee runs, bagels with your boo, riding to the meeting place where you and your pod will meet to ride, or rides with your pod.

I will be watching leaders, and I will judge you relentlessly if I think you are having fun out there while you are supposed to be doing chores. If there are questions as to whether a ride counts as an errand, you may request the matter be adjudicated by a highly partial jury of myself and Laurie E. At the end, the winner will receive a Highly Treasured Selection from The 2020 White Elephant Gift Swap Stash.

#freezingerrands2021

[Kbikeva]

Is this the SOCK THREAD? These were a birthday gift from a friend who bikes (is there any other kind of friend?). Each time I wear them I think of her and smile. They’re not in bike shoes right now because my bike shoes are drying from my ride this morning.

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[elizsnyder]

is it #frozenerrands2021 or #freezingerrands2021 ?

@BeeTinDC 203703 wrote:

I’d like to sponsor Errandeering, similar to last year’s rules. Riders may count one errand per ride (if you are running three or four errands in one ride, you’ll need to make three or four separate rides). Errand rides may NOT include commutes to or from work, coffee runs, bagels with your boo, riding to the meeting place where you and your pod will meet to ride, or rides with your pod.

I will be watching leaders, and I will judge you relentlessly if I think you are having fun out there while you are supposed to be doing chores. If there are questions as to whether a ride counts as an errand, you may request the matter be adjudicated by a highly partial jury of myself and Laurie E. At the end, the winner will receive a Highly Treasured Selection from The 2020 White Elephant Gift Swap Stash.

#freezingerrands2021

[CWaggon]

Anyone interested in a pointless prize for shedding the pandemic pudge?

Start by declaring your weight loss goal and current weight, then check in weekly? If you are really sensitive about sharing your weight, you can state your goal in number of pounds you intend to lose and check ins can be the number of lbs lost. Rules are open to suggestions for a few weeks at least.

I will come up with some sort of (funny) prize(s)for everyone that hits their goal, for those that go the opposite way, for the most pounds lost, and for the highest body weight percentage lost.

#DropThePandemicPudge

[Laurie E.]

Now I have to go back and chance all of my #tags for the errands rides, but you got it included!!!!

@BeeTinDC 203703 wrote:

I’d like to sponsor Errandeering, similar to last year’s rules. Riders may count one errand per ride (if you are running three or four errands in one ride, you’ll need to make three or four separate rides). Errand rides may NOT include commutes to or from work, coffee runs, bagels with your boo, riding to the meeting place where you and your pod will meet to ride, or rides with your pod.

I will be watching leaders, and I will judge you relentlessly if I think you are having fun out there while you are supposed to be doing chores. If there are questions as to whether a ride counts as an errand, you may request the matter be adjudicated by a highly partial jury of myself and Laurie E. At the end, the winner will receive a Highly Treasured Selection from The 2020 White Elephant Gift Swap Stash.

#freezingerrands2021

[Steve O]

I will again sponsor the pointless prize for the team that rides the most days (regardless of miles), so even a 1-mile ride will count for your team.

[Hancockbs]

Yep, responded on FB.

[Steve O]

@CWaggon 203783 wrote:

Anyone interested in a pointless prize for shedding the pandemic pudge?

Start by declaring your weight loss goal and current weight, then check in weekly? If you are really sensitive about sharing your weight, you can state your goal in number of pounds you intend to lose and check ins can be the number of lbs lost. Rules are open to suggestions for a few weeks at least.

I will come up with some sort of (funny) prize(s)for everyone that hits their goal, for those that go the opposite way, for the most pounds lost, and for the highest body weight percentage lost.

#DropThePandemicPudge

Historians note!! This is essentially a reprise of the very first Freezing Saddles Side Bet ever, announced on January 2, 2014 by Mikey. “Side Bets” were created the second year and have now been incorporated into the generic Pointless Prizes.
Thread here: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6405-Freezing-Saddles-Side-Bet-FSSB-Week-1

Find the Founding Fathers (also 2014) was the best side bet ever in the history of FS. (Calvinball, however, runs a close second)

[Steve O]

I will also sponsor the Meh-diocrity Pointless Prizes

Individual Meh-diocrity Prize for the individual who ends up exactly in the middle of the pack.

Team Meh-diocrity Prize for the team that ends up exactly in the middle.

[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=20656&d=1578324490&thumb=1[/IMG]

[Kbikeva]

How will it work? Where do you want the photo? With bike? Today I biked to the bank to cash the check my mom sent for Christmas. The drive/bike through was full so I parked, masked, and went in. It’s so weird to be required to wear a mask inside a bank. A year ago, they would have hit an alarm! I don’t think I’ve actually been inside since all this started! Haven’t really needed to cash any checks either. Times are strange.

Since I couldn’t take the bike inside, I took a photo with the ATM on the front wall. I’m having trouble posting photos upright today, so this may require you to crane your neck sideways. Apologies in advance.

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[bigredboiler]

I would like to sponsor a new pointless prize for 2021. #Mailbox

How to Play
If you’re riding along and you see a very unique mailbox:
1. take a photo of it (with or without your bike in the pic)
2. include it in your Strava post with the #Mailbox hashtag
3. post it to the Mailbox Collection Pointless Prize Thread in the Forum as well (this is where I’ll officially track/count entries)
4. you can also post to a Google album, “FS2021 Mailbox Collection” I created to make it easy for everyone to see all the entries at once. [Photos sort new to old]
5. include where you found the mailbox
— if your Strava settings include sharing photo location on your route map, that’s fine
— otherwise include text in your forum posting with an address or roughly where on a street
— if your photo has location tagging enabled, the location will show up in the Google photo album under photo info

For examples to get you thinking, check the Google album “FS2021 Mailbox Collection” I started.

• There are several from around the DMV (some from far away)
• All would count except the one of the plain mailbox just lying on the ground (I assume it was the victim of mailbox baseball; I found it funny at the time to be lying there all alone)
• The rainbow painted one is highly questionable, but I was feeling nice when I snapped the photo, and I’ll give it to you if you find; consider it a gift

Winners (Prize details to come…expect them to be mail and/or Easter egg related):
1. One subjective winner for most original / unique / creative (totally subjective and judged by a panel of me)
2. One for most mailboxes that qualify (Again, the jury of me makes the decision of whether mailbox meets the high hurdle of creative/unique enough to count)

Why?????

• There are some unique mailboxes out there
• It’s like an Easter Egg hunt (you never know where you’ll find one)
• I want to know where some cool mailboxes are (that I haven’t already found )

More details:

• You can include multiple mailboxes per ride
• If you find one that I’ve already shared in the Google album, I’ll count it for prize #2 (most mailboxes), but don’t hold high expectations for winning prize #1 (creative)
• Don’t think a wrap over a mailbox will count (you can try, but 99% sure I’ll toss it)…it better be one funny/interesting/crazy wrap
• My tastes tend to be biased toward intricacy and humor (but you never know what might strike my fancy and take the win)
• For the creative prize, the winner will the first person to post/share the mailbox if multiple people post it

Good luck, keep your eyes peeled, and have fun!!! -Kris

[Author]

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