For 2018, I set out a fairly ambitious plan:
- Super 600K in Australia ("The Snowies") in March
- Gippsland 1200K in Australia in March
- Tour of the Driftless 1000K in April
- Blue Ridge to Bay 1200K in May
- Mile Failte (Ireland) and Ronde Eleanore d'Acquitaine in July
- Coulee Challenge pre-ride in August (tentative)
- Merselo-Verona end of August
- Natchez Trace 1000K in September
- Perth-Albany-Perth in November
So how'd I do?
- Snowies Super 6: DNF with back pain
- Gippsland 1200K: DNF - hit by car
- Tour of the Driftless: DNF because the forecast on day 3 was dreadful and I had the Blue Ridge to Bay 1200K coming up soon afterward. Day 3 ended up being very nice :-(
- Blue Ridge to Bay: DNS. Saddle sore problems (more on this below)
- Mile Failte: DNF with back pain. 900K done, DNF'd with 300K to go and 30 hours in hand.
- Ronde Eleanore d'Acquitaine: DNS. So pissed off and down about the Mile Failte DNF I just went home.
- Coulee Challenge pre-ride: DNS. Back was hurting so I knew how that story would end.
- Merselo-Verona: DNS. Back was hurting and I knew how that story would end.
- Natchez Trace 1000K: never signed up
- Perth-Albany-Perth: DNF day 2 with 900K done. Back pain.
So really a pretty shitty year huh?
But here's what I did do:
- Finished two SR Series (200K, 300K, 400K, 600K) plus various and assorted other brevets and permanents.
- Made K-Hound status (10,000 K's in a year)
- Completed the inaugural Florida Tip to Tail 1600K
So with benefit of hindsight - good year or bad year?
Truthfully, I go back and forth on it. A friend called my actual results "a career year for most randonneurs" and it's likely he's right. But I tend to look at it more often as goals not achieved and feel disappointed.
So what's the answer? Lower the bar and set goals that I know I can do? To me, that's like claiming you batted 350 at T-Ball.
So, I'll continue to set ambitious goals and hopefully manage to achieve a few of them.
* Saddle sore problems
I have to say this is one of the strangest episodes I've had since I started riding. I went through a period of about 5 weeks where after 15 miles my butt hurt so bad I literally couldn't stand it so I'd turn around and ride home. Every long distance cyclist has had saddle sore issues at one time or another but what made this puzzling was:
- It happened on short rides.
- NOTHING changed. Same bike(s), same saddles, same shorts, same diet. Literally nothing at all was different.
Weird.
