Air Force Classic 2011 Crystal Ride

Sunday, June 12th started very early.  I got up at 5:30 AM and met a friend at the end of the block to head over the 14th street bridge on the Mt. Vernon trail to participate in the non competitive Crystal Ride.  Since Shane was part of “Team Sabre” which is the fundraising team for the ride, he got to start at the Air Force Memorial which was close to the half way mark of the course from Crystal Drive in Crystal City.  We wished each other luck and off he went to his starting location and I mine.

Wave 2

It was not so clear how to line up for the ride, but basically there were 2 waves.  Wave 1 was for those who received a Gold Metal in a previous event or were VIPs, part of “Team Sabre.”  Apparently that wave seemed to start from the Air Force Memorial since there was no division in Crystal City.  Once the serious riders lined up, I lined up with some others I was chatting with who were also first timers and watched the minutes tick down until the 7:30 AM start.  Recently the weather has been pretty hot in DC so it was good the ride was in the AM.

The Ride

The course is approximately 12.5 KM starting in Crystal City and looping around the Air Force Memorial.  There were a few hairpin turns on the leg over, but as the ride progressed, the 1500 participants spread out a bit.

The Goal

Everyone has their own goal of course, but the idea behind this ride was to ride as many laps as you can in the 3.5 hour time allotment and earn medals dependent on the number of laps completed.

• 1-3 Laps Bronze
• 4-7 Laps Silver
• 8 Laps Gold

Ready…Set…Go!

The time arrived and off we went.  I have to tell you I was so excited as I received emails the week before as I registered back in March.  While you hope you don’t have any bike problems, you do expect there to be some flat tires along the way and this ride was no different.  As more laps were completed, the number of riders diminished as did the upside down bikes getting new tubes.  I only saw one scary situation which required emergency medical assistance.  Others just stopped early.  Perhaps they met their goal, not feeling well, or body just said “Not that hill again!.” (The hill up to the Air Force Memorial seemed to take me longer each time I climbed it.  The 8th time up I was going less than 10 MPH!  Got to love gravity! :)

Lap 1 Complete

Since it was a bit slow getting going it took just over 30 minutes to make one lap of the course.   Lap 2 I think only took 20 minutes.  I am hoping to get the results later today or tomorrow to see how my laps did.   I do know my average speed was dropping on my last lap.

Time is running out Lap 8…

So I was not really sure what lap I was on.  The “Laps to Go” was counting up!  I assumed that meant laps completed, so when I crossed the start line at 7 laps with about 25 minutes to go I thought…”This is it, Gold in sight!”  As I approached “the hill” I was a bit worried about my time.  I was not sure I was going to be able to make it back to the start/finish line before 11 AM.  With only 5 minutes to go, I checked my mileage and still had a few miles.  I pushed as hard as I could!  10:59 came around and I was trying to remember how many more turns before the finish line.  At this point I was a bit shaky in my legs.  Eleven am arrived….I thought if I could make it before it was 11:01 I would be golden.  That time came, but I did not give up.  I was so close now and not going to admit defeat!

11:05 AM Course Exit

I was not sure if I had completed 8 laps or not, all I knew was that we all had to exit the course as more events were coming up.  I snagged one more bottle of water from the volunteers who were skilled at delivery while you were biking by which was cool.  I only missed a bottle one time.

Medal Pickup

I walked around the vendors at the finish line to get my medal.  They asked me how many laps I did?  Hmm…I was not quite sure but thought I did 8 laps.  Apparently if you did less than 8 they believed you and you received the medal from the staff there.  They sent me over to a tent where staff were checking the computers and the timing chips we were all wearing to see how many laps we completed.

Gold!

I was so excited when I was told I earned a Gold Medal.  Granted this was not competitive, but it was the longest continuous ride I have ever gone on.  Sadly I use my bike for transportation to cut costs and travel time.  The reason I started biking and gave up the free shuttle bus was because the bus route was changed increasing 5-10 minutes travel time.

My longest trip was about 20 miles.  I did make it to Mt. Vernon with a friend, but we stopped to eat and check out the grounds for a few hours  before getting back on the trail and biking back.

A few weeks back I marshaled Bike DC which was about 20 miles.  I took that at a more leisure pace as we were stopping to help riders in need change flats, etc.

The Day After

I took the free shuttle bus to work today since my knees seemed to not like the ride that much.  That probably means I need to be sure my bike is properly adjusted to prevent issues down the road, especially if I enter more long rides.  Short commutes do not seem to bother my knees.

My Unofficial Stats

• Start Time: 7:30 AM (Crossed start line by 7:33)
• End Time : 11:35 AM
• Average Speed*: 17.9 MPH
• Top Speed*: ~35 MPH (Somehow I cleared my data at the end :( )
• Distance*: ~ 63 Miles or 100 KM

*(According to my bike computer)

Official Stats are in!

Top view sports was kind enough to give me my lap times :)  The data showed 9 laps total with 3:51 for the one, so I added them together for lap 1.

1. 7:33 AM – 7:58 AM ~25 minutes
2. 7:58 AM – 8:23 AM 24:49 minutes
3. 8:23 AM – 8:49 AM 25:48 minutes
4. 8:49 AM – 9:14 AM 25:34 minutes
5. 9:14 AM – 9:44 AM 29:46 minutes
6. 9:44 AM – 10:10 AM 25:54 minutes
7. 10:10 AM – 10:37 AM 27 minutes
8. 10:37 AM – 11:04 AM 27:50 minutes

L to R: Me, Shane, Lisa (Met her day of event)  Why didn’t someone tell me I had helmet hair!  LOL

Wow…Real time System Data

Not much to say, but this site is great.  Not sure the delay if any, but it shows current bikes being used, undocked, and the bikes at each station.  While I don’t think it tells you how many at each dock, it does show empty or full and the coloration helps determine the rest.  The spotcycle app for iPhone and Android shows current status of each station.

So if you are curious on patterns, check this site out during the morning commute, mid day, evening commute and the weekend to see where the CaBi riders are going ro and coming from.

Interactive CaBi Usage Map

Ooh..Change the City or Country :)

London has over 4000 bikes!

Government Shutdown and Reduced Metro Service?

I have heard that if the government shuts down because congress cannot get their act together, that metro will run on a reduced weekend like schedule.  Please don’t be the Sunday one!  Do you really want to wait 20 minutes for a train?  Try taking a bike to work :)

Livingsocial.com is offering 50% off an annual or monthly membership for the Capital Bikeshare in DC.  This is a 2 year old initiative in DC. Maryland, and Virginia to provide on demand bike rentals much like Zipcar does with cars.

How Capital Bikeshare works…..

1. You must have a membership.  $5 a day, $25 a month or $75 for the year.  Right now you can save 50% on them!!!
2. Your membership includes 30 minutes each trip between stations.  After that you pay $12 / hour.
3. Tip:  Before your 30 minutes are up, dock your CaBi at a nearby station and rent another one :)
4. BYOH: Bring your own helmet.  They are not provided or required if you are over 16 in most states, but please be responsible :)

Car Free DC!

Let’s cut out emissions from all those cars, decrease congestion, decrease deaths from vehicular accidents, and decrease the noise of our beautiful communities by selling your car and taking public transit, or a shiny red CaBi to work and for your errands :)

Livingsocial.com

So….Hop on over to Livingsocial ASAP to snag one or a few for family and friends at 50% off before they are gone!

8132 Memberships Sold!!!

• Sold: 8,132
• Value: $75.00
• Discount: 51%
• Savings: $38.00

I have heard that Blu-Ray makes movies unbelievable, but did not experience it until recently first hand.

Is Blu-Ray Better?

I would have to say that I have liked Blu-Ray for the picture and uncompressed 7.1 surround sound that regular DVD cannot provide due to size limitations.  I use a 1080i projector and have a 120″ screen so while the audio has  been amazing, at the size I have the image displayed, the picture seems a little grainy.  I was in Best Buy a week ago and saw a preview of Blu-Ray.  U571 looked unreal.  Seriously, I thought I was on the set watching them shoot the action that is how it looked to me.  It made the movie look way too clear and was hard to believe they were on a submarine several decades ago.

Don’t get Blu-Ray of Old Movies

Don’t need to say much here.  Basically, if you are in the market to replace a DVD of an older movie with a Blu-Ray, it would be worth testing it out first to see if the quality is worth your purchase.  Many old movies are stored on old degrading media and while the motion picture companies do what they can to clean it up, you cannot add more definition if is not there to add!  Now, if you don’t own the movie, since most Blu-Rays for old movies seem to be in the $10 range, then it many be worth it if the corresponding DVD is about the same cost.  I test drove some older Blu-Ray releases from Netflix to see just how clear they were and I was happily surprised, but they were from post 2000 which to me is old being 2011 now :)  Not sure Sound of Music or Space Balls would be noticeably better.

Animated Movies….

Despicable Me and Wall-e on the other hand look amazing!  Especially the computer animation of today, the source files are all capable of rendering high definition and therefore there is no bottle neck when it comes to going back to the original source and “re mastering.”

Physical Media??

Granted I own more than 600 DVDs and now have begun to get some Blu-Ray movies and get rid of my DVD collection, but I wonder if Blu-Ray or physical media in general will be around much longer?  With iTunes and other services allowing you to purchase books, movies, and music in digital form and protect your purchases if something should happen to your computer, is there really any need for the security of physical media?

Advantages of Media..

Historically the ability to “lend” physical media to others was the big reason for purchasing media.  If you are an avid reader, I suppose a floor to ceiling library of physical media looks more accomplished and impressive than an external hard drive sitting on a shelf :)  Recently, more book readers have the ability to lend certain books to others.  This ability is dependent on the publishers permissions which seem to not be book specific, but rather all or nothing for a publisher.  I own a Kindle and of the small number of books I purchased only 5% are able to be lent.  Movies on the other hand are not lend-able to others.  You can of course bring your laptop with the licensed movie over to a friends to show, but this is quite different and certainly more restrictive than bringing over a DVD.

No Cost savings….

You would think if you were to purchase an electronic copy of a movie that you would get a discount.  After all, there is no media to make, no media to stock, no media to ship, etc.  This is the main reason I have not given up my DVDs.  I do subscribe to Netflix a DVD at a time, but don’t currently pay the $2 extra for Blu-Ray.  I just buy the Blu-Ray I like and live with quality of Netflix DVDs.  Need to be sure I like a movie before I spend the money :)

Environmental Impact

A topic of discussions recently.  Of course anything that is not produced physically is saving resources and energy used to produce them.  At the same time though it does reduce the workers as well which eventually will cause lay offs.  What a tangled web.  Seems like no matter what you do, you cannot seem to win.  Recycling on the other hand does not seem to have such an impact on the workforce so long as they innovate and get on board processing consumer waste as opposed to sourcing virgin materials.  The logging industry has a lot to lose by paper recycling for example, but every other industry in the production chain would not be affected much.

Should have a Play Station 3

If only I were a gamer and purchased a PS3.  Not only would I have a cutting edge gaming system, but I would also have a 3D Blu-Ray DVD Player and not have spent money on standard Blu-Ray players.  I have no intention of going to 3D as long as special glasses and TVs are required, but when I see a title in 3D that I watched in 3D Imax, I wonder just how good it would be :) As far as 3D, I will wait until we have holographic images in 3D that project from a paper thick device (Star Trek, Star Wars,SeaQuest).  I think I will be waiting a very long time and my checkbook thanks me for that.