“Everybody screws the pooch in a rally.  Whoever screws the pooch least…..wins.”

Tom Melchild

I thought I felt very good with 6 or 7 of hours of sleep at the end of Leg 2.  The air-conditioned sanctuary of the L.A. hotel after the inferno that was Arizona and SoCal desert was like being in a spa located inside a walk-in freezer.

But in the blurry days of Leg 3 that follow…it wasn’t until long rally was over that I discovered a series of mistakes I made.  And, boys and girls, it was the difference of a 5th place finish and a 13th place finish.

Don’t get me wrong…I don’t play this scenario as a reason I was robbed of something.  I placed 13th.  I’m proud of it, it’s a huge accomplishment to finish the IBR twice now, and was yet another life-changing event for me.

However, I do mull it over hoping are valuable lessons to be learned in case I’m fortunate enough to ride a third one.  Yes, I’m hooked and have a monkey on my back for a Top 10 finish.   Playing the “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” game can be helpful…as long as I consider it in a positive way.  It’s when you drink a beer …or a lot of beers with your riding friends after the event that your forget that point and melodramatically project, “I could have been a contender!”  Again, that’s not the reason I’m blogging.

Let me set the stage and summarize the conditions of Leg #3.

I rocked Leg #2 and moved up from 40th to 6th.  It was a solid leg, I didn’t make any large errors, planned about right, picked up additional points because I routed slightly conservatively, and had a good time doing it.  Besides, it was in the sunny west through the prairies where the skies are not cloudy all day!

The only downer was the last day was harsh on me and the other riders with the 114 degree heat of Arizona and I was wiped out more than I wanted to be as I rolled into L.A.

We got our packet at 4 a.m. and having been the third packet of the rally I thought I was into a good rythym for inputting, adding data, and analyzing the routes.  I was confident, but I didn’t think cocky.  To me there was a fairly obvious route that most of the top dogs would be taking to Lake Superior and I thought I could do it…even factoring in the fatigue the last 4 days would bring up.

We were given the usual memory stick with a .txt file of coordinates. Below is a print-screen of a portion of them. It has three basic elements: bonus initials, latitude, and longitude. Essentially, you just upload this data file to your GPS…pretty easy actually.

You’re also given a paper packet with bonus information details and it sits in your tankbag.  While I could just upload the data straight to the GPS trying to flip through the packet of paper at motorcycle speed is both a pain in the butt and  not the safest thing to consider.  Pulling over is time consuming as well.

Here’s a sample of one page:

Using a combination of the tricks I’ve learned over the years with Microsoft Streets and Trips to “envision” the route and adding some of the pertinent packet information to the data file prior to being uploaded to the GPS pays dividends while in a rally.

I go the file and add information so that it looks like this:

Screw Up #1:  Missing a Big Bonus Because of Packet Reading

Effect: Major.  5 positions, “Coulda” been 8th

It has the bonus page number, bonus initials, bonus points, time restrictions, latitude, and longitude. (green are the ones I add)  It still uploads the same, but on the little GPS screen you can see the added green items instead of having to stop your bike and refer to the packet…or worse trying to read the packet while at speed and then having to gather up 42 from all over I-15.

The hitch to the giddy-up is that you have to be completely thorough in transcribing data from the packet to the data file…and I wasn’t.  And I even had developed a QC process for that on Leg #1 thinking I could easily miss a page of the packet.  But, it passed that QC step because I missed transcribing a single bonus on a page….and as a result confused it with one of the extra “markers” staff had purposely put in the data file as a means to track riders that cheat and e-mail it to teams..  With my process the markers were very distracting as they still came up on the GPS, but I was able disregarded them because of the deliberate XXX I had placed in the title. .  And it just happen to be a big point bonus very near the route I took.

I did learn that I will need to change that process in the future…somehow.

4,800 points missed….was potentially 5 positions.  Doh!

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Mountain Meadows memorial 4,835 points Daylight hours only
UT-18 between Enterprise and Veyo, Utah
N37 28.519 – W113 38.565
Take a photo of the memorial cairn. The parking lot is about one mile from the main highway on a dirt road. The road may be closed during rain. If so, take a photo of the memorial that overlooks the valley to the west. It is a short walk from the parking lot nearest the highway.

Category: Mass murder.

In September 1857 the Fancher party emigrant train from Arkansas was attacked by Mormons at this site. On September 11, after a five-day battle, the assailants approached the embattled pioneers under a truce flag. They convinced the emigrants to surrender peacefully and to be led out of the valley under guard. On a prearranged signal, however, the Mormon militia shot and killed 120 men and women, leaving only 17 small children to survive. It remained the worst mass murder in the country’s history for exactly 144 years until the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001.
Date: ________ Time: _________Odometer: ________ Code: MMM Approved: _________

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Screw Up #2: Poor Routing Choice through Wyoming, Hypothermia, and Crappy R.E.M.

Effect:  Subjective Error, no direct position change

Screw Up #33: Sunsets in South Dakota

Category: Myopic Vision of the Future

Effect: 2 positions mitigated by alternate bonus for net 1 position = 7th

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Telephone pole 3,588 points Daylight hours only
Southwest corner of the intersection of SD-3 and CR-14
3.5 miles east of Trent, South Dakota
N43 54.355 – W096 35.216

Take a photo of the roadside memorial to Randy Scott.

Category: 2nd degree manslaughter.

Congressman and former South Dakota governor Bill Janklow, a notorious speeder, ran a stop sign at this intersection, killing motorcyclist Randy Scott. The jury was not informed of the defendant’s twelve speeding tickets or three prior accidents, but since his bullshit defenses couldn‘t even pass the laugh test, he was convicted anyway. He served three months. Because Janklow claimed that he was on public business at the time of the accident, taxpayers ended up footing the million dollar bill to settle the lawsuit brought by Scott’s family.
Date: ________ Time: _________Odometer: ________ Code: TNT Approved: _________

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Screw Up #4: Blown Shocks and Fatigue

Category: German Crap/I Get Safer When I Get Fatigued

Effect: Probably 2 positions, but  = 5th and beat Marbach: 123563

I initially thought of the blown shock as the major reason

Screw Up #5: “Losing” My Rally Flag

Category: Stupid Rider

Effect: Stupid Rider, 1 position tself.

To dwell on all the dumb things though I think it would be a more balanced story to share some of the things I did right.  I could have easily not finished 13th place and even DNF’ed

If you think now this is a case study in how many things I screwed up on….that’s not at all the full picture of what it is to ride 11 days and serious earn the title of “World’s Toughest Rider”.  Just because I wasn’t anywhere close to snatching the first place position away from Jim Owen doesn’t mean I’m not competing with myself.  The IBR is a LONG ride and you have victories on the way.  Occasionally, you notice you did something right when you could have made things far worse.

Wise Move #1: Learning to Ride Again….the Positive Effect of  7 Hours of Sleep

Effect: +9 positions, 13th instead of 22nd

After I had essentially given up on Top 10 finish with a blown shock and was headed back to the barn, it’s rather amazing what 6 or 7 hours of sleep will do for a person on the 10th day of a rally.  In the cool and clear morning as I pointed my wounded bike west I realized the blown shock wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.  Each mile that I rode, each time I looked over the route choices  in front of me, that Canada leg just became preferable to slabbing it back via I-94 and I-90…and it even was advantageous because Canada’s rodes aren’t as torn up with mile after mile of single lane grooved pavement like the U.S. and the Stimulus Building.

With the exception of about 200 miles of two-lanes twisties south of Calgary to Sandpoint…it was a longer, but better choice. So, I buckled down and decided to gut it out.  It was the right move and ended up being the single biggest day of mileage of the whole rally for me.  Man, those roads of Canada cruise very well. ;)

And during that day I had a choice of doing Saskatoon and then bailing out towards the finish line and a smaller business, or take a second leap and add Edmonton.  I added it only after conservatively deciding that if it meant getting to Sandpoint by 5 a.m….5:30 at the latest.  It was a slog, but as I kept estimating arrival time I would have made Sandpoint by 5:10 a.m….center in the heart of reasonable.

Wise Move #3.4b: Edmonton is doable.