Tips and Advice for Your 100MoN this Weekend
I’m feeling a little bit under the weather, so just a quick note today.
This weekend, approximately 500 of you will be racing your 100 Miles of Nowhere. I want to wish you good luck, and to give you some valuable advice.
- First and foremost, have fun during your ride. This is a silly, ridiculous and downright weird thing you’re doing. Don’t make a grind out of it.
- Take time to take pictures, take a break, and look around. I kind of resisted when The Hammer suggested we stop at the park and try out those giant balls — I was in the “let’s put in the miles” mode. But because we did stop to take pictures, have ice cream, and play at the park, we had what I would call our best 100MoN event ever.
- Make a video. I recommend Hyperlapse. If you’ve got an iPhone, download this awesome (and free) app, which makes it super simple to make a sped-up video of your course. Then upload it to Vimeo or YouTube so it can be embedded in my blog. (iPhones also have built-in time-lapse video available; I haven’t played with it yet, so don’t know much about it.)
- Send your writeup to fatty@fatcyclist.com. Make sure the subject line has 100MoN or 100 Miles of Nowhere in it, and also what makes your ride interesting or special.
- Write your writeup in Word. Or just plain text in your email body.
- Include lots of photos and links to your video, if you have one. Send photos to me as attachments, or embedded where they belong in the story in Word, or give me a link to the folder containing your photos in Dropbox or something like that.
- Don’t send hi-res photos. Your photos are going to be no more than 495 pixels wide in my blog post.
- Keep your writeup length reasonable. Under 1200 words. I’m not going to make a multi-parter out of your story. Only I get to do multi-parters.
- Short paragraphs are your friend. Have you noticed that I use paragraph breaks a lot more than most people do? Have you noticed that it’s also reasonably easy to scan and read my blog? Coincidence? No.
- If you’ve got a Strava of the ride, send me a link to it. And screenshots of interesting things like elevation profiles, the track of the ride, stuff like that.
- If you’ve already sent me your writeup, you need to send it again. I’m starting to collect and flag writeups NOW, and stuff you sent three weeks ago is buried under ten miles of inbox clutter.
- If I don’t publish your writeup, don’t get mad at me. I publish quite a few writeups every year, but not all of them. It doesn’t mean that your writeup is bad. It just means that I ran out of time or energy or something. It’s not you. It’s me.
And — once again — be sure to have fun. We made a bunch of money for Camp Kesem. You got an awesome jersey and a bunch of cool swag.
Now get out there and enjoy yourself…on a very small course…for 100 miles!
Comment by New Zealand Ev | 10.17.2014 | 10:19 am
Thanks for the advice. I’ll be starting mine in under 2 hours now. The rain is going to hold off, just a bit of wind to contend with. I really need to remember to have fun and not make a grind out of it.
Comment by 8one6 | 10.17.2014 | 10:41 am
Anyone going to do this in NYC this weekend? Anyone done it there in the past? Thoughts on where to go would be much appreciated. (I’ve done it on my trainer at home in years past, but figured I’d aim to be outside given the gorgeous forecast for the weekend.)
Comment by Anonymous | 10.17.2014 | 11:56 am
Just resent my report since I sent it 3 weeks ago and it is probably buried. Lots of pictures, hopefully not too much text and an interesting title 100 MoN – Swan Song to my Knees. Doesn’t that make you want to read my report?
Good luck everybody riding tomorrow and hope you have as much fun as I did on my ride (although I didn’t get to play in giant balls or kiss camels I did have paparazzi and pink flamingos and a cool aid station).
Comment by MtlDan | 10.17.2014 | 2:24 pm
Hi 8one6,
I used to live in NYC (has it really been 20 years?) and I would do short, fast, flat, traffic-free laps at the southern end of Roosevelt Island.
Comment by Jeff Bike | 10.17.2014 | 3:39 pm
“It’s not you. It’s me.” Had a girlfriend tell me that once. You know what, it was her!
Comment by Corrine | 10.17.2014 | 3:43 pm
Oops, the anonymous response up above was from me,Corrine. Not sure why it came across as anonymous.
Comment by Jeffrey R | 10.17.2014 | 4:24 pm
If anyone from Berkeley/East Bay wants to join me on Sunday, I’ll be competing in the Spectacular Berkeley Marina Gravel Grinder Mixed Terrain Cyclocross Extravaganza. Probably with detours to the Bay Bridge, Aquatic Park, and finishing in Point Richmond for burgers.
Oh, and the wife is making Apple Pie. :D
Comment by Jeff Helm | 10.17.2014 | 6:05 pm
I did my 100.5 miles today. It was a .66 mile course around the building I work in, an industrial building with 4 suites. I picked this course and used a vacation day to do it just to mess with my co-workers minds. It worked, because they could not see the point of it. While those of us doing this ride know the point of this ride is the lack of a point, other than to help Fatty raise money for Camp Kesem. Which is not really a point, but just the right thing to do. For me my pie was knowing I did a good thing for a good cause, and I did get 2 scoops of ala’mode with it. The look on faces of the people from the other suites when they went outside for breaks/lunch and there I was just plugging away and doing it 8 hours (including a potty break to honor Fatty) which is a personal best for me. Good luck to everyone and Thanks Fatty for holding this ride.
Comment by BostonCarlos (Formerly NYC) | 10.17.2014 | 7:20 pm
8one6 – I’ve done 2 (attempted 3) in NYC. The first one I did and likely best option for you is the lower loop of central park. It’s short of 2 miles, and if you start around 6am, you can knock it out before it gets really REALLY crowded in the park. Just make sure there isn’t a CRCA race that morning. The other one I did was at Kissena Velodrome. We reserved it a few weeks in advance and set up a tent and everything. You can probably just show up and ride there but don’t be surprised if you get kicked out by the racers who reserve it for practice.
One route I tried and failed at (too much effort for my physical fitness level that day) was laps around Grants Tomb. Traffic is surprisingly mild there, but it’s uphill one way and it adds up to a ton of climbing.
Comment by BostonCarlos (Formerly NYC) | 10.17.2014 | 7:22 pm
Also, if you are in/near boston, feel free to join me on my route tomorrow. Doing out and backs between Belmont and Waltham on concord Ave. 100 miles, 8800 feet of climbing. 1 out and back is 9ish miles. I’ll be doing 11. Here’s the route: http://www.strava.com/routes/277367
Comment by leroy | 10.17.2014 | 8:39 pm
8one6– I’ve done the 100 MON in Prospect Park. Much calmer than Central Park. Report here:
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2009/05/25/100-miles-of-nowhere-more-racers-reports/
I’m out of town this weekend, but plan on riding the 100 MoN next weekend. A long out and back if the weather is good; prospect park or something else if weather isn’t good.
Or something goofier if I can think of it.
Comment by davidh-Marin,ca | 10.19.2014 | 4:46 pm
@leroy
Something goofier? You need to find a ‘Dog Park’ to ride circles around. Then the dog cold be there to live blog your effort.
Comment by leroy | 10.20.2014 | 5:40 am
davidh- well, I thought that was a great idea, but my dog reminded me he’s not a working breed, and if he were, I couldn’t afford him. However, he did volunteer to write snarky comments of any photo of me in Lycra.
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