PA1000k Rider Progress (8/1/2008 edition)

[Tom Rosenbauer]

Riders will be clipping in at 4AM on Friday, August 1, for the 2nd edition of the Endless Mountains PA1000k. Reports on rider progress will be posted here.

Additional details on the PA1000k are posted at this link:
http://users.rcn.com/trosenbauer/PA1000K.html

Regards,

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[len zawodniak]

Good luck to everyone, Ride safely !- Len

[Tom Rosenbauer]

All riders have reached the Carbondale controle, well within the time limit.

16 of 19 riders have reached the overnight controle in Hallstead. Steve Scheetz, Bill Olsen, and Emily O'Brien have met up with each other in Carbondale and are on pace to reach Hallstead shortly after midnight.

Rick Carpenter was the first arrival to the Hallstead controle, getting in at 8:45PM, followed by Tim Argo 5 minutes later.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

All 19 riders have made it safely to the sleep-over controle in Hallstead. The last 3 riders, Steve S., Emily O., and Bill O. arrived together at 12:15 AM.

Rick Carpenter is the first to leave the Sleep-over controle, departing at 12:30AM ... he is currently projected to arrive at the 2nd sleep-over controle around 5PM.

Guy Harris is also back on the road for the 2nd stage, having left at 1:30AM.

Weather for the 1st stage was nearly ideal, with temperatures in the mid 80's and lower than average humidity, for this time of year. The forecasted showers never developed today, but appear to be another possibility for Saturday's stage.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

The last group of riders has left the overnight controle at 4:00AM. All 19 riders are now back on course for the second stage to Lewisburg.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

Volunteer Bill Blank has called in from the field, and reported that the riders have cleared the Sayre controle. The riders encountered a brief line of showers along the NY Southern Tier and it looks like another one is headed their way near Towanda.

Rider Notes:

Bill Olsen, having just completed the RM1200k last weekend, decided that the PA1000k was a good excuse to take some more time off from work. Having also completed the S1200k, C1200k and with plans to ride the LC1200k, I'm looking forward to hearing from Bill to see how all these challenging events compare with one another.

Emily O'Brien, riding a fixed-gear bike, is getting through all the tough climbs. I saw her at the top of the Fox Gap climb, and she indicated that the climb was at the limit of being doable for her to ride up. The other riders (myself included) are amazed at her ability to get through some pretty tough terrain.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

All riders have cleared the Canton controle. Rick Carpenter was first rider through at 8:39AM and is on track to get to the Sleepover controle in Lewisburg by 6PM -- however, this may be a bit optimistic, given the hilly terrain and 2 major climbs that lie ahead.

The last rider through Canton is Jim Logan at 12:55AM. Earlier in the day, Jim had called me on his cell phone to indicate that he thought he might miss the closing time in Canton. However, he made it with 45 minutes to spare, so hopefully, things are now going better for Jim.

Current weather conditions are clear with temperatures in the low 80's and below average humidity. After 2 brief rain showers, it looks like the riders will stay dry for a while although the forecast still calls for a 40% chance of showers through tonight. If the current weather forecast holds for Sunday, the riders can look forward to another day in the low 80's and a 9 MPH tailwind to push them home from Lewisburg.

Rider notes:

Dan Blumenfeld is once again, dispelling the myth that recumbents can't climb very well -- the riders trying to hang with Dan on some of the more challenging climbs will attest to that!

There are 2 tandems on course, both from the DC area: one piloted by Chuck Wook and stoked by Crista Borras, the other piloted by Kelly Smith and stoked by Mary Crawley.

-Tom Rosenbauer

[Tom Rosenbauer]

I just spoke to volunteer Ron Anderson. He reports that riders are making good progress to the Lewisburg sleep-over controle and is expecting the first rider to arrive around 7PM. Most of the riders are within an hour of each other and probably near the final major climb of the day.

All 19 riders are still officially on-course and within the time limit.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

Bill Blank has called in to report that 16 of 19 riders have cleared the Mill Hall controle. Bill is sweeping the course backwards to check on Steve Scheetz, Emily O'Brien, and Jim Logan. Rick Carpenter was the first rider through at 3:20PM. The three trailing riders have over an hour and a half to reach Mill Hall before the 9:40PM closing time. They will then be past the 600k mark which allows for more time to reach the next controle.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

Ron Anderson reports that the first 3 riders have made it safely to the Lewisburg sleep-over controle:
- Rick Carpenter
- Guy Harris
- Tim Argo

Rider Notes:

Tim Argo from Cincinnati, Ohio registered for the PA1000k with "Permission of the RBA" as the option for qualification. I was a bit concerned that the PA1000k might be beyond his reach, since I didn't see any RUSA results posted for Tim in 2008. With Tim consistantly riding with the lead riders over 2 days of challenging terrain, I can once again admit to seriously under-estimating a new participant on the Eastern PA series!

Rick Carpenter is riding the PA1000k as a final tune-up for the 1001 mile (1600k) Migliaitalia, starting in 2 weeks:
http://www.1001migliaitalia.it/

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

George Metzler is the 4th rider in at the overnight controle, with a group of riders not far behind.

Steve Scheetz and Emily O'Brien have cleared the Mill Hall controle. Jim Logan has reached the Mill Hall controle but is outside the time limit and is the first rider to withdraw. He is planning to spend the night at the Best Western in Lock Haven. Jim explains that he pushed too hard on the first day and did not recover enough to keep pace today.

Rick Carpenter is planning to start the last stage before midnight, with a projected finish around 4PM on Sunday.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Tom Rosenbauer]

All but 3 of the remaining riders have made it to the sleep-over controle in Lewisburg. Bill Olsen, Steve Scheetz, and Emily O'Brien are the remaining riders still out on course. Jim Logan has checked in, for the night, at the Best Western in Lock Haven.

-Tom Rosenbauer

[Tom Rosenbauer]

Steve, Bill, and Emily arrived at the Lewisburg sleep-controle around 1:45AM, took a short nap, and are back out on course.

All of the other riders are back out on course, as well. First rider, Rick Carpenter headed out at 11:45PM and the last 2 riders, Greg Conderacci and Andrea Matney left at 5:30AM.

Jim Logan has left the Lock Haven Best Western at 6AM and is headed to the Lewisburg controle.

All 19 riders are currently on course with 18 still riding within the time limit.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA

[Ron Anderson]

It's just after 11am Sunday and Barbara and I are wrapping things up here at the Lewisburg controle. It was a long, busy night, but everthing went pretty smoothly. Jim Logan arrived here at about 10am and will be hitching a ride back to Quakertown with me and Barb in the car after completing 430 miles. All the remaining 18 riders are on course with the first, Rick Carpenter departing before midnight, and the last pair Greg and Andrea leaving just before 6am. A large group, including the two tandems and Dan on the recumbent hit the road together at 4:10am. All the riders, although showing the effects of two days on the road, seemed to be in good spirits and ready for the challenges ahead on their third and final day. [Ron assures me that a lynch mob is not headed my way at the finish. -Tom Rosenbauer]

It has been a fun and educational experience for Barbara and me. We enjoyed the company of all the riders as they passed through, and I hope we were able to help them along in their journey.

Ron & Barbara Anderson

[Paul Scearce]

Paul caught Guy riding this am and was able to accompany him to Gap St. where he left him at 8:45am. He was the second to make the turning.

The last 3 Bill, Steve and Emily were the tail riders and Paul rode with them to Good Spring [Mile 500] and left them there at 12:30.

He is now getting ready to drive out to sweep the course in our van. He tells me that everyone is riding strongly.

Naomi (for Paul Scearce)

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