Friday, December 13, 2019

Mondial - Nevertheless, She Persisted

I discovered Randonneuring back in 2006, and officially joined up in 2007.  It has been the best 12 bicycling years of my life.  Many great rides, and many great friends.  I still ride with folks I met on my first 200km!

This past September, my cumulative RUSA kilometers rolled over 40000, which qualifies me for the RUSA Mondial Award, the circumference of the earth being roughly 40000 km.

It wasn't easy.  There were a couple of major health setbacks, one which put me off the bike for 6 months and another knocked my annual distance totals way down (still recovering from that one).

But here I am, and here it is:


By the numbers:
40028 km, ridden in a total time of 2393:54:00

Rides
30 ACP brevets
3 ACP fleches
4 RUSA brevets
3 RUSA dart populaires
21 RUSA populaires 
and
182 RUSA permanents

Ride distance
135 100ks (populaires and permanent populaires, 9 longer than 110km)
97 200ks (loosely speaking.  15 rides were in the 210-218 km distance)
10 300ks
3 360ks
3 400ks
and
2 600ks

Awards accumulated along the way:

Bikes
Some rides on my Lemond Zurich.  Not many, and not longer than a 200k.
2007- August 2010 - the Rivendell Bleriot
August 2010 onward - the custom Sweetpea.  I've worn out and replaced all the components at least once.

Acknowledgements
(a few names from the cast of thousands)
Cecil, Michal, Ray, Susan O, Kevin L, Kevin B, Jeff A, Lesli, Jason, Peg, Narayan, Keith M, and RB