One Helluva non-Strava experience

  I don't think the revolution created by the internet/gps industry will have a truly negative effect.  I used to use a cycling computer.  For years I liked keeping up with the rolling increase in my average speed during a season as well as the mileage.  Then gasoline reached $2 a gallon permanently and I found myself reaching my mileage goals in July.  The computer went in the trash and I haven't been distracted since.  At One Helluva Ride this past weekend, all the spandex hamsters were a twitter (pun intended) over their Strava figures, or their Map My Ride goals and talked about their concerns over the battery life on the unit etc.  

There were a few groups who flew by

 like the jerks in this video,

but overall it seemed that people are using these programs to reach personal goals.   I poke a lot of fun at the recreational cyclists who take themselves too seriously.  I think they do, but this sport is probably the healthiest way for competitive people to find an outlet.  These little programs keep the
weekend warriors on track where team sports do not.  

I still think it's a little silly, obsessive and distracting but I have non cycling friends with whom I played team sports who have become professional spectators 

with gambling problems.  

They have to win.  So they keep trying to win.

As silly as the spandex hamster is when he sends out daily reports of wind trainer performance to his friends, it's still better than gulping beer in front of the TV

and looking up the lines on the afternoon games.

 The rest of the day was unparalleled.  I got to compare my faux vintage Hillborne to the latest and greatest.  That enclosed recumbent trike was cool as it looked and made the weirdest whirling sounds as he passed me on the course.  The owner told me it is just obscenely, stupidly fast. 

 He was running up to
40 MPH on some flat stretches of the course.

 The weather was incomparable, cool in the morning and just touching 80 F at the finish where they filled us up with a truckload of ice cold watermelon. Sam and I finished the metric within 5 hours.  Considering I spend between 45-60 minutes at the rest stops or stopping to talk with people,
I averaged between 15-16 MPH as best as I can guess.

That's good enough and they gave me a badge for it, WOOHOO!