You ever get lost on a ride?

Triathlon Forum
1

Stupid freakin construction!

Ok, so I’m trying to lay out a nice route between my place and a coffe shop in a neighboring town for a morning group ride with some area guys. I am trying to avoid rough roads, traffic, ill trained dogs. Problem is a lot of the farmland in my area is being converted to housing neighborhoods. Which means putting in sewers and stuff. I missed a turn on the way out, no biggie I shoot down the road I deem too busy for a group but ridable solo. Coming back I try to go my planned route and get not one but two detours due to construction. End result, 11 miles to the coffee shop, 21 miles coming home. I had to stop at a buddies to refill the one little bottle I had on the bike. I drove this route 2 weeks ago, it was fine.

Only good thing is that my legs didn’t seem to mind the longer than planned ride.

2

I got lost on a run once. I was going out and back and the route to turn around was to run around the block. The only difference was the block was not a square, but a triangle. I headed out completely away from where I wanted to go. A 5 mile run turned into a 17 mile run. Farthest I have run to date.

On a side note, the people in Medford, Oregon do not have a clue where the only interestate is. My hotel was off of I5, but no one spoke with, except one (out of 30+) people knew where it was it.

3

Many times. Not really lost, as in no clue where I am, but I’ve had to use the sun to navigate on unfamiliar roads (knowing the general direction I need to go, but no clue as to what the connecting roads were). Makes for great adventure.

4

hahaha…fond memories. I went down to Raleigh to visit my brother and race White Lakes last year and went out for a taper jog that was suppose to be 45 mins. Turned into an hour and a half. The roads where they live are screwy and of course I forgot the name of his street so I couldn’t even ask for help since I didn’t know what to ask for. Not sure how but I eventually found my way back.
Oh and I couldn’t just turn around and go back as I had turned so many times, I forgot where I had come from. :wink:
Dense I know.
:slight_smile:

5

I got off course and then (semi) lost in an Olympic distance Triathlon many years ago.

I got off my bike in T2 and took off running, to this date, I can’t remember running better out of T2. I was passing people left and right. Well, the day before this race, there was a cross country running race using the same style chalk markings on the ground, so at one point, a few people ahead of me turned left when they should have gone straight. Within a hundred yards, I passed these people which made me the leader of the losers.

I turned a 6.2 mile run into probably a 9 mile death march. I finished within the last 5 or so people in the race.

6

Not really lost, but have had to use the sun to navigate. Found this long, straight road on a map yesterday and decided to give it a shot. After 3-4 miles of bugs & the scent of freshly spread rotting cow dung, the smooth pavement changed to dirt. Had to turn around. &^**#@%

7

Newbie mistake, flew down to phoenix once.

Got to the hotel and had a couple of hours before my meeting so I asked the concierge if there was any good running routes. It was Oct and was really looking forward to running in Shorts and a T vs typical Seattle rain gear.

The concierge shows me a map of a 5 mi loop trail through “the park” right next to the hotel. So I head out on this nice beautifully groomed trail. It was great! Beautiful day, great trail, stretching the legs after the plane ride.

Well the trail gets narrower and narrower but there are signs marking the course. Before I know it, I realize I have been out for well over an hour (I am not that slow) and I am out in the middle of the desert. No trail, no signs, the suns beating down and I did not bring water, money, ID nothing. Totally lost. I can see subdivisions in the distance so I was never fearing for my life but REALLY did not want to go up to someone’s house and ask for water and directions to the Hilton.

Finally I see two large buildings in opposite directions when I realize I do not even know what the hotel looks like. I was not paying attention when the cab drove up and did not look back when I left for my run. Start running to the first one and it turns out to be an office park. Run / walk to the second and got lucky that it was my hotel. Arrived completely spent and dehydrated.

Now whenever I am on a run away from home, I always stop and look back a couple of times. It is amazing how different things look when you are heading in the opposite direction.

8

turn around just because of a little bit of dirt? that’s when the fun begins. A friend and I linked two dead-end roads on Easter Sunday by taking a 4x4 jeep trail through a state park. 12 miles of jeep trail, 7 stream crossings we had to wade (two were waist deep too!), and some nice smooth singletrack, all on a road bike. it was a wonderful day.

It’s pretty hard to get lost riding around here. so long as you turn around when you hit a) the golden gate bridge, b) the ocean, c) highway 80 to tahoe, and d) people with guns guarding their pot fields up north, you’re fine.

J

9

Getting lost on a long ride, is when the real riding begins.

I used to ride with Alex Steida, former 7-11 pro in Vancouver, and he told me that years ago they had a close-the-loop policy on spring training camp rides ie no doubling back or re-tracing your steps. You had to find a road that would close the loop you were on - somehow. Often this meant outrageous detours, or hikes with bikes over the shoulders through farmers fields or banging along a potholed gravel/dirt road for an hour, but they HAD to close the loop. I love that kind of riding.

Fleck

10

Yes. This legendary ride was later dubbed the “Death Ride” by all participants involved…

I was still highschool age during that fateful day. A group of had planned to do a 90+ mile ride that saturday. Well, the day before I went to the library, got out the county maps (this was before the days of those wonderful Gazetteers) and made a trace of our route on a piece of paper. It was to take us from lansing, jackson, points west and then home again.

The day started out ok. We made it to jackson ok. Unfortunately it was turning into a hot one, uncomfortably so, as the sun rose higher in the sky (we later found out the temperature breached the 100 deg mark).

A ways west of jackson I realized we were no longer “on the map” as it were. We had missed a turn. By the sun we could tell we were still heading west, but now I had no idea when to turn north and head home.

To make matters worse, being a neophyte of sorts, I had not yet learned the subtle arts of diluting ones sports drink for a big workout. Every sip I took of my seemingly hypersweetened gatorade made me want to retch. I couldn’t drink it. We searched in vain for a gas station or something. We were in unfamiliar territory and didn;t feel terribly comfortable banging on someones door asking for help.

Finally we happened on a trailer park and found an unattended spigot. We filled up our bottles and went on our way. Unfortunately, it seems the spigot may have been of the “unpotable” varietey as drinking this swill made me feel the same as my heretofore mentioned sports drink.

I personally was in a bad way by this point. It had been about 5 hours and I really hadn’t had a whole lot to eat or drink. I was severly dehydrated and starving. My companions were doing slightly better if only because they had more of a tolerance for heat than I did. The situation was made worse because we still were not sure we were headed for home by the most expedient way. I was very demoralized by this point.

Finally we reached a familiar road and began trudging home with a bit more confidence. Sadly, I was in such a state that little bumps in the road had transformed into mountain ranges from the last time I had ridden over them. I needed help over seemeingly every rise in the road. I was getting delerious. Totally demoralzied and outside myself with suffering.

Finally, we made a turn on a road that would take us directly home. Unfortunately, we chaned upon what has to be the biggest hill in the greater lansing area. It lay beween us and home. I struggled mightly and made my way yard by yard to the top. Straining as I stood on my pedals and getting a push from my friends. Finally, I made it to the top.

And collapsed.

I couldn’t get back up. I was done, spent, bonked. I have never been as tired or exhausted since. I fell over onto the shoulder, barely able to move.

My firends roda ahead to a nearby house, where the gracious residednts were so kind to scrape me up off the pavement and take me to their wonderful home with CENTRAL AC!!!

My folks came about 20 minutes later and drove me home. I was done.

The final milage tally at the time I stopped: 115 miles.

Miles still to go to get home: 20

i never would have made it. It was always just a matter of when I would break down.

That day will live with me forever.

Marty M
Proud survivor of Death Ride 1991

11

Was at a wedding up in Jackson, NH. Wedding was at 4:30. Went to the reception and said “I’m looking for about a 50 mile loop, any suggestions?”

Kind old lady pulls out a map and we look and decide that a loop around Mt. Washington looks to be about 40 miles, based on the legend. We even got a little piece of string and marked off the distances. I left at noon, figuring I would get back at the latest around 3. Problem is, the 0 miles part of the legend we had used to estimate the distance was in the middle, so instead of 10 miles the legend was really 20 miles long.

60 miles later at around 4 PM I am climbing up to Crawford Notch doing 5-6 mph in my smallest gear, in the aerobars with a 30-35 mph headwind.

I get back to the hotel at 5 PM, sprint into the shower, and figure if I can just slip into the back of the church before the bride/groom walk out I get credit for being at the whole sevice. Only problem, it is a black tie wedding and my wife had deemed a clip-on bow tie inappropriate, so I’m trying to teach myself how to tie the thing.
Eventually I gave up and just knotted the thing up as best I could and shoved the extra pieces into the collar. I sprint for the church, and unfortunately almost knock the bride/groom over as I
try to barrel through the door.

Fortunately, I was actually late enough that my wife had transitioned from being pissed that I had missed the service to relieved that I wasn’t upside down in some ditch somewhere.

All in all, one of the better weddings I’ve attended…

12

I’ve had more than a few “Now this should take me back to …” and “So that’s where that road goes.”

Word of advice: Do NOT attempt a new route when under a time constraint, (e.g., you have to be back by 12:00 to go to a wedding) even IF** **you’ve driven it in your car beforehand.

13

“You ever get lost on a ride?”

Yep, about once a week.

14

I say this with the utmost respect, but American’s, who don’t run or ride( and that represents most of the pop.), typically have the poorest sense of direction or distance I have ever encountered. I think this is a by-product of the car-culture. If not, why is this the case? What’s with the poor sense of direction and distance?

When I was shopping around for a hotel online for IMFL last year, hotel desk/resvervation folk had no idea how far it was from their hotel to the host hotel and it was just down the road. I simply wanted to know if it was walkable. They could’nt tell me. They suggested a car, but it was only about a mile!! I can’t tell you how many times I have encountered this on similar situations when in business in the US staying at hotels and plotting out run routes. They will often have no clue as to how far it is to such-and-such a land-mark( a park or whatever), even though you can see it out the front window of the hotel. When you inform them that you are running there, they think you are nuts!

My apologies If I have offended any of my good American friends.

15

Years ago after a mountain biking trip in North Georgia, my buddies dropped me and my bike off in S GA on their way to Jacksonville, FL and I rode back to Tallahassee. That was an interesting trip.

16

<< My apologies If I have offended any of my good American friends.

you damn Canadians, you think you know everything :wink:

of course for those that don’t know, yes I live in the US, but I am still Canadian born and breed, even though I don’t like to admit it.