New York 100K musings

[ese002]

Against better judgment, I've almost committed to doing the 100K again.

Did the course change since 2014? It looks about the same but the official distance listed is 3.35 miles per lap and my data from 2014 shows 3.41/3.42 miles. Unfortunately, the newer Garmin doesn't have autolap-by-position so I need a real number.

Can anyone make sense of last year's times? There are no totals given and some of the laps don't seem to be laps.

If I do the race, I will be carrying an electric horn and a whistle (for backup). Does anyone know if these actually work to clear a path through the clouds of slow bicycles that clog the course?

[gopherfan]

The course (and distance) is the same, though there is new pavement replacing most of the worst sections. As far as timing, I know they had some issues for people who registered the day of the race but don't know about any other issues.

As far as pedestrians, they've been starting the race earlier which helps. I think it has been better recent years, but the threat of rain also played a part of keeping pedestrian numbers down at least one year.

[ese002]

2017 results show 19 laps. I could have sworn it was 18 laps in 2014*. 19 laps makes sense for 3.35 mile laps but not for 3.4 mile laps.

*Thought it was 2015 but my track says otherwise.

[gopherfan]

It has always been 19, but a few years ago (2015?) they miscounted the laps and made 18 the bell lap. Most people did 18 laps with only a few exceptions like myself that did the full 19. I believe the lead pack went out after realizing the mistake and did the 19th lap after the "finish." My understanding is they purposely duplicated the finish order from lap 18. I suspect my finish is incorrect since my time was for 19 laps while skaters behind me finished before me on lap 18, but it's not like I'm annoyed by this

One year they went without chip timing. Was it that year? I can't remember, but they only tried that once.

[shafeeqs]

My GPS has ended up reading 102.5km after 19 laps. I suspect the official lap distance is for the innermost lane, but since that's the pedestrian lane, the shortest skating lap is longer than the shortest running lap.

The lanes were rearranged a few years ago, which has made the bicycles less of an issue. The course marshals still quit once the winner finishes, so you'll have to contend with crosswalks after that. The addition of the 4 hour relay division in 2017 seems to have helped by keeping more skaters on the track for the last hour.

The "Finish" field in the 2017 results is missing the hour digit. That should be 3 for everybody but the last two. The lap times look reasonable except for the cases where someone's chip didn't trigger resulting in them having one double-length lap and appearing a lap short.

[ese002]

At this point, the forecast is for mostly sunny and dry with a temperature range 69-71F. Most unfortunate.

I just hope that is the worst of it. I've been dragging all week.

[shafeeqs]

So, how did it go?

I did laps 4-8 with a young guy doing the 100k who dropped out with 2 laps to go. Couldn't catch his name and that doesn't seem to match any one in the results.

[ese002]

Originally Posted by shafeeqs

So, how did it go?

I did laps 4-8 with a young guy doing the 100k who dropped out with 2 laps to go. Couldn't catch his name and that doesn't seem to match any one in the results.

It was neither fast nor pretty but we finished in 4:36. It was progressively slower except for the last lap. I experienced an unreasonable amount of cramping considering I've done three skates of this length or more this year with greater elevation gain without such problems. I blame the Sudafed, at least in part. Next time I will make sure to schedule my minor health blowups to not include race day.

I wrote a rough draft of a detailed write-up on the flight back. I will post after I find the time edit it into coherency. Could be some time considering that I need to do the same for Grand Forks and Duluth.