2012 Team Lyle Garden State 8hr Rally

After waiting for a month for my first rally packet to arrive, the email from the Team Lyle Garden State 8hr Rally did not disappoint. LD porn for yours truly.  There was a well presented 32 page PDF of the rally book, as well as a separate PDF for the rules.  Bonus location files in both .csv and  .xls formats where also in there making my job immensely easier.  Package delivered 4 days before the rally.

Let the games begin.

First things first.  I knew the waypoint names wouldn't work for my style and GPS so the first thing I did was rename them using a convention of the first letter of the given name of the bonus, followed by the 2  digit page number, followed by the point value / 100, followed by a letter to indicate it was part of one of 4 threads. I take no credit for the system.  Many who have come before me have laid out those nuggets of wisdom for noob's like me.  That took SUSMIS002 (High Point State Park Monument) and made it   s13101t.  Page 13 - 10,100 points - Top to Bottom Thread. I could then easily convert back and forth between the rally book and my system.  Only problem was when rally HQ would communicate a clarification to SUSMIS002 (which there were only 2, they had clearly done their homework) it made it a little tough to find without re-reading 32 pages of bonus listings.  Fortunately, at the scoring table where it counts, the score sheet had the page numbers, which made scoring a breeze.

For 2 months prior, I assumed the big point winner would be Cape May, NJ to High Point State Point, NJ.  A ridiculously tight time frame from a Branchburg, NJ HQ, but doable.  The rally packet confirmed my suspicions.  It only had a 30,000 thread bonus however, which ended up not making my top 5 routes in the end.  In a way, I am quite glad that it didn't.  My sole intent was to enter and finish my first rally while seeing some bikes and riders who shared a similar passion. I also needed to figure out how much extra time the bonus documentation took for future rallys.  Cranking out 438 Jersey miles with 2 bonus stops wouldn't gain me that experience.  55,000 points would have made it a head scratcher.

To me, the way the bonus locations were laid out screamed 1 and only 1 route.  Jim Abbot, who ended up winning the rally, seemed to be bumping into me quite a bit during the day as did a few others.  The rally post-mortem with Jim seemed to indicate our planned routes only diverged by a few locations.  I came pretty close with a second route which included the graves thread as a bonus, but it was still 6-8,000 points less than the route I chose and the "doability" factor was a bit less in a more congested part of the state.  5 or 6 more small bonuses in the Old Bridge to Jackson Twp area would have been a complete free-for-all and there would have been several competitive routes in play.  Again, I just may not have seen the alternates and this is only my opinion.  That would be my only suggestion for changes to future versions of this rally, which I really hope Anthony and Kate continue.  They set the bar pretty high with their first.

So, when it was all said and done, my route, which basecamp said would take me 8:17 to complete, looked like the dark blue route below.  Rally HQ is indicated by the House at 6 O'Clock in the picture

Bonus distributions were like this:

Rally day.  6:30 am 10/13/2012.  28 degrees F on my deck.   Rally start is 45 minutes away at 70mph with a rider meeting at 8am.

Time to pop my rally cherry, but only after wrapping said cherry in as much electrically powered clothing as my stator can power.

"Ah, that was a refreshing ride" says your raconteur, as he pulls up to the gas station a mile away from rally HQ at 7:30am.  The display on his trusty Tiger 1050 said  80 miles to E on the lightly frosted screen.  "$@#*!" says he in several variations, in his ever professional and calm manner as today is only about staying calm and having fun.

Even though I live about 15 miles from the NJ state line, I always forget that Jersey has that ridiculous "pumping engineer" law.  Gas stations almost never open early, especially on frosty saturday mornings.  No matter how many times I slide my credit card into the pump, it still says "card reader not active" in its' stupid blue scrolling manner.  I have to get to the riders meeting, my plan for a 1 fill day is now shot to hell.  I will now need 2 gas stops on the clock, and my schedule is already tighter than a bull's ass. I need every drop of 2 tanks.  I can go 220 miles on interstate, but economy with this route today down places like "Old Mine Road", and up to the "Highest Point in NJ" wouldn't exactly make old Al Gore proud.

I am going to refrain from a blow by blow of the ride itself.  North West New Jersey is a beautiful place, I ride the high point area several times a year and was stoked to do the same in a rally.

My favorite historical bonus of the trip was my final bonus, worth 3500 points, which was big in this rally:
"World War I ended here by Warren Harding
(a tiny monument marks the spot where on July 1921 President Harding interrupted his golf game to sign the papers that officially ended WWI)"

Below, is a gorgeous picture I took of that location, which exemplifies the beauty, serenity and grandeur of the Garden State.

Then, there is a little perspective of the same shot.  Something tells me the "actual" location may be in section D row 4 of the PC Richard & Son parking lot.  Row 3 is where they put Jimmy Hoffa of course.

And some random other favorites from the day.

Starting in the nosebleed section, row 6 I think?

These are the riders who started in the rows in front of me.  Row 1 sported a couple 2 up on a GS  from Quebec.

Everyone knows dees' geys'

For whom the bells toll

The only giant's I like from Jersey are the one's who ride and offer to hold my flag.  No, I do not have 12 inch wheels on my Tiger.

The little gas oversight at the start of the day cost me in the end.  I got back to HQ at 4:52, my plan was 4:57 as drop dead time because the goal was to finish, not DNF.  You can lose 3 minutes in Jersey in the blink of an eye if 2 people get into a bird flipping contest out the window of their Camaro's.  Extra fuel stop cost me approx 4 minutes.  I needed 7 minutes to get my next to last bonus of SOMMIS010, the Hindu Temple.  I deleted the bonus from my route at 4:10pm so I could stay on the mostly reliable, and always fast rt 287.   Said bonus was worth 2,100 points.  I scored 71,100 points.  Jim Abbot, whom I appreciate letting me bend his ear afterwards, scored 73,200 for the win in the inaugural Team Lyle Garden State 8hr rally. I'll take a second out of 30 any day of the week though.

It's all good.

I won't rerun the coulda-woulda-shoulda's.

Second's not the first loser.

Anyway... I think the takeaway is that rally's have a little sumptin'-sumptin' to do with planning and execution.  I will have a full tank next year if I have to hire a sherpa with a jug to meet me at the starting line.

Congratulations to Jim Abbot on both planning and executing.  Congratulations to the RM's Anthony Mills and Kate Johnson for putting on one hell of show.  Well organized, lots of prizes, lots of riders, fantistic bonus locations.

If the rally master and mistress are reading this, please sign me up for next year.  I can't wait.

Rider #25