PBP - I don't remember it like others seem to

[Andrew]

I'm amazed at the memory and post match analysis demonstrated by some of the posters on this forum! Sometimes I wonder if I was on the same ride!!

Seriously, I'm not be sarcastic or anything. I'm actually kind of envious.

Because, for me, I don't really remember a great deal of the detail of what was where, or how I did what. I couldn't tell you for certain where I slept, the names of controls, or who I talked with. This is over simplifying, I know, but I pretty much turned up, rode it and came home. No major incidents, no forgetting of things, no panics... nothing really. 

The minor incidents I did have (front mech playing up, gps battery extender packed up, not being woken up) were dealt with casually, almost flippantly. I'd adopted a cyclotourist attitude for the return leg and rode each leg as a ride in itself. Like each leg was a day's pootle... I just repeated it over and over!

Due to that attitude, I don't know if I missed out on something! Can anyone tell me what I was doing between 7:15pm on Sunday until midday on Thursday?

[arabella]

No, I don't remember much either.
A succession of large halls with food and cycling in between.
Some weather.
A pretence of sleep.

[LEE]

Same here.

That's the story of Audaxing for me though.  I rarely remember much about any ride.  I find it hard to believe PBP was a 4 day/night ride.  In retrospect it feels like a 400 or 600 (although the night stage on BCM600 somehow seems longer than my memory of 4 combined PBP nights)

I think my brain just goes into a "Zen" setting when I'm riding and I don't seem to notice the passage of time or places.

I blame the Endorphines.

[vorsprung]

It's just lack of sleep.  The only bit that is blurred to me is  Tinténiac - Carhaix on the outbound as I'd had 24 hours awake by then.  I had a catnap somewhere around there and that bucked me up enough to get to Brest.  I don't wish to blow my own trumpet but I do remember most of it as I had quite a reasonable amount of sleep, 3h at Brest and after that 6h at Tinténiac

Most of the reportage on here has been from the 80h people (Ianh/Hummers/Andyh etc) or the 90h people that took 89.99 hours (Pip suds, Teethgrinder etc)  So this leads me to believe that I really imagined it all!  No one photographed me, so it didn't happen!

I carefully avoided all photographs, videos etc etc by staying ahead of the bulge on the 90h for most of the time but behind the 80h.  I did see Andyh briefly as if in a dream when I got to Brest.  I did talk to blueskies during the stage to Dreux.  Nonsteeler was 90h but faster than me at all times

I rode quite a lot with Valkyrie, EdinburghFixed and Martyn Peggie on the outbound but lost contact around Brest.
On the retour I was with "Brendon Hill Hedgemonkey" for a while

[border-rider]

I have a reasonable recollection of most of it this time, but I certainly didn't after the first one.

It's all so very new when you first ride that it does get confusing & blurry. This time I had a feel for what was round the corner, most of the time, and that helps to put some structure onto the compressed & jumbled memories of 3-4 days.

[Exit Stage Left]

You should try drinking to excess in real life. Then PBP would stand out as a completely sober interlude, looking much like the colour sequence in 'The Wizard of Oz'.
Others laid of caffeine for a month or so before PBP, I just drink a bottle of cheap red a day, and lay off that for LEL and PBP, it has much the same effect.
It's real life I have trouble remembering, not PBP.

[Greenbank]

It's just lack of sleep.

More specifically it's how your brain deals with a lack of sleep. Mine has no problem, even with just 6 hours over the whole ride. As I said elsewhere I can remember loads of stuff; places names, roughly where I met/rode with people I knew, sometimes even details of what we talked about. I can remember each control, including a rough idea of the layout of the buildings (only the bits I went into obviously!). I've got a very good memory anyway.

[Maverick]

It's just lack of sleep.  The only bit that is blurred to me is  Tinténiac - Carhaix on the outbound as I'd had 24 hours awake by then. 

I have a clear memory of winding you up at Tinteniac on the return early Wed. morning about how riding fixed was silly  - hook, line & sinker

[Nonsteeler]

I suggest that ACP develops a standardised test to measure the ability of the brain to memorise things in the context of the PBP route. Oh hold on, I am onto something - why not utilise PBP to measure the effects of sleep deprivation under exhaustion? Someone needs to write a research proposal ... 

For me, the scenery often felt nice if a bit repetitive  - like cruising lanes for hours on end here in GB, nice but repetitive. OTAH, it could be that my brain wasn't working properly.

[Andrew]

Most of the reportage on here has been from the 80h people (Ianh/Hummers/Andyh etc) or the 90h people that took 89.99 hours (Pip suds, Teethgrinder etc)  So this leads me to believe that I really imagined it all!  No one photographed me, so it didn't happen!

That was me though.

It's not that I don't remember due to sleep deprivation or anything. I felt fine in that respect. It's perhaps more that I didn't find a great deal was memorable! I enjoyed the experience overall, and that's how I'll remember it, but damned if I can point to specific events.

[madcow]

Another reason could be that when you ride significant chunks in the dark there is no memory of viewpoints or landscape, even townscapes are completely different. When you return in daylight your going the other way and its not the same.
Vorsprung- I had exactly the same problem-no photos- welcome to the "Billy-no-mates C.C ."

[Pete Mas]

If I had time to sit down a ride report, even at this stage, I'm sure I could bore the pants off everyone with a fairly detailed account of who I rode with on various stages, what happened in some semblance of order, etc, etc. Looking at the photos I took really helped gell most of those memories, but some I can just pluck out of the grey matter for no apparent reason, like feeling great and riding extremely well for several hours on the penultimate hilly afternoon, enjoying the sun and support offered by locals. Most of it was not particularly memorable, of course, and the more riding I do the less memorable any particular ride gets, I suppose.For example, yesterday morning's club run to Box Hill with Kingston Wheelers was just routine, apart from me riding my steel framed retro bike , with toe-clips, in preparation for L'Eroica this weekend.....

i read a book once which suggested that when we take part in activities and events outside our normal experience, then time is stretched and we remember more. So if we go on a one-off safari to Kenya we remember more than if we ride our 5th PBP, for example.

[Ivo]

My report in Dutch is about 14 pages long, could even be longer since I skipped a few things. That said, I'm one of the 89.99h people but otoh I hardly slept (2h45).

[zigzag]

if someone asked me for detailed report just after the ride, i would struggle as i remembered everything in random episodes. after couple of days when i checked my timing matrix and gpx track it all came back very clearly.

[Manotea]

For me the ride was loadsariding punctuated by events. Most of the landscape and landmarks is a blur. I recall the experience well enough, just not the specifics. Part of that is because I hadn't really researched the route so didn't really know what to look out for. As was I was mostly focused on getting round and tended not to stop at the various honeypots round the route unless I needed to. The result is that I spent a lot  of time at controls; next time I'll look to do it the other way round and minimise my control time in favour of high jinks elsewhere. Elsewise the northern French countryside and villages are a bit non-descript, tbh (hides under table).

[Frank9755]

Isn't it just the way different people's brains and memories work? 

While I've got extremely vivid recollection of PBP, and of places I've been to in general, I do sometimes struggle to recognise faces of people I know quite well (apologies to people who I may have ignored - it wasn't intentional!). 

[Euan Uzami]

I can't remember it that well, but I can remember it a whole lot better than I can remember what I was doing only last week, for example

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Isn't it just the way different people's brains and memories work? 

+1 - I've always been able to recall a lot of detail about routes I've cycled along.  Most of PBP seemed familiar from 2007 except the bits where I was head down in a group and not really paying attention.  There weren't many places that I was relying on the arrows.  There were bits where I under- or over-estimated the distance - primarily sections I had gone really well on in 2007.  But I couldn't remember what I watched on TV last night.

[frankly frankie]

Elsewise the northern French countryside and villages are a bit non-descript, tbh (hides under table).

'course it is.  And the route doesn't visit the best bits by any means (though goes close around Mortagne to Villaines) - and there's always a good chance you do the good bits in the dark anyway.

[EdinburghFixed]

Vorsprung- I had exactly the same problem-no photos- welcome to the "Billy-no-mates C.C ."

Another one here. You'd think with a ^{FRIKKIN DRAGON} on my bike at least someone would have captured documentary evidence that I really did ride PBP, but no such luck! 

[Redlight]

I don't remember any of it.

The therapy worked!