[LEL17] Start time email

[Neil C]

A mighty impressive performance by all the organisers. Thanks.

As a long-distance virgin I took the advice offered and went for one of the later times.

Now I realise that I will be starting with 30+ people who didn't want that time. Hope they come to their senses before July or I might have to break out the earplugs early!

I'm going to enjoy it whatever happens. 

[Bus Shelter Bertie]

13:00 as chosen , so happy with that.   Not so sure about my rider number though. Is 13 really unlucky? 

That was my number in 1989.

And I was following you at number 14 that year Mr. S. Have never gotten out of your shadow since then. Happily I got the same number this year as my last successful LEL in 1997 -  KK10 , got to be a good omen..

[Jabba]

Wasn't concerned with any start time so it went out of my mind (work, old age and dementia..... ) and I didn't bid for anything so am assuming I'll get assigned whatever is left and fits in with filling in slots.......

Or have I just made a complete Horlicks of it??

[Ivo]

11.45 as requested.

Thanks to the organisers for such a swift notification.

Same here

[jsabine]

11.45 as requested.

Thanks to the organisers for such a swift notification.

Same here

And me ...

It all seems very good natured here (as it should be!) - nonetheless I'm curious to know if alwyn has received any bile-ridden emails yet, from the folk whose ride he has ruined by making them start whole hours later than they wanted.

[Fidgetbuzz]

i have heard that there have been a  few  "whinges".

[arabella]

I'm one of the 25% so am 4 1/4 hours later than requested.
The upside is that I won't have any problem getting to the start on time.   
The downside is I'll have to replan my ride/bag drops.  Good job it was only a rough plan to work out my initial preferred start time.  I can feel a spreadsheet session coming on next time it's cold and gloomy.

[alwyn]

Most of the emails are good-natured too. I'm reuniting missing partners (marital, riding) if folk are relaxed about what time they end up with.

Requests to be moved from 15:00 to 09:00 "because it's really important to me" are being politely declined.

Some of the problems are because of my admin, so I've corrected those immediately.

Someone had a go at passive-aggressive snotiness on Facebook and soon got slapped down by everyone who was passing by at the time.

[The French Tandem]

I'm going to enjoy it whatever happens. 

That's truly in the audax spirit

[canuckystan]

11am - oh boy it's now getting real.

[Lotum]

9:00 am. I got lucky! 

[Dai P]

Panic over, found email in 'junk', hope that is not an omen!  11.00 as requested, nice breakfast and ride to start, what could be better.  As said before, organisers need much praise, so good. Thanks.

[Jabba]

Saw my LEL start time email late last night 15:30 for me, think that means I'll be watching the majority disappear into the day but happy with that. Bugger now better get some distance in 

[markram]

Someone had a go at passive-aggressive snotiness on Facebook and soon got slapped down by everyone who was passing by at the time.

Slapping down seems to be a popular pastime on Facebook. Rudeness is one thing, but I think we could also bear in mind that it's perfectly normal for people to be disappointed about stuff, and it can be quite healthy to air that disappointment. My strategy is just to ignore complaining, although I believe empathy works sometimes also.

[jayteezim]

i have heard that there have been a  few  "whinges".

in deed there have been a few, however i think expressing disappointment does not necessarily mean that it is a dig at the hard work that the organisers are doing as some have implied on facebook. i wanted a morning start for various reasons: i am a full value rider(finished the PBP with 1hr15min to spare) and slow so there would always people coming through who i could try latch onto. i also feel as i would always have other riders around it gives the event much more atmosphere. up until now most of my training runs/meetings to discuss the event etc have been with Audax Club Lincolnshire who are all starting in the morning. i know my fault- i did not change my entry to a team entry so as to guarantee us all riding together. also i had ideas of meeting family friends at the Spalding control. so yes of course i knew there was a chance of being bumped and not getting a morning start time however i felt the pros out weighed the cons so it was worthwhile a try. the analogy can be applied to many things in life...lots of things there is a chance of failure or things going wrong but you still try.
in a nut shell yes i am very disappointed and gutted to be moved to the 15:45 start, however i still appreciate the hard work and organisation gone into the event. the difference is now i will spend a lot of the time chasing and possibly doing a large portion of the riding alone.

[Fidgetbuzz]

I do not think that is right .. you will have 250 riders starting within about 1 hour of your start time . and if you finished PBP with an hour in hand . then LEL will likely to be similar .. maybe a little more in hand as the overall speed is slower .. I would expect to find that there are always riders around that you can chat to , ride with for a bit , sit at a table with  as you eat .. compare 250 riders starting within an hour of you .. many of whom will be full value riders .. with say starting a 600 with a field of 100 riders ..if you think you are full value then you must ride much of a 600 with only say a twenty people around you..I am confident that  LEL will have more than this many around you all the time.

[jayteezim]

point taken there. i hope so. i just don't want to literally be the "fat lad at the back". either way i am gonna give it my best go and have a good time, smile a lot and hopefully get to chat to/meet a lot of different folks