The Morning After.

Well, it’s not actually morning; the picture was taken at two minutes past one in the afternoon. This is the rider who featured with a leering grin and “thumbs up” nearly twenty three hours and four hundred miles ago in yesterday’s Blip and, he now has just an hour and sixteen minutes left before he will clock off with just a smidgen over 421 miles to his credit. Credit is not a word used lightly; after the finish, people ask one another how far they went and the answer is always accorded due praise, or commiserations are proffered in response to reports of misfortune. The fastest rider will have covered more than twice the distance of the slowest, but they will have exchanged encouraging words throughout the event and will chat about it together afterwards.
 
This is an event that lives up to the Blipfoto ideal of “Be nice to one another.” Is it any wonder that I should want to return to the event even though I can no longer compete? Many of the riders, knowing that they were passing my control for the last time, shouted out their “Thanks” to us – including the eventual winner who ended up with 532 miles and the fastest lady (who also finished an incredible third overall) with a distance of 456 miles.
 
And, most of us will meet up again next year.