January Challenge Windup

[[old] rspenger]

This is a little late, but I was away from my home computer on other business for the first five days of February and, like the sausage maker who accidentally backed into his machine, I got a little behind in my work (if catching up on Forum messages can be properly described as work).<br /><br />I’d like to extend virtual platform handshakes to Missisauga YMCA (CAN)/Michael McAra for his first place and to Bill Keating and his ANCIENTS Team for their third place in the January Challenge. I see that Michael’s “team,” under the same name, is also the leading group in the seasonal group competition. He ended up the JC with over 30% more meters (per member) than my Owens Lake Yacht Club. The ANCIENTS gave the OLYC a scare in the last few days of the challenge. Sunday was a rest day in the Pete Plan that the Commodore was following and the Ancients slipped by into 2nd place for a day or so. The Commodore was in a taper off phase for the last couple of weeks before the Beach Sprints, so he wasn’t getting the long erg pieces in. Fortunately, the last couple of days of the month provided enough meters to barely sneak back into second place by less than 1200 meters. By this time the Commodore had switched over to Xeno’s recommendation for the last week before Long Beach, modified to fit the his Sunday rest and Wednesday travel schedule.<br /><br />Congratulations also to the ANCIENTS for their strong first place in total meters, to Fowl Play for their solid second place and their boundless enthusiasm, and to Team Rowbo for taking third place ahead of a lot of larger teams.<br /><br />Bob S. <br />