The Distance

We cyclists are always measuring ourselves. It's either miles pedaled, average speed, or time.
However, it's not very often we measure distance in feet. Let me explain. For those of you not familiar with the Chequamegon 40 mile mountain bike race, the only way to get into it is by lottery. Your applications along with a check have to be mailed in by a specific date in February. Sometime in March you find out if you made it into the race, which is held in mid-Sept.

The last few years, Bob, Matt, myself, and now, Bill have put our entries into one envelope. This way we are either all in or all out. The Chequamegon race committee does allow an essay contest for people whose names are not drawn. Last year, our envelope was not drawn. Matt wrote a great letter and the 3 of us got into the race! Got all that? So now, we're trying to get into the 2008 race. I dropped my app off at Bob's house to give to Matt at spin class. (Matt is the envelope master) Bob, being the capable man that he is, remembered to bring my app, but, he forgot to bring his! He told Matt he would drop it off in the door of his house. He did. Matt couldn't find it. Matt called his neighbors, nope, they hadn't seen any envelope. Reluctantly, Matt mailed in the envelope with his, mine, and Bill's applications. A day later, one of the neighbors calls and says they found Bob's app. He got it mailed in on time to meet the deadline.

A month goes by. We all start checking to see if our checks have cashed, if they have, you're in the race. If they aren't you didn't get drawn. One by one, Matt's, mine, and Bill's checks all were cashed. Bob's wasn't.

The photo above shows the distance from Matt's house to his neighbors. I suppose it's about 50 feet. The distance that Bob missed getting into the Chequamegon by!