The story of my life has been that I have been just outside the whatever it is to qualify for whatever it happens to be, or I finally get to qualify and then whatever it is has ended just before I reach the place where I am supposed to get it.
It is why I am so surprized to find some of the hidden struggles have been autistic traits because I never knew. I mean... Well. To struggle so hard to achieve something but fail just outside the area that qualifies...
I remember cycling. I wanted to get the 50 in 4 certificate with the local cycling club. 50 miles in 4 hours.
Now these did not come up that often, but I wanted to get the certificate.
My first attempt my rear mech (Due to wear because of high milage) happened to miss its end stop pin and mangle itself into my rear wheel. Fortunately someone who I later worked with in the first bicyxle shop I worked at happened to have the right tools to shorten my chain so I could proceed without the rear mech and be in a single gear. I got back to the cycling club just outside the time so I missed out, and I then rode the ten miles back home. I was in school when I tried this attempt so I was around the age of 14 to 16 at the oldest, and the whole attempt for me as I had to cycle to the club and back was a 70 mile run.
The second attempt. There were road racers using it for training from several clubs. I had a cheapie bike. Hardly able to keep up with them. Unknown to me was the large group of cyclists had split, and Iwas following these professional or semi professional riders. I did not know where I was going so I was relying on those riders. I was still relatively young. About 17 or 18. I followed them for about 15 to 20 miles but they were slipstreaming each other and I don't do slipstreaming as I hate being bunched in, so eventually they had a big advantage and my energy levels were depleating, as I had to put insome 200% effort just to follow them if ai was not being part of the group (Example. Have you watched how quickly lone riders can be caught up by a group in the Tour De France or other races?)
Anyway. This was not supposed to be a race. It was supposed to be an afternoons touring run. Well. Having lost the racing group nearly half way around, the main touring group were miles behind. (I did not know at the time). Being lost I carried on going ad did an extra ten to fidteen miles before coming back round in a much longer loop and I eventually rejoined a slower touring group who were not bothering much about the certificate, and got back to the club just outside the 4 hours... Again!
So my third attempt came a few years later. I was in my early 20's and in my prime. The club book said "All saturday runs start at 2pm in rhe afternoon and all sunday runs start at 10am".
So I turned up at 2pm. No one else there. Then a tall local man who lives nearby who was a good cyclist happened to see me and asked why I was there. I showed him the club book, that there was a 50 in 4 and I was determined to get my certificate. He told me that they had all set off in the morning.
I was soo dissapointed as the club had not told me anything, but he said "Tell you what. I am up for it. I will vouch for you. Lets give it a try!" so we did.
Well, the both of us were enjoying it and taking turns to go in front to shelter the other from the wind. He had an electronic cycle computer (Shows speed and distance etc) which were relatively new back then. We decided to take a much longer route in a big loop but when his computer reached 50 miles we would record the time. Both he and I belted it round as we were really feeling fine! We did it in two and a half hours. We happened to be fairly close to where I lived so rather then me cycling back to the club and coming home we parted there and cycled home. I think I had about 5 miles and he had about the same.
Then came the anual general meeting so everyone aas there. I mentioned about the 50 in 4 and how we had done it. The club chairman (Who I later found out when I took a committee position that he kept over ruling any committee decision) said "You can't get a certificate. We did it in the morning". I showed him the club handbook which clearly stated that saturday runs started at 2pm and he had not informed me that the run was in the morning. He said "We can't prove you did it and there is no way to record your time". Then the guy stood up and vouched for me and told him our exact time to the second.
The chairman then said "You have done it in less then 3 hours so are dissqualified" and that was that.
I looked up the rules. No where could I find in the handbook anything about a minimum time.
So I never did get my certificate.
The same went for mountain bike racing where I always finished in very strong and unexpectedly high positions (As I was classed as a youth but I would ride in the adults sports class which would be mixed with professional riders so even thoug I would finish with strings of professional riders behind me I would get no points unless I came in the first, second or third positions, which was not fair to mix the sports and the professional riders because they had top class bikes given to them. We had to buy our own and just to buy a bike that was better then cheap was all we could afford... Some bikes I was overtaking cost thousands of pounds, where my bike cost just £300 and later £400. (Budget mountain bikes were around £170 to £240 in those days)).
_________________
.
Last edited by Mountain Goat on 27 Oct 2020, 7:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
27 Oct 2020, 4:12 am
