Infinite MonkeysJust got the call that my the Logic student I'm tutoring is going to be a little late. Time to post something. Anything.
Last night I recognized a delightful quirk in the scoring of the bike race series (link in .pdf) I've been engaged in this summer. It seems that my stick-to-it-ive-ness is trumping the faster times of my close rivals in the overall series. There are several riders who have beaten me each time or most of the times they show up to race. But I am still ranked ahead of them. See, I earned one point. My middle of the pack finishes paid off one night. The hot weather and a threatening storm kept the field down to nine in the B race. I finished 5th. That earned me one point in the series and accidentally gave me my first cash prize as a bicycle racer.
(It was the best five bucks I ever earned. Usually the races only pay to 3rd place unless the field is 15 or more, but the new promoter had already paid the 4th place winner and declared me "in the money" as I crossed the finish line. My goal for the series was just to finish in the money once. [Last year my highest race result was 7th.] So now I have an adjusted goal: finish in the money legitimately at least once.)
If the series were actually a stage race, with cumulative times, I'd be perhaps somewhere in the back 30%. But I've stumbled into gaming the system. It's a glorious thing. Of course, if one of those rivals earns even one point, they'll leapfrog me, based on their previous better finishes. But for now... BWA-HA-HA-HA!
(Results link is a little quirky: after clicking here, click on the link at the bottom border called B Race Overall.)
P.S. JamesPh. delenda est!
Posted by Brad at June 29, 2006 10:38 AM