A friend and I did TFCE (The Flattest Century in the East) on Sunday, and we got burned partially because we started early. Just wanted to know if the following happened to anyone else on the forum!

The TFCE route is shaped like a very lopsided figure 8 -- it's a small 25 mile loop followed by a big 75 mile loop. The "cross-over point" of the figure 8 is about 7 miles into the ride, and that's where they have one of their rest stops set up. The first time you pass the rest-stop you go straight to enter the 25 mile loop, the second time you pass it, you go left to enter the 75 mile loop.

All is well and good, except that the rest-stop volunteers were telling people "the first time you get here, keep going straight, the second time turn left". Since my friend and I had started at 7:00 AM (when the route officially opens), they didn't have the first rest stop setup at all the first time we passed it. So when we got to it again (i.e., at mile 25) and the rest-stop volunteers told us "go straight if this is your first time here", well, we did! It was our first time there, as far as we knew!

So you can guess what happened -- we entered the first 25 mile loop again. There's a memorable tight turn immediately after railroad tracks on that loop, and when we crossed it again we realized what must have happened. Mile 50 or so (for us) brought us back to the first rest stop again for a third time, but it was the second time that it was open (for us).

Just want to know -- was anybody else burned by this? I'll freely admit that my friend and I are somewhat to blame -- had either of us had glanced at the route map for even 30 seconds we would have realized that we passed the first rest stop before it existed and that our apparent "first time" really was the second time. We stopped shortly after the "railroad track turn" to study the map and a few other riders stopped with us as we all had that sense of deja' vu, so we're certainly not the only ones to do a few extra miles!

I just think that they should have been telling people "if you're at mile 7, go straight, mile 25 tun left" instead of telling people "first or second time here".

Ah well. I wanted to do a century and I still got one in.