Applications Done

At long last we have entered all the PALM applications except for a handful of problems. We are up to 806 people who have registered. I sent out the confirmation letters on Friday which means that should start receiving them on Monday. This has been an ordeal to say the least. We reached our cutoff before we even started processing the applications but we've closed early before and haven't had this much trouble. There were extenuating circumstances like broken hands and lots of problem applications but still this has taken way too long. This will be something we improve for next year.

I've worked up some preliminary counts. We have 260 first time PALM riders. Typically 35% of our riders have never done PALM before so this is normal. I was worried that because we closed so quickly that first time riders wouldn't have a chance to get on the ride. People who have been on PALM before have applications mailed to them automatically so they would have an advantage. But lots of people who had never ridden PALM before got on the mailing list and received applications when they were first mailed out. That balanced things out.

This year the largest age bracket is 60 to 69 with 183 riders, followed by 50 to 59 with 179, and 10 to 19 with 117. The number of teenagers on our ride has been trending downward since we've started closing early. One of PALM's missions is to promote family biking and to offer a inexpensive family vacation. With this in mind we will need to find out ways that families can know about PALM and feel comfortable registering their families in February for a bike tour that is going to take place in June. If you have any suggestions for how we can accomplish this, please email us.

This year we have 69 riders in the 70 to 79 age bracket and 11 in the 80 to 89 age bracket. This is typical and shows that bicycling is an enjoyable activity that has no age limits and that doing PALM is with in the reach of any active person, not just trained athletes. Roughly 40% of the people who ride PALM are women and women of all ages. (22 of the riders over 70 are women.) The variety of people who do PALM are one of the things that make it a special social and recreational event. It's not just a ride for 20 year old males. And you get a t shirt.