Texas Road Rash Plagued By Timing Chip Issues & the TSA

2012 Texas Road Rash Results [UPDATED]:

Minnesota skaters might not find this surprising, but for the second race in a row, final results are plagued by timing chip issues.  Skaters have been advised that awards will be mailed when positions are affirmatively determined.

Frequent participants understand that these things happen – but shouldn’t happen this regularly.  Race organizers pay a hefty fee for these services and are often unfairly blamed when a malfunction occurs.

On April 30th, Race Organizers conveyed the following message to participants:

Results are FINAL! We appreciated everyone [sic] patience while we worked
through this. Awards will be mailed out starting on Monday. If your
address is different than when you registered please let us know.
Thanks!

Note to Race Organizers: Demand the timing companies:

• actually keep the time, and
• post times in overall finishing order – not just by divisions.

Results Updated April 30, 2012 (remember it is a 28+ mile race, average speed of the winner was 21.7 mph)

Full results can be found here.

Thank you to Phil Moen for the race day reports and photo of the Minnesota contingent. From left to right: Greg Miller, Keaton Moen, Phil Moen, Ken Huss, Mike Miller, Andy Kostka, Brent Bovitz, and David Swan.

Here is last years coverage of the Texas Road Rash (with photos of the trophies).

The Journey To/From Texas:

Most Minnesota skaters headed to Texas will be braving the formerly friendly skies.  Even though the “War on Terror” has been declared over by the State Department, the TSA remains. Lets hope skaters have more success navigating the airport and security theater experience than the folks described below:

• Omer and Madge, 95 and 85 respectively, set off metal detectors because of knee and hip replacements.  TSA forced Omer to put $300 in loose bills in a bin and ran it through the x-ray machine.  The 95 and 85 year old were patted down, then taken to a special room for an “enhanced” pat down.  “When I was patted down, I’ve never before been touched in every part of my body before,” said Madge.  Upon finally returning to the terminal the $300 was missing.  An “investigation” by authorities determined the security footage was to grainy to determine what happened to the money.  Here is a photo of the couple  -  is that the face of terrorism?
• 73 year old woman subject to obscene TSA groping.
• 49 year old Portland man stripes naked at an airport checkpoint.  He later told authorities he flies often and “disrobed as a form of protest against TSA screeners he felt were harassing him.”
• Model Bar Refaeli was subjected to “a security ‘pat down’ by a woman at the airport that made me feel very uncomfortable and left no doubt about her sexual preferences.”
• A pilot texting while flying forgot to lower the landing gear.
• Pilot mistakes the planet Venus for oncoming aircraft and takes evasive maneuver.
• Former TSA chief blasts TSA for failures and demands overhaul, even suggesting TSA focus on terror threats and plots rather than banned items (like 3.01 oz of shampoo).
• Congressman claims TSA pat down was an assault and that he was touched “where no one is supposed to go”.
• Family misses flight after lengthy pat down of developmentally disabled seven year old with cerebral palsy.
• Weeping four year old girl, in Wichita, is accused of carrying a gun and declared a “high security threat” after hugging her grandmother at TSA checkpoint.
• Video captures woman screaming “She molested me, help me!” at TSA checkpoint.
• The TSA screener fondling your child might be an ex-priest kicked out of the ministry over child molestation allegations.
• Video of a woman sobbing during a pat down as it rekindles memories of past sexual trauma.
• Type One Diabetic had her $10,000 insulin pump destroyed by TSA.
• TSA Agent opens container with man’s ashes and spills them on the floor.  The agent stood by laughing as the man’s grandson tried to pick the ashes off the ground.
• Remember: don’t put anything valuable in your luggage because it might not make it to the intended destination.  It might end up in the wrong city or in a TSA employees pocket.
  • Unless, of course, you bribe the TSA – which apparently works.
    • Alcohol might work.
• Don’t talk back to a TSA agent, or tell them to stop cursing, or you might get hot coffee in your face.
• Don’t touch a TSA agent – especially not in the same way and same places they touch you – that would be considered criminal and “violence.”
• Taking your family to Texas? A toddler in a wheel chair will not be safe from a pat down.
• Maybe you don’t want the pat down and elect to use the Naked Body Scanners – those cause cancer.
  • And they don’t work.
• TSA may also make you strip naked.  Not just walk through a naked picture machine, but actually go to a back room and strip naked.
• No cupcakes.
• Nobel Prize winner subjected to “full monty” search.
• Former Miss USA Susie Castillo posted this video describing her molestation/assault by a TSA agent:

Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- Benjamin Franklin