Powhatan Today, October 21, 2020
Page 6A
YMCA Continued from pg. 1
ville. Pretty early in the month – probably within the first week – they realized the competition wasn’t going to be there, so they decided to set individual challenges, which was a good thing considering how the month played out, said Tom Walton, team captain. By the end of the month, the total Powhatan YMCA team score for September was 1.3 billion points, he said. The second place team in Canton, Ohio scored about 334 million points. Tom, 71, being the fierce competitor he is, had to come up with other ways to challenge himself and his fellow riders, five of whom sat down to share their experiences with the Powhatan Today on Oct. 13. He pointed out that the bikes have 243 leaderboards where people can try to excel, so there are always plenty of ways to test themselves in new ways. Tom, who competes along with his wife, Diane, challenged his precision by doing 162 rides in which his goal was to earn the exact same score – 372,780 points. Tom said he scored that number and remembered the steps he took to achieve it. The dragons the riders are chasing in the interactive program move around, so it is not an easy feat to accomplish. Instead of trying to perfectly recreate that same ride, he figured out different mathematical combinations and moves that would get him to the same score. “There was a 40-year old guy who is new to dragon chasing in Ohio. He was trying his best to catch Diane and myself. I thought if he is looking at our scores, if I score the same thing a whole bunch of times in a row, he is not going to be able to do that because he doesn’t understand the game well enough,” Tom said proudly. “I did it 40 times in a row and then I messed
CALENDAR Continued from pg. 2
Stew Sale. The stew will be ready at noon. It is $8 per quart. Pre-order at the fire station or by contacting 804-657-8331 or fundraising@pvfd1.org. You can also pre-order via the station’s Facebook page.
Cumberland County will be holding a one day only Tire Collection Day
leaderboard position on the power and speed categories. The group points out that the YMCA was closed in April, when the first bi-annual dragon chasing challenge was held. However, Elmer was visiting his sister, who had an Expresso machine, and he won the international dragon chasing challenge almost single-handedly for his team. His wife, Chris, likes to focus more on the road riding Expresso courses over dragon chasing and did the Tour de France in three different stages. Beyond scoring points, Elmer highlighted the continued health benefits for the couple of riding the bikes, in addition to the other exercise they do. Since he began riding six years ago, Elmer has lost 55 pounds and his wife has lost at least 60 pounds. “Particularly during the lockdown period, one of the concerns is that because you are locked down in the house in front of the television and next to the refrigerator that you are going to be gaining weight. I am sure that if I hadn’t had the bike at my sister’s or at our house or once we got totally back in here that I would definitely have been gaining weight,” Elmer said. Linda, who knew the Waltons from church and started dragon chasing at their invitation, said she really only chases dragon during the challenge months. The pandemic has brought her closer to the team because she enjoys the camaraderie and the fun of working with them on the challenges. “They didn’t tell you this, but the goal for dragon chasing month is to get 2 million points for the month for an individual. They all do that in 30 seconds. For somebody like me that is not good at it, I ended up getting 2 million points in less than a week,” she said. “Every time I would get to a certain point, I would say let me see if I can reach this goal. I ended up getting 25 million for the month, which was
up. So then I did it 80 times in a row.” “He is psychotic,” Elmer deadpanned, gesturing to Tom, and the whole group busted out in knowing laughter. However, Elmer will admit to being just as committed. Tom noted that Elmer been known to use salt and paper shakers, apples and oranges on his dining room table to recreate the different rides and figure out better strategies. “There is always a better way. It never ends. It is not like I just memorize it and that’s what I do. I am constantly looking for a better way,” Elmer said. “He is more obsessive than I am,” Tom said. To which a few of the women reply, “I think it’s a toss-up.” For her challenge, Tom suggested that Diane, 70, beat his individual score from September 2019, which at 435 million points was the second highest score ever attained in a month at the time. She surpassed it in September 2020. “Then he came up with the bright idea that between the two of us we should score 1 billion points,” she said, adding that meant achieving 75 million in three days between the two of them to reach their goal. “No two people from the same facility had ever scored 1 billion points in one month. In fact, no two people, their total score, ever added up to 1 billion points,” Tom said. “I saw that we had a shot at it. We might not ever pass this way again.” It is at this point that Elmer’s wife Chris, 74, and friend Linda Stokes, 65, of Powhatan, say that, unlike the other three, they have never ridden enough to reach 1 billion points. But in its own way, this also is said with a little bit of joking pride. “We are not as obsessed with it as some people,” Linda said meaningfully. Besides the monthly goals, Elmer said he was working on his annual stats to increase his for Cumberland County residents. No more than 100 tires per person will be accepted. (Proof of Residency is required). The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cumberland Community Center, 1874 Anderson Highway (Route 60 West) in Cumberland. Passenger tires will be accepted on or off the rim. No other tires will be accepted on the rim. Citizens must have an accurate count of tires they bring. For more information, call Stephany S. Johnson at 804-492-9267.
Powhatan AA meets at 8 p.m. every Saturday at Manakin Episcopal Church on Huguenot Trail.
PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND
Powhatan YMCA Expresso team captain Tom Walton demonstrates how the interactive bike gets riders to chase dragons to earn points. Team member Elmer Watts holds up one of the team’s many trophies.
a personal best for me.”
Making connections The competitiveness is definitely prominent in this conversation, but so too is the camaraderie. The five people present genuinely seem to enjoy each other’s company and that of other YMCA members who compete alongside them. In fact, if they had one complaint, it’s that they miss their fellow competitors. The number of people they get to see and interact with in the gym has dropped dramatically because of COVID-19, as has happened everywhere. The bonus of rarely having to wait for a bike pales next to not getting to see their friends and neighbors. The most riders the YMCA has ever had riding as part of an Expresso challenge was 132 different people, Tom said. Last month, he figures 25 to 30 people rode. “I think all of us enjoy the Y at least partially because of interaction with people. We are all retired and it is good for us to interact with people. With less people coming, obviously that is a little bit of a bummer. There are some friends we used to see here all the time and they don’t
A Powhatan Hope Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting will be held from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. every Monday at PCC Church, 4480 Anderson Highway, Powhatan, Room 102. It is an open discussion meeting. Wheelchair accessible
CRIME
Tuesday, Oct. 27
The new Bridge of Reason AA meeting is held at 7 p.m. every Tuesday at Powhatan Mennonite Church, 3549 Old Buckingham Road, Powhatan. It is an open, decision and literature meeting for Powhatan, Goochland, and Cumberland counties.
AA meets at 8 p.m. every Tuesday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Huguenot Trail.
Monday, Oct. 26
Protection your loved ones deserve ...
Continued from pg. 2
• One female was charged on Oct. 11 with possession of marijuana (M). • One male was charged on Oct. 11 with driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated (M). • One male was charged on Oct. 12 with obstructing free passage of another (M).
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come,” Tom said. “As hard as it may be for some of the people in this room to believe, I would rather see more interaction and more people than win a challenge. We’ve got a room full of trophies where we won challenges in the past.” Even the rivalry they have with other teams is based in mutual respect and good will. Not long after the pandemic started, a member of the Metz team reached out and sent a sweet email to Tom wishing them well and urging to be careful, knowing many of the Powhatan riders were at a higher risk because of their ages, Diane said. After what the world has been through in the last eight months, it is important to have some facsimile of normalcy, Tom said. While that is not the same for everyone, for him, having his daily routine, in which riding the Expresso machines features prominently, is vital. “Powhatan is known all over the Expresso world as the team that knows how to chase dragons. Such as it is, that is our reputation,” Tom said. “To see Powhatan back in first place and seeing some of our riders accomplish some things, to me that is kind of like normalcy. It is the way it ought to be.”
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