Original Painting Giveaway
To mark my 25,000th tweet, and a new painting sale about to start, I’m going to give an original painting away for free.
There are currently 36 paintings in the prizepool, and I’ll be adding another 18 new paintings to it over the life of this competition - which will run until Wednesday when the long-promised new painting sale should start. Should.
The first person to leave a comment on this blog (on http://bicyclistic.com - not on FaceBook or Twitter so that all answers are in one place on one timeline) telling me how many miles in total I cycled on my solo trip across America, can have their choice of a painting from the newly done up prizepool of paintings.
The idea of this competition is that anybody can play because anybody can guess, but if you’re familiar with my blog - or more specifically the journal of my cycle across America - then you might be in a better position to guess. But you don’t have to ready any of it, and can just guess.
In the event of nobody guessing (or working out?) the exact answer then the person whose guess is closest wins the painting. Just one guess per person please. On the off chance you are one of the handful of people on the planet who might actually know the answer because I once told you, well you obviously aren’t eligible to play. Where other rules aren’t specified, and prove to be necessary, common sense will apply.
Please don’t include your basis for your guess, or your workings, with your guess as it’s not fair on people who have guessed before you. If you do I’ll probably edit them out.
Note that paintings in the prizepool are also for sale so should any be purchased before the competition ends then they won’t be available as the free painting for the winner.
If you don’t like any of the paintings in the prizepool - either now or when the extra 18 paintings are added - well, someone you know might and I’d be grateful if you tweeted, blogged, shared etc. a link to the competition.
I guess 4800.
Guess 5000 miles
5280 miles. Somehow, that seems right. Still waiting for the book, Eolai.
5163 miles
Eh..5500..?
5432 ….. be a fluke if 1 :-), but definitely worth the guess
I guess 5575
5581
6187
5248- [changed, see next comment]Actually, I changed my mind - 5,312.
8700
5271
Great idea.
My guess is 4,700.
Folks I’m now out for the night, so any comments left while I’m away won’t be released from moderation until tomorrow morning. And probably not early.
Good luck with the painting sale.
I guess 5856.
5,555
3,456
5696 miles?
2,470 miles
Good luck with the painting sale
3,460 miles
5,336 miles
5321
3990
3280
I’m gonna go with my lucky numbers and say 5373 miles (I particularly like 3)
I would guess at 1,092
Love the paintings and will purchase one soon!
5063
3561
4121
4891
6781?
5743
This competition for a free original painting is now closed. And we have a winner. Somebody is very, very close.
I’ll tell you who when I grab my original contemporaneous notes where I kept track of the mileages as recorded by the cyclocomputer. The notes are in my studio - I’ll post a photo. Had a minor bug affecting throat, head, and chest, that kept me out of the studio for a few days.
I’ll also be adding those promise extra paintings into the prizepool so the winner will have a much greater choice of painting.
Results time. In order then,
@James 4800 - excellent opening guess.
@Monique 5000 - even better
@Martha 5280 - japers we’re getting close. And the book will happen.
@Francis 5163- Ooh close, but behind Martha
@Kate 5500 - Ooh closer than Francis but just behind Martha
@Aoife 5432 - Fluke or not it puts you in the lead at this point!
@Aidan 5575 - A digit away. But which digit?
@James 5581 - Just a bit further away than Aidan
@Steve 6687 - Not a million miles away, but I didn’t break 6,000 I’m afraid.
@Elly 5312 - nice amendment. It means by 5 miles you’re…in 2nd place
@David 8700 - If I hadn’t got knocked down, maybe, but wooden spoon I’m afraid.
@CarolineSweetie 5271 - To be close to 100 miles out is remarkable, but you’re about 4th at this point I think.
@Ken 4700 - Strategically low-balling it I see. And only out by 12%.
@Tore 5856 - Thank you. And your guess is within 500 miles.
@Chloe 5555 - Within 200 miles, which I would’ve thought was close but the competition is fierce.
@Eoghan 3456 - I passed the 5,000 mile mark in California I’m afraid
@Síona 5696 - 6% out, which another day would be close.
@Eileen O’Duffy 2470 - closer to the halfway point I’m afraid. And thank you.
@Anthony Quinn 3460 - A couple of thousand more needed to get in among the action I’m afraid.
@Amy Tavio 5336 - Ooh, puts you in the lead! Will anyone be closer?
@Clara 5321 - Oh, so close - but 2nd place at the moment!
@Dave 3990 - If was shaping up to be that I think I couldn’t have resisted but to cycle around for a bit to hit that 4,000 marker. But I was to go for over a thousand more.
@alison 3280 - Within 100 miles! I didn’t think so many people would get so close.
@Red Mum 5373 - Well those are very lucky numbers indeed. But one of those ‘3’s let you down, and means you’re 2 (two) miles out.
@Trish Evans 1092 - Thanks very much. In your guess you’ve taken over the wooden spoon from David (@8700)
@Olive 5063 - Less than 6% out, so not bad at all but not today.
@Austin 3561 - Transpose the first 2 digits and you’d be very very close.
@Mark 4121 - Missed the last few states with that total I’m afraid.
@Martina 4891 - Exactly 9% out, and very close if I left out the last state - which I nearly did.
@Ana 6781 - If I wasn’t sore from being knocked down I might well have been close to this I think, but that would’ve meant an extra 1,400 miles or so.
@JL Pagano 5743 - Less than 7% out but not closest today I’m afraid.
Thank you all very much for playing. It means that at just 2 miles out, RedMum is closest and the winner. I’ll give her a shout and put those promised extra paintings into the prizepool.
Here is my original handwritten log of mileages from the trip:
WOOOT - brilliant. Tho it may not have been a fair contest as I won a similar comp for a Mickey Mouse teddy when I was 13 and on a school trip to Germany, we had to guess how far we had driven and I was the closest then. This is obviously my gift in life and I should use my powers for good
Thanks, thrilled to bits