46.88MPG in a Subaru, and 35mpg at 70mph!

[tasdrouille]

The Saab Sonett started right behind me and then there was Robert I think. I got passed in no time by the Saab, but then I saw Robert out of the blue in my rear view mirror right after the first steep inclines. He must have driven relatively quickly on the first 15 miles. He stayed with me pretty much until I passed Hobbit and you. Did he stay with you for a while?

[RobertSmalls]

I was a bit timid in traffic, and I didn't figure out the "I'm a slow moving vehicle on the shoulder with my flashers on" thing until mile 55, so I went kind of fast along the river until we got to the first big ascent. Shortly thereafter, I saw a Jetta that I thought might be one of us, but I wasn't sure until you took a corner way too fast without braking. I braked for that one, and I decided to follow you at a distance so you'd locate the turns and set a good pace for me. After the halfway point, I followed Darin until the last 10 miles, when I got nervous about the traffic and the clock and sped up again.

[Wonderboy]

I got nervous about the traffic and the clock and sped up again.

Aside from having a GPS, and the Scangauge, the most useful thing you could have for these times runs is a countdown clock - I use the timer on my ipod touch. (set it to 3 hrs, and started it when the starting line person said go.) I'm not assuming you didn't have this, but if you didn't you should have. I found myself driving pretty darn slow for the first 50 miles. With all 2 of the actual FE runs I've been involved in, I was not bashful at all about taking my sweet time for the first half of the race, and it seems to have worked and then some. Both of these runs happened to have very nice second halves, where plenty of time could be taken to make up some MPG used up with all the climbing.

The more I think of it, this was a really nice route - the final leg (rt 30) had a bunch of traffic and a HUGE shoulder. I remember driving along with Matt for miles at a time within the shoulder letting droves of traffic pass.

[tasdrouille]

I was nervous in traffic too. I do not enjoy hypermiling nearly as much when I have someone right behind me, save for an other hypermiler. Maybe I should have sticked with someone else, then the burden would have been shared and I would have felt better. I really did not enjoy route 30 much but on long coasts where I would get decent speed.