Downtube42 said: I think it has to do with how much the ride impacts my weekend.
I think this quote exemplifies so many things about randonneuring. Does riding a 200k route once a month for the R12 award impact your lifestyle? Does riding a 400k route on a weekend impact your lifestyle? Does riding a 600k route squeezed into a weekend (if that is possible) impact your lifestyle? And what about the 1000k routes and/or the 1200k routes? They take 3 or 4 days to ride and then there is the day before to get to the ride, and the day after the ride to get home. Earning the K-Hound award is definitely a lifestyle thing. It doesn't happen if you ride only when it is convenient to ride. This is true whether you work full time or are retired. In 2022 there were 54 K-hounders total. And the routes ridden overwhelmingly were 100k's and 200k's. Only one rider hit K-Hound who did not do any populaires. There were six riders who rode between 1 and 10 pops. There were seven riders who rode between 11 and 20 pops. And there were 7 riders who rode between 21 and 30 pops. That's 21 riders out of 54 total who did 30 pops or less in order to hit K-Hound. Those riders had to do many longer (200k+) rides to make up the deficit. And those longer rides definitely impact a rider's weekends. I was the only K-hounder to do 12 or more 300k rides in the year. The next highest listing of 300k rides was 7. I tied with two other riders for doing the most 400k's in the year at 5. The K-Hounders who racked up the most 600k rides were doing the Super Rando perms. Overall there were only 19 1000k rides added into the K-Hound mix. Not a very popular distance to ride. It's actually my favorite, but I don't like having to travel to the few RUSA regions that offer them. There were definitely a bunch of grand brevets added into the mix, i.e., 67. That's more than the total number of K-hounders.