The ride started at 6:00 AM. The weather was foggy and wet. Like the previous ride, there were 50+ people signed up for the ride. Like last time, I decided to take it easy for the first 50 miles and was passed by a number of familiar faces: J.T., Kaley, Len and Roland. I ended up riding the first 50 miles with a guy on an older red Trek. The terrain was rolling and I spent most of my time in RPE=4,5 with RPE=6,7 on the climbs. The first control was brief. I remember getting back on the bike and shivering. Apparently the morning was cold. A few miles down the road I saw Roland waiting around with another rider who'd broken a spoke. There wasn't anything I could do to help and simply moved on. As the ride continued the sun came out and the weather warmed up – there was even a bit of a tailwind. I rode on to Davenport at mile 80 and stopped by a store to refuel. I pulled in to find Kaley eating a sit-down breakfast. I thought to myself jealously: “you can do that if you're fast...” I got my stuff and was preparing to move out when her boyfriend Len limped into view. He'd hurt his knee and decided to end his ride. He asked if I'd keep Kaley company. Yeah, I said I'd try to keep up with her ( I wasn't joking.)
We moved out a few minutes later to accompany Len back into Santa Cruz. He flatted. Then Kaley noticed her rear tire was threadbare and was unsure if she wanted to continue. I thought to myself “... what a mess, don't these people plan ahead ?” I put on my “okay, make up your mind” face. Len switched tires, fixed flats and a bit later we were back on the road. When we finally got into Santa Cruz ( mile 90 or so,) Kaley and I moved on. At that point I was a bit miffed that I'd spent so much time helping them.
We then did some urban cycling through downtown Santa Cruz and finally made it to the more rural segment of the ride. At this point I realized Kaley liked being in front and would not relinquish that to others ( me or Len – or perhaps anybody else...) Okay, so she stays in front. We made good time to the next control at mile 133 averaging 15 mph for two hours ( I'm thinking RPE=4,5) . We passed J.T and met up with Roland a few miles outside the control. The weather was back to being cold and gloomy. Roland ate Taco Bell, Kaley and I stopped for a short lunch at a sandwich shop and met “Trek guy” from the morning. I though we'd wait for “Trek guy” but he was taking his time and we were shivering in the afternoon breeze. We moved on.
It was downhill with a cold tailwind for a while and then we were navigating new territory. I was following along on the cue sheet and noticed we'd gone too far to the next turn. I stopped her and tried to find out where we were on the GPS phone – that didn't work. I finally pulled out my emergency map and tracked down the proper route. Okay, so back on the bikes – into the wind and back 4 miles to the turn we'd missed. Oh, yeah.... we offended a pit bull and he tried to chase us down. No luck, we were a bit faster. It did get the adrenaline up though.
At this point Kaley was a bit gun shy and slowed down. That was fine with me. It was getting dark. We carefully navigated to the next control at mile 177. When we finally made it to the control. J.T. was there and so was Roland. So was the guy with the broken spoke. Apparently he rode back into Santa Cruz and got the wheel repaired in 15 min. That's cool !!! Cup-O-Noodles seemed to be the popular item, so I decided to try one out. It tasted good and kept me warm. It was getting cold. I put on my baselayer.
Roland, Kaley and I moved out into the dark as a group. Roland and Kaley set a strong pace that I had a hard time following. At that point my thinking was that If I fell off the back, I wouldn't be able to navigate the roads home by myself. It was hard keeping up with those two. A a consequence, I was rapidly using up my water and twenty miles out was worried about running out. I shared my plight with Roland, and asked that we stop by the gas station up the road so I could look for some water. Roland said, he had a full bladder of water, and he'd share a bottle's worth.
A bit further up the road we picked up J.T. And “broken spoke guy”. Then a bit later a SAG car going the opposite direction stopped and asked if anyone wanted soda or donuts. I asked if he had water, “no, soda only” he said. I didn't get anything. DUH!!! stupid. I should have grabbed a soda or two just for the water content. Not good thinking. No water at the gas station. I got some water from Roland. We rolled into the next control at mile 220 around midnight. It was cold and foggy.
The final stretch of road was in farm country on bad roads in foggy weather. The pace was slow. Everyone had good lights and we cast what seemed like a giant pool of white light on the road in front of us. It was very nice to have the roads to ourselves. The fog just made it feel quieter. The lights cast odd shadows in the fog. Nobody really talked, we just moved forward. It was fantastic. The memory of this section of the ride is my payoff.
We finally arrived at the final control at 2:58. I was tired. Len was there waiting for Kaley and offered me a ride back to the organizer's house. Hmmm... ride 11 more miles in the fog, or get in the car with Len. I rode with Len, I'd had enough.
I got back to the hotel, drank a recovery potion, got cleaned up and soaked my legs in tub of cold water for 20 min. It cooled my legs down considerably. After some food I slept for a few hours. When I awoke, I was amazed to find my legs were still lower in temperature.
I was able to collect some information about the ride on my Garmin. I look at it and think: "hmm... It's kinda' useless". What does it tell me ? I don't know; I'll have to think about that. One obvious note is that I didn't go as slow as I thought in the beginning. Perhaps the reason I felt stale and sluggish in the first 50 miles was because I was riding along fairly fast.
If a 1200k ride is three 400k segments then 21 hours per segment only means 3 hours of sleep per segment – more speed and less dilly-dallying around might be important. On the other hand sharing the experience with others just makes the whole journey more pleasant.
Things to consider:
- The Garmin's battery died 18 hrs. into the ride. That leaves without an odometer and makes navigating that much more difficult – get a simpler odometer thingy.
- Bring along wind-proof skull cap, it's tiny and weighs next to nothing but could keep my head warmer.
- I'd like to keep my feet warmer: find some sort of thermal socks or booties for the bike shoes.
- I'd like a third water bottle cage: this was the second ride I ran out of water. This time it almost caused some serious problems.
- I'd like some sort of rout sheet holder – I'll call Len and ask him about what he was using.
- My clothing would have kept me warm to about 45° But, in case the next ride is considerably colder – how can I keep myself warmer ?
- Bring full-finger gloves.
- Think about food & drink that will keep me warm instead of making me shiver at the control. The pear at the midnight control was a good treat, but it made me cold. The cup-o-noodles was a nice warm treat, but my system didn't like it. Maybe hot tea with chocolate milk. Perhaps microwave chocolate milk, mix with hot water and put in water bottle ?
- My knees were sore at mile 220. Thankfully, I had no problems afterwards. Investigate ways of caring for the knees so I can avoid injuries. Sitting in the car for 7 hrs. during the drive home just made my left knee (gas pedal ) stiff. Solution ?