Kings Valley 400k. Better. Sort of.

Ah, the 400k.  My most challenging distance.  And this year, a more challenging route as well.  More vertical feet, and a possible 100km stretch with no services whatsoever.  On the plus side, a new route with new places.

After a long lecture conversation with my coach on how I did not eat anywhere near enough on the fleche ("You had so little calories I am really surprised you could ride this long."), I rummaged around and found my old running watch, which had a working countdown timer, and set it to go off every 15 minutes.  Made up 5 packets of Skratch electrolyte drink (140 calories) and 5 packets of Carbo-Pro/EFS mix (350 calories).  Packed a lot of food, mostly Allen Lim's yummy rice cakes, Clif Builder Bars (protein!), and Shot Bloks.

Planned my "big" eating locations, and added those to the cue sheet, along with all the summits.  I like to know these things.

Received my new headlight, so had an evening soldering session in the garage.  It is mounted the same place as the previous light, but I am getting a new rack so as to mount it ahead of the handlebar bag.

After obsessing over the weather, also tossed in my lightest SP rain jacket, helmet cover, and booties.  Otherwise I was planning to wear pretty much what I wore on the fleche, and it was supposed to be warmer.

To make it more fun, an NPR reporter was going to be following us around :-)

Arrived at the LaQuinta Friday evening, just as the other 3/4 of our hotel room showed up.  Checking in, unloading, faffing...  and in bed by 9:00.  3am was going to arrive awfully early.

Up we got.  I made the sad discovery that I had forgotten to bring my knee warmers.  Michal offered up his tights, but they'd be really long, and too hot.  I figured I'd be ok.  I didn't need them at the moment.

Food swaps, and Cyndi had a nice breakfast for us all.   My contribution was single serving Egg/Swiss Cheese/Mushroom/Onion fritatta (protein!).

Signed in, chatted with other riders, and it was 4am and off we went.  Lesli and I were the only women in the crowd, and I didn't see her or Michal after about 5 miles - they were going for time.  We did have a bit of a ride together at the start, so Michal got to see the wonderfulness that is my new headlight (more on that later).

Bit of a puzzlement when I realized we didn't actually go THROUGH Dayton, but it was fine, and probably shorter getting to Amity.  There is a new market on the corner, so I went in to get some more water.  Lonnie was leaving just as I arrived.

My timer was going off every 15 minutes, and I was taking a big bite of something and drinking every 15 minutes.  For the whole ride.

The shoulder on Hwy 18 has not improved.  That stupid rumble strip goes right down the middle of it, leaving precious little space to ride.

Made nice time to Grand Ronde, which was a planned meetup with Angela from NPR, as well as a Real Food stop.  I am instructed to learn to eat "gas station sandwiches".  Grand Ronde offered made to order sandwiches, so I got my sandwich order underway, and walked around the store getting a Mocha Doubleshot and more water and getting the card signed, with Angela in tow.  Collected water bottles and sunscreen, and settled on the bench to eat, talk, prepare bottles and apply sunscreen.





While I was engaged in all those things, Jeff A rolled up, and we joined forces.  Bidding farewell to Angela, we headed up to Sourgrass Summit.  It didn't seem to take long... "wait, what, this is the summit?"  Zipped down to Hwy 101, where we turned left, and it was all new roads from here until Independence.







Then we turned onto Slab Creek Rd.  After hearing for years how awful the pavement was, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually pretty darn good.  Less good heading up, but new pavement heading down.  A very pretty climb, and since it wasn't killing me, perhaps I was not attacking it hard enough.  The downhill was way fun!



From there we ended up in Otis (more water; Jeff bought pepperoni sticks), then a bit more on 101 and off onto East Devil's Lake Rd, along the backside of Lincoln City.  It rolls a whole bunch there.  Lots of very, very nice houses, a summer camp where I have attended events, and some High Water.  I rode through it very slowly.  My soles touched the water, but never went under.

More wandering along, and we popped out by the Factory Outlet Stores.  Right after we turned onto 101, Jeff wondered if they had a Pearl Izumi outlet; I could get some knee warmers.  A bit of online research said no, but there was a Nike store, and a pair of running capris would do very nicely.  As I had worked at Nike for 22 months, I knew exactly what I wanted, and the store had it.  Most expedient trip ever in a Nike store.  First ever outlet shopping trip on a brevet, too.


Found Bill at Spanish Head, where pictures were taken.  Fabulous view of the ocean.

picture by Bill Alsup

Another 4.5 miles and we turned east on the Siletz Highway.  It is so very, very, very pretty back there.  What with all this newfangled eating and drinking, I also needed to do more stopping.  We found an RV park where the manager pointed us at the facilities and told us the combination to get in. My bike picked up a piece of gravel in the parking lot and the rear wheel would not budge.  I popped the wheel out to get it loose while Jeff finished up.  He just realized that he can Wash His Face on rides!  A wonderful feeling it is, too.  24+ miles on the highway, flat to gently rolling.  We saw pretty horses (white ones with gold manes and tails), llamas, cattle, alpaca, sheep, goats...

Eventually, we found Siletz.  Also Bill, who was finishing up.  We went into the market to stock up for the next possible services-free 100k.  I filled up my auxiliary water container (1 liter collapsible Platypus bottle), bought a sandwich and another Doubleshot, grabbed my sunscreen, and sat in the shade across the street to eat.  Lonnie joined us here - he'd gotten bonus miles by missing the Logsden turn and looking for it in all the wrong places.  He left before we did.  Hard to eat those sandwiches - the bread makes me choke.  Have to work on that.



I was doing my major cue sheet flip and pressing the air out of the big ziploc bag I keep it in, when a townsperson came by: "what are you doing?  what are you posting there?"  Umm.  Nothing.  Very weird.  Most of the folks in Siletz were really nice, stopping to chat, wishing us a good ride and so on.

Some more pretty and rolling miles to Logsden, and we got there long before the store closed.  There are great murals painted on the outside.  I got a gentleman inside to sign my card; there seemed to be random locals socializing in there.  Topped off the water again.  He insisted on taking my picture with the murals, too.







Now the "fun" started.  The stretch between Logsden and Blodgett is the really hilly part.  Rolled along for awhile, again, not getting overly stressed, except to wonder where the mythical gravel stretch was.  Oh.  There it was.  Hardpack with loose gravel all over it.  Kept a steady pace up until the road banked and I started sliding down.  Walking!  The grade was 8-10%, so I couldn't even think about starting up on that.  A motorcyclist came by and asked if this was the way to Blodgett.  We sure hoped so, and told him what our cue sheets said.

Walked up.  Then walked down, because it was no less steep and slanted.  Finally to a place where I thought I might be able to start up.  Headed down, it started to get a bit too exciting, but I could see the pavement, and headed right for it.  Whew!

Then the next climb, which went up to Summit (which wasn't, but I already knew that), and went up and down about 5 or 6 times.  And finally we dropped into Blodgett about 7:30.  And the store was still open!  More water and a Sobe.  I needed a break from electrolyte stuff.





In theory, we had three more summits.  The first one was over before we knew it, the second and third ones rolled along for awhile.  The stretch on Hwy 20 was not too bad - big shoulder.  It got dark along here, but with my wonderful new Luxos U headlight, I could see much better, and took the descents a bit faster.  It also helped that the pavement was absolutely wonderful.

Ok, so it is dark now.  Our intermediate goal was to make it to the control in Monmouth before the Burgerville closed at 11pm.  And we did, by 20 minutes.  I got a kiddie cheesburger and a Coke.  Jeff ordered a bigger one.  My kiddie meal prize was pea seeds and a plant marker - I gave them to Jeff for his daughter.  He ate my fries, too.  Pulled on the running capris and long sleeved jersey over the short sleeve jersey and arm warmers.

And then I started to yawn.  Oh no.  Kept it going until Salem and the convenience store.  Bought a V-8.  No use of the bathroom allowed.  Ok then.  Not stopping there anymore.  Jeff knew of a good gas station store in Keizer on the way out, so we stopped there.  Got a Coke and put it in one of my bottles, and mixed up the very last drink mix I had (that is 10 packets of electrolytes, half with extra calories consumed.  A new record).

Out of Salem/Keizer, north on River Rd, north until it turned into French Prairie (friend Don lives there), right on St Louis Rd.  I started wobbling.  Finally had to call a halt and get a short (bike computer says less than 5 minutes) nap.

Off again.  Tried to stay awake.  Kept smacking my face, eating caffeinated mints, drinking the Coke and so on.  It was just NOT working.  Finally, right after the turn onto Boones Ferry (10 miles out.  Sigh) I did stop.  Jeff said try for a longer nap, and I was out for 25 minutes.  I hope he was too.  Tweeting birds woke me up, and we headed out for the last bit.  I really felt much more alert, so maybe the pre-nap caffeine and the nap combined to perk me up.  Finished BEFORE sunrise, at 5:06am.  Only 1 sunrise on this ride.

Got to the hotel, found the control room, and gently woke up the control worker :-)  John Henry and I chatted for a bit, then I headed over to the elevator and my room.  Cyndi let me in, and I took a good long shower to scrub off all the rando crust.  Oh, that bed felt really nice.

Woke up around 9am, joined the others for breakfast in the hotel lobby.  Home just after 10am, Mother's Day Brunch, short nap, Timbers soccer match, home, in bed by 6pm, didn't get up until 7am the next morning...

Final Comments: Finished it up at 5:06am, which was about 2 hours longer than I personally wanted it to be.  But it was still 40 minutes better than last year's ride, and a more challenging route, with no bonks, or even the hint of a bonk.  Took rather longer to get sleepy as well.  My coach is delighted.

SPOT track is here (stopped tracking about 10 mi before the end, because I rolled over 24 hours.  I have learned something new)

Distance: 252.85mi (almost exactly matches RideWithGPS.  Finally got the computer calibrated!)
Pace: 12.57mph avg.  slower than last year, but more climbing on this one.
Total Time: 25:06; 40 min faster than last year.  Less faffing/sleeping
Vertical feet: 10031 according to RWGPS
All the pics here (lots of them)

Fiat Lux!
Ah yes, the new light.  The Luxos U is amazing.  Wonderful wide light throw and a good long distance down the road as well.  The previous light is a Supernova, backed up by an Ixon IQ, and this is much, much better.  I did not give the charging function a test, so I cannot report on that.  But the light on the road is very good; it doesn't wash out the surface.  Did I mention the wideness and length and brightness of the beam?

Let the Grey Geese Fly! Fleche 2013

Last fleche I participated in was back in 2008. At the time, and for several years after, I was pretty darn sure I did not want to do it again.  Last year, I wanted to, but the timing was sub-optimal.

This year, I found myself designing a route in November, assuming an Olympia finish.  There were two of us, and we quickly recruited two more.  Then one more.  And an alternate.  I continued refining the route, hunting for control locations, and getting the distance as short as I could.

The route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2235322

Things can change quickly before a fleche.  Two teammates withdrew to go ride some dirt.  The alternate suggested "next year".  Another person joined us out of the blue, which was good, because someone one got injured.

By now, you might be wondering about the origin of the team name?  It indeed has to do with arrows.  I am a fan of the S. M. Stirling Dies the Fire alternate future history, which is set in mostly in the Willamette Valley.  We are all from the Willamette Valley.  Seemed to fit.

By now, the route was finalized - EXACTLY 223.7 miles (360km).  Somehow I did not get as much done before the ride as I would have wanted, but the bike was cleaned (and wow, did it need it!), and I did a lot of mental packing.  Late Thursday, I did some, but not all, real packing.

Michal, Cyndi (Mrs. Michal, ace driver and cheering squad), and Keith all appeared later Friday afternoon.  Cyndi and I made the Coconut-Blueberry-Chocolate Chip rice cakes for the ride and dinner (Chicken and Spinach with Rice and Lentils).  Michal tried to get a nap.



After dinner we filled up bottles, did last minute faffing, answered the door ("Lynne, there is someone here giving away money! - I love in-person paycheck delivery :-) ), and then coasted over to the Village Inn, our official start point.  Fitz and Cyndi drove over, and we all had pie.  The riders also had some coffee.



And, at 7pm, we started out.  The cue sheet was only 2 pages long, and most of the first page was going the first 24 miles to Banks.  A couple of short stops along the way, to add clothes and such.

Michal had gotten a new GPS, had loaded the route, and was trying to get it to prompt him for turns.  The key word here is trying.  Some badmouthing of the GPS user experience ensured.

But wait!  Heading west on Meek Rd, we spotted three cyclists approaching!  It was The Ladies' Tea and Crumpet Society, the OrRando women's team which started in Albany at 1pm.  A short visit, and a round of pictures and we were off again.



Got a look inside Keith's windsock on his recumbent. - big storage compartment in back, and a nice storage arrangement in the front.  I think he had a microwave, video game console, fold-out bed and hot tub in there.

Onto the Banks-Vernonia trail.  It felt a little more claustrophobic in the dark.  I couldn't ride next to or close to anyone.  Michal and Keith found a cyclist sleeping off to the side of the trail; no blanket or anything.  He said he was ok.  Perhaps alcohol was involved.

Our control in Vernonia was the Cedar Side Tavern (nothing else open just before midnight.)  We got our cards signed, and were apparently very entertaining to the very relaxed crowd.  One woman assured us that she could not ride the length of Vernonia (!) without getting exhausted and told us to watch out for log trucks (note: no log truck sightings).  Ate a savory rice cake.



Then north, with the next maybe stop the Birkenfeld Store.  We did stop briefly and snack, but they were very closed.  Guess the late night is Saturday.  We pulled on some more clothes.  It was about 43 degrees and just downright chilly.  By now I was wearing shorts, knee warmers, short socks, shoes (you know, those toe covers would not have been a bad thing to bring along), ss wool jersey, wool armwarmers, ls wool jersey over that, windbreaker and my Windstopper reflective vest.  A wool cap and shortfinger gloves with the DeFeet wool gloves over those.  In other words, all the clothes I had with me.





I mentioned to Michal that I had forgotten to put Mr. Happyface in my bag, and it might have come in handy.  Michal: "well, I wasn't going to tell you, unless your neck really started hurting, but I've got ours along." :-)

Water stop was at the Elk Refuge, 13 miles down the road.  Before we got there, I had to pull over and close my eyes for 10 minutes.  Oh, this isn't going to be good...

The bathrooms were unlocked, and joy of joys, heated!  Keith headed into one, I went into the other.  I finished, Michal came in and left.  I went in to fill bottles, came out, and found Michal sitting on the ground with his shoes off.  Keith was apparently still in the bathroom; Michal was beginning to wonder if everything was ok.  At which point Keith poked his head out and cheerfully informed us that they were heated!  We all went inside for a few.  The SMART rider (clearly not me) would have brought a snack along and eaten it.  Need to get into the "if you stop, stuff something in your mouth!" mode.

Now we were starting the climb over the Coast Range.  It was dark and chill.  And I kept needing to nap.  Passed over the summit, and it seemed way too easy to get there.  Perhaps because of the stops and not entirely speedy pace.  Much zipping of jackets and such (we were all wearing everything we had), and the long-ish downhill to Olney.  The store wasn't open yet there, but it was just before 6am.

What with all the stops, Michal finally figured out how to get his new GPS to prompt him on turns.

A few more naps, including one at the big Hood-to-Coast/Portland-to-Coast Relay camping field ("hey, I've slept here before!"), and it started to get lighter.  No need for headlights to see.  But still no actual sun.  Just before Astoria, the sun did put in an appearance and I looked right at it, in the hope that it would perk me up.  It actually did.

Route planning note.  I routed us the shortest way to the Pig 'n' Pancake, because I didn't want another control.  So Michal and I rode that way, which meant UP (4 stair-step climbs) and then DOOOOWWWWWN (that was very, very steep, with a stop sign, and then gravel).  We found Keith at the Pig 'n' Pancake, sucking down coffee.  He had ridden around, which is flat. Keith had no cue sheet - "hey, I am just going to ride along with you all!"   Breakfast ordered all around; I didn't do a great job eating all of mine.  The waitress and adjacent diners were a bit amazed at our riding plans.  We were outside our time window, but the slowest time was way slower than we would be riding in the daylight.  I was positive we'd get back on time.  Michal was a bit stressed.  Keith was cheerful and continuing to crack bad jokes.

Then up and over the Astoria-Megler Bridge - 4 miles long.  And we were in Washington.  A pause to peel off extra layers - we kept them on because it was windy up on the bridge, but now, with the sun up, it was already over 60 degrees!  With a stiff NNE headwind.





Long stretch headed north to Raymond, via Naselle.  Lots of sloughs adjoining the river which feeds into Willapa Bay, and a set of relentless little climbs.  Eventually we popped out on the flats, and headed into Raymond.









After a bit of discussion we decided to stop at McDonalds - they did have coffee.  I got a mocha frappe, with chcolate and whipped cream in addition to the coffee.  Ice cream headache!  It was right before noon, and we were back within our time window.

Then Raymond to Montesano.  Discussions on the proper pronounciation ensued.  I pronounce it like everyone else in Huntsville, Alabama pronounced it, which isn't anywhere near the proper Italian pronounciation.

Mr. Happyface made an appearance at least once.

Marcello had warned us that it was surprisingly hilly between Raymond and Montesano.  The route profile had 5 little lumps, and, indeed, starting right out of Raymond, there they were.  Slog up, pedal down.  I was counting, and was happy to leave #5 behind us.  Lots of logging through there.

Into Montesano, quick stop for water and a sweet rice cake.  Water in the bottles, water dumped on heads...  Off to McCleary.  The road between Montesano and Elma is possibly the worst chipseal job ever, with 3 levels on the shoulder.  The furthest right was original smooth pavement, but it varied in width and had loose bits of gravel on it.  Once we got to Elma the road improved some.  Michal tried to pull me, but I was not mentally alert enough to draft.

I kept apologizing for being slow and kept being told to quit apologizing.

Some up and down, and FINALLY into McCleary, our 22 hour control.  About 15 minutes before the 22 hours.  My toes had been killing me, so Michal told me to take off my shoes first thing.  I did that, and then stretched out on the sidewalk for a 5 minute rest (not to be confused with a nap).  Cold water appeared, bottles topped up, various potions mixed in.  Cold water dumped on heads.

On to SR-8, and the nicest pavement of the entire ride.  Big wide smooth shoulder bounded by a rumble strip.  Noisy, but I didn't care.  The headwind didn't seem quite as fierce.  Mostly.  There was a gentle climb for about 10 miles, then a wonderful downhill all the way to our exit.  Michal's GPS was confused, but I knew where I was.  A few more miles then into Olympia, where we stopped and checked maps.  And, at 6:50pm, rolled up to the front door of the Governor Hotel, where the Ladies' Tea and Crumpet society, Cyndi (volunteering!) and another volunteer came out to applaud.



Pictures.  Soda.  Beer. Chips.  Strategizing on dinner.  Asta and Susan recommended a BBQ place a few blocks away.  So, after some sitting and eating and talking, we all went and got showers, then came downstairs to find Susan and Asta and Lesli ready for another dinner :-)  Tasty beef BBQ.  Walk back through downtown Olympia - pretty lively place!  Early bed.

Wandered down for coffee and first breakfast at 8am, knowing we'd have a nice banquet at 9am.  Found many riders in the breakfast room, with the same plan.  At 9am we all drifted into the banquet room.  Mass quantities of very good breakfast and fun people.

Each team got up and described their ride.  One team went for a serious amount of off-road.  While there was a cue sheet, there as also Ian, who knew where to go.  The serious distance team did, well, serious distance with serious vertical feet.  The Ladies' Tea and Crumpet Society had a strict schedule and stuck to it.  We finished in time, which is all, really, which is required.  360km, 3 machines finish together.

While there were no official awards,  we obviously got Lowball (shortest distance) and Slackers (least climbing).

Keith was planning on riding back.  So was Asta, so they joined forces.  With no arm-twisting at all, Susan joined them.  They finished somewhere around midnight.



And all the pics

Riding for Time

Coach said: "ride 100km for time.  And keep your stops under 8 min".  Now, I am a champion time waster at stops.

I figured the West County 100km would be a good route.

Sunny day.  Variable, flag-sticking-out-straight wind.  Mostly WSW, so I was looking forward to some tailwind for the last 20 miles. (note: not so much)

Results:
all 3 stops under 8 min. (2 controls, 1 peel off extra clothes and flush stop)

food: Allen Lim's rice cakes - two of the egg-bacon-brown sugar-soy sauce variety and two of the coconut milk-sugar-chocolate chips-blueberry variety.

About 40-50 oz of liquids, including a bottle of V-8 at Gaston.

Chocolate milk at the end.

Bike computer claims 2421'


Results:
Officially 4:47 elapsed.  Avg riding pace 15.18mph (wow.  On Sweetpea.) avg cadence 84.  Avg HR 157.

Best ever on that route by almost 20 min.

THAT was an interesting training ride

Intervals said my coach.  4 minutes long in a painful state.  I rode into work as usual, then, after work, loaded up the bike (why yes, I *do* train with the panniers and lock and all hanging off the bike) and headed out.



During my 15 minute warmup on SW Sewell, a rider came up behind me and "this isn't Lynne F is it?".  Indeed it was, and I was very happy to see Brian C, one of my Portland Velo riding buddies.  I haven't been riding with PV, so I have not seen him for a good long while.

I told him I'd be zipping off in a couple of minutes.  His comment: "I never thought I'd see you doing intervals."  Me neither.  He allowed as how it was good discipline, having a coach, and he is right about that.

Off I went, with him right behind me.  We got in two intervals (stupid headwind), and at the corner of SW Jackson School and West Union, he went left, and I went right.

Got in most of two more intervals.  The second was cut 30 sec short by a driver who passed me much too quickly and closely with traffic in the other lane, honking to boot.  It was deliberate, so I paused and gave the Washington County Sheriff non emergency number a call (now programmed into the phone).  West Union has two narrow lanes and NO shoulder.  I shall have to investigate other routes, but I still want to get home before too late.

Then ten minutes easy, and I did the last interval on SW Rock Creek.  Except it was gently downhill, and I spun out, because the bike wouldn't shift to the big ring.  I thought I had fixed that at lunch.  Oh well.

Pedaled on home (the training route loops out to the west a bit before heading home, so I get in 90 min riding instead of my usual 45-50).  The bike was not shifting well.  And it is friction, so I did not understand why.  I'd look at it when I got home.

Last hill, Park Way, and the bike was just NOT cooperating.  Stopped, then pushed off again.  SNAP!  Sounds of metal hitting the pavement...

The inner chainring broke.  Wow.  I have never seen that before.  Close inspection revealed that many chainring bolts were gone.  Now that crank has less than 500 miles on it.  Foo.  I am going to get so much ribbing when it goes in to be repaired.

I was maybe 1.5 miles from home, and once I summitted the Park Way hill and crossed Hwy 217, I could coast home.  But I did text the spouse, and he came and picked me up.

Commuting is now off the table until the Gitane is repaired or the Rivendell returns from repair.  I will NOT leave the Sweetpea in the bike racks, and it isn't set up to carry that much anyway.  The bike shop figures they can fix it for me this weekend, so it won't be too long.  I'll drive out with the Sweetpea, and then loop out west on lower traffic roads than West Union.  Spin-ups tomorrow.  I'll have to plot a route.

Flèche Planning

As I was the first (and thus, only) one of the two original team members to propose a route, I somehow found myself as captain.

Obsessing over finalizing the route (at the moment, EXACTLY 360km), figuring out the controls, finding places to eat, estimating about when we'd arrive at the 22hr control, and back out from there to figure out when to start.

Lots of email exchanges with local riders.  Some have been asking me about our roads as well.

Figuring out a team name.

Recruiting a new team member when two members and one alternate bow out.  We are back up to four.

Getting the forms filled out and signed.  Lots of scanned signatures flowing up and down the internets.

(yes, there are a couple of brevet routes which need attention.  They'll be approved soon...)

Pro tip:
Figure out your slowest possible pace to get to the 22hr control at 22hr, with no pause there.
Figure out your slightly more optimistic pace to get to the 22hr control at 20hr, so you get to pause.
(If you have Excel superpowers, and/or know how to exploit online hints and help, you are golden.  Doing real arithmetic with time in Excel can sometimes be tricky)

In our case, we are leaving Beaverton at 7pm, arriving Astoria right around 6am, when the Pig and Pancake opens.  22 hour control is in McCleary, then we've got 2 hours to go 20 miles; 10 gently uphill.

Fun.  Oh, you betcha!

Moving to the Top of the List - The Olympia SIR 300k

Which list, you might ask?  The possibly the hardest ride I have ever done list.  This one moves past my last Bikenfest outing.

Because of someone's baby shower date scheduling, I needed to ride a different 300k. (It would be really, really bad if Grandma wasn't there.  Really bad.  Especially since Aunt and Great-Grandma won't be there.)

Susan and Asta thought they'd participate as well, so a close to the start and the finish hotel room was secured.  They both appeared at the same time on Friday afternoon, and, having removed one rear seat, and removing one front wheel (Asta's), we successfully stuffed 3 bikes, 3 cyclists, and their stuff into the Element and drove north.  Of course on a Friday evening it took FOREVER to drive through Portland and cross the I-5 bridge.  But we didn't care.  We had company.



Dinner in Olympia at Casa Ramos.  Some people were overwhelmed by the choices in the menu :-)  Me, I figure it isn't my last meal and try to order something not too big and not too expensive.

Susan played the part of the GPS for the last couple miles, successful arrival, check-in,... Asta: "wait, aren't we skipping something?" We checked in while you were napping; didn't want to disturb you :-)

Did I mention that I had a cold, with a bit of a cough, and a sometimes exuberant runny nose?  Yeah.

Good night all.  Up at 5:30, and I will say for 3 women and 1 bathroom, we all did a great job of getting ourselves up, dressed, and down to the breakfast room with our bikes.  They had a great breakfast selection.  There were some similarly-dressed folks also eating breakfast, so we all introduced ourselves.



Then last minute business and out the door to the Safeway.  We rode by the back side of the brewery, pretty cool.  Lots of riders at the Safeway; checked in and greeted all my SIR rider friends who I hadn't seen for several months.  But wait...  where was Peg?  where was Narayan?  My hope of having some company at some points in the ride evaporated.



Off we went, and it started to rain.  And rain.  And rain.  (keep repeating that refrain until I tell you to stop)

SE into a headwind (keep repeating that as well) for the first 15 miles to Rainier.  It was described as a climb, but it wasn't too much of one.  Riders pulled away, and, as expected, found myself riding solo.  Somewhere along there I passed Susan, fixing a flat.  She said she was ok, so I went on.

Found Vinnie and Josh in the parking lot of the Texaco.  We chatted a bit, they signed my card, and pointed me at the trail.  Right.  I knew that.  Nice trail, and eventually I recognized the tall trees and athletic fields - I had arrived in Tenino.  On STP, this is the stop with the really big cookies.  Not today.  Off the trail, through Tenino, and pressing onward through Bucoda to Centralia.

I stopped at the Pearl St. Market to get more water.  Every time I paused, I would stuff a chunk of fruitcake in my mouth, so I wasn't hungry, but I did need more water.  Allen F and Jason H had also stopped, but I think they left before I did.

Susan O caught up as I was headed into Centralia proper, and I followed her through and out.  The heavy rain had conspired to cause some leakage through the vinyl cover of my map pocket and through my 9x12 ziploc bag.  Time for another one.  Note to self: carry backup cue sheet in another ziploc bag in the front bag...  Not so bad that I could not figure out what it said.

From Centralia we headed SE on Alpha-Centralia Rd.  I remembered this from coming the other way on my first-ever 600k, after recovering from a bonk.  So, perhaps I was thinking it would be challenging.  Now, there WERE a couple of steep ramps, but really, not so much.  Climb up the ramp and roll up and down.  Pretty. (still raining).  I thought I was hallucinating, that I would occasionally see a rider up ahead, but probably not.  I started to notice hail by the roadside.  Lots of hail.  I guess I missed it.  Did see one rider headed back, and another standing under a porch on a utility building of some sort.  Before I got to 508, I realized I was not hallucinating, and eventually caught up with Jason H.

There was an info control at the turn onto Cinebar Rd, but instead we found John P ("I've abandoned all thoughts of riding on the Oregon side for our fleche route") and Rick B.  Cards signed, a little bit of visiting.  Rick: "we are watching your SPOT".  John: "Where do you put it?"  I pointed him back to Little Pink Bear.  The bear finally has a job :-)  My comment to Rick - "I can see places where it is not raining.  We are not riding in any of those places."

Pushed off to find Mayfield Lake and Mossyrock and the loopy bit out of there.  By now, the rain had actually let up.  Maybe even stopped.  Dropped down to the lake, again leapfrogging Jason.  I pulled into a handy park structure for a quick stop, but found him on the bridge across the lake.

Now we started up, climbing a couple hundred feet to Mossyrock.  Some of those feet were very compressed.  I stopped for a minute, and could see Kathy and Charlie walking up ahead, but they pushed off before I got there.

Into Mossyrock and the grocery.  Mindful of my coach's instruction to Eat More Protein, I rummaged around in the sandwich case, finally settling on roast beef/cheese.  Chatted with Kathy and Charlie as they finished up their sandwich. Looks like they ate as much as I did.  Had half a sandwich, but the bread sort of made me gag.  Topped off my bottles and left.



The next stretch was quite pretty, and not raining.  More climbing winding up Perkins Rd, the highest point in the ride.  I had peeled off the raincoat in hopes of getting my top layers to dry out.  And they did.  My feet never did dry out all day.  Down for awhile, then up again as we passed the lake.  Mostly downhill, with bits of up, but heading into the W part of the headwind.  Yup, still with us.  Lots of farms along here, with llamas and cattle.  Passed Susan fixing another flat.

Crossed under I-5 about mile 107, heading SW (into the wind), and annoyingly back up to our next control in Vader.  Strangely, my body was trying to sleep.  Really, really big yawns.  Couldn't stop them.  Finally paused and had a gel with caffeine.  Got to Vader, and Allen and Jason were there.  I made myself a rando mocha (more caffeine, yes please!), and chatted with the cashier while I drank it.  "You've got one more really bad hill coming up".  I remembered it from the Two County Double Metric Century of many years ago.  It was painful on the speedy bike with only 60 miles in (I didn't know what randonneuring was, back in those days), and I was not looking forward to it. Topped up the liquids again, stuffed a chunk of fruitcake in my mouth and headed off.



Started raining.  Blah.  Sucked down a gel before the hill.  There might have been one or two short bits of walking.  But I got to the top and headed down, after zipping everything up.  Rain....

But!  Finally!  At mile 120, headed NORTH!  YAY!  Kind of beat up by now, pedaling along, and at Boistfort Rd, turned west again into the wind.   I noticed my other blinkie (I had swapped batteries on one before the ride) kept turning off, so I took a brief stop to change the batteries.  The ride to Pe Ell was again, wonderfully agriculturally pretty, but it soon started winding uphill.

Down into Pe Ell.  This was a control, and there was a store, and a tuna sandwich.  I managed to eat half of it, and borrowed Allen's towel to wipe my clear lenses off before installing them.  It was officially getting dark-ish, but not dark yet.

Free-range goats along here.  Also signs for free-range cattle, but I didn't see any of those.

Not to far out of Pe Ell, past the other end of Boistfort Rd, I spotted blinkies up ahead.  Was I catching up with  Jason?  No.  But I did find a Secret Control, with Ian, Corey and Josh.  And a covered area, heater, chair and hot chocolate. And a blanket.  And a couple of welcome hugs.  There was indeed a shortcut, if one wanted to climb back out of Pe Ell and go over Curtis Hill.  Ow.  No.  I have done it, and got my fastest ever descending speed on the other side.  Ow.  So, after half the cup of hot chocolate (Allen had come and gone), I started out again.

More sleepies.  I stopped and dug some caffeinated mints out of my bag and crunched on those.  It seemed to work, and I didn't have any more dozy episodes.

There were still a good number of miles to ride before the left onto Scheuber Rd.  I finally had to remove my glasses, because the oncoming traffic would light up the rain drops on them and totally blind me.  I never did catch up to Allen.  I had looked at the turn on Google Street Map, and it pretty much looked like a turn in the middle of nowhere.  I could only hope that the turn was marked (Washington is pretty good at that).

There was a gas station on the right; I pulled in for more water and directions.  I was just about there.  One patron wanted to know if this was dangerous.  Well, no one had tried to kill me yet.  Left onto Schueber.  Listened to about a million frogs croaking. Eight miles later I was at the Centralia Safeway, the last on course control.  I was really, really cold.  Going into hypothermia cold.  The staff at Safeway was not helpful, and that was the control.  So I got my card signed after waiting around and went over to the Texaco convenience store.  The cashier pointed me at the hot water tap.  Filled my thermal jug and made calories in a bottle with an added teabag.  Drank some hot water.  Finally quit shaking.  Twenty more miles to go.  I decided to wear all my gloves and all my wool hats.  That helped.

North again.  Heavy rain. Pedal pedal pedal pedal...  I didn't even know what time it was, just that I would finish in time.  Not too worried about that.  It was so cold.  Case Rd felt three times longer than advertised.  Look!  A Stop Sign! Oh darn, Maytown Rd.  More to go.  Pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal.  Not even a place to take shelter from the rain.  Several light-years later, I arrived at the end of Case Rd, cut under the freeway, and continued, again, on Case Rd.  A few more turns, all feeling much longer than they should have, and I could finally see the Motel 6 sign up ahead.

Headed toward the blinkies, leaned the bike against something, went inside and started toweling off.  It was 2am.  Signed things, and sat there long enough to quit shaking (again).  Headed off toward the Best Western, except I turned the wrong way at the light and got an extra couple of long blocks tour of Tumwater.

Finally, back where I was supposed to be.  It was a very hard choice, shower or bed?  If I could have slept in the shower, I would have.

Next morning heard Susan and Asta rustling around and heading off to breakfast.  Except their bikes were still in the room.  Not good control efficiency.  Fell back to sleep; woke up some time later.  Bikes still there...  After deciding that I should probably not get breakfast in my pjs, quickly got dressed and walked down.  All the riders staying in the hotel were rehashing the ride.  Susan said that the forecasted 25 mph headwind and thunderstorms were what called it off, and would I mind having company on the drive home?  No, not at all.  After an extended breakfast (seconds on scrambled eggs with ketchup) we finally went back to pack up and load the car.  Susan offered to drive.  Even better.  Pre-drive walk over to Starbucks.



Arrived home, unloaded, got all the soaking wet cycling gear out of the bag and became one with the chair.

My cough let me know exactly how much it appreciated this much fun.  Worked from home three days so as not to scare the co-workers.

Finally getting better now.

Bike computer claims 7900 vertical feet
RideWithGPS claims 7700 vertical feet
In either case, not an excessive number for a 300k.
for the whole day 193.5mi, avg 11.62.  oh, that's slow...

First 200k Brevet of 2013 - Banks-Elsie 200k

Ah, brevet season started!  Path to qualifying for the Big Wild Ride underway!



Lesli, Michal, and Cyndi came up from Eugene on Friday night, so we'd all have a reasonably good night's sleep before the ride.  We established that my bike could also fit in the van, freeing up my vehicle for daughter and partner to borrow to buy and transport more baby furniture :-)

Right.  It being Passover, my on-route food choices would be a bit constrained.  I researched Passover fruitcake recipes, found one, and sort of merged it with my non-Passover fruitcake recipe.  That will be another post, but I will say the results were pretty darn spectacular.  So I had food for the ride.

Fed everyone matzah brie for breakfast.  I think they liked it.  We also consumed full-caff coffee, and headed out.  Cyndi dropped us off and headed off on her excursion for the day.







Route rap from Ray.  My contribution - "ends at the pizza parlor, not here, right?"  Yes, thank you :-)

First 20 miles to Vernonia were all on the wonderful Banks-Vernonia trail.  I was a bit jittery from the full-caff coffee, and had to stop to put my water bottle back on the bike.  Happy when that wore off.  Another pause to lose the jacket (starting temp 40 degrees).

Michal was on ahead; Lesli and I arrived in Vernonia, and went to Black Bear for a coffee.  Only a coffee.  Michal's FB post said he was at the Shell Station, so I called him, and he came over to meet us.

We headed out of town on Hwy 47, which would eventually turn into Hwy 202.  Although it was not a control, we stopped at The Birk (formerly the Birkenfeld Store) to remove layers and apply sunscreen.  I pulled on the first cycling cap I made from extremely expendable fabric.  Lesli totally wants one.  I think I have enough fabric still, so she'll get one.



Twelve more rolling miles and we were at the Elk Refuge.  Water bottle refilling, answering the info control question, and removing the last of the layers - off with the toe covers, knee warmers, and baselayer!





From here we turned back and then right on Hwy 103.  This was an entirely new road to me.  All I knew was that we'd end up on Hwy 26, for the control at Bakers General Store.  Very scenic road, and very little traffic.  Oliver was riding with us by this point.





Crossing Hwy 26 was a bit tricky, but we found many other riders at the picnic tables outside the store.  I bought V-8 and a bag of Fritos, and envied everyone else their sandwiches and pups in a blanket.  Ah well.  Tuesday night, bread blowout!





Jeff A finally caught us here - he started almost an hour late.  Bet he hurts a bit today!





Back onto Hwy 103, this time stopping at the lemonade stand.  I think pretty much every rider stopped on the way back :-)









And back onto Hwy 202, back to The Birk (open now), where we refilled our bottles.  Not hardly anything to buy - chips, drinks and beer, unless you were ordering something.  I'd do that on another day; they make great sandwiches.  I had purchased a V-8 for the road back in Elsie, and drank it here, and ate my banana.  I'd been nibbling on chunks of fruitcake and eating gels every so often all along.



It was getting pretty hot; my bike computer suggested 80 degrees.  Too hot for me this early in the season; I was feeling it.

20 miles to Vernonia; off we went.  After finishing off the seriously rolling parts of the road, it was level/slightly climbing to Vernonia.  I paused once for some Vitamin I - knees were less than happy.   Two ambulances, a police car, and an incident command car went the other way, sirens and lights on.  We hoped it was not someone on the ride.

Just outside Vernonia, Michal though his front wheel was going squashy.  We got to the Black Bear, and he decided to order first and then fix the tire.  He wanted what the guy in front of him got, what was it?  It was a  Big Train - basically any coffee drink blended and cold.  Lesli ordered a Big Train, and I ordered a Mexi-Mocha Big Train :-)  It was hot.  I also swallowed some Endurolytes and ate more fruitcake.  Michal's drink appeared; Lesli took it out to him.  I got his waterbottle filled just as he finished the repair.  Maybe a longer pause in Vernonia than anticipated, but that was ok.

After much scrubbing of hands :-) we headed back to the trail for the last 20+ miles.  Peaceful.  Quiet.  Except for the sound of Lynne breathing heavily trying to keep up with Michal and Lesli.

And then, finally, the summit of the climb, and flying downhill to Banks.

Ken and Rose were checking riders in at the finish.



I checked my riding average - 14.4mph.  No WONDER it hurt!

Our elapsed time was 11:45; my bike computer read 132 miles.

Lots more pictures here

Spot track here