Ah, Sequim… the top of the peninsula. A fast 12-mile loop along wide, dry pavement. The race winds along the top portion at usually a fast clip, then hits a 5-mile straightaway that’s usually into a 5- to 10-MPH wind. Staying with the pack will yield a good finish typically, but that also means it is easy to get dropped! Last year, I had a good race and finished 16th and 19th. This year?

As it turns out, there was very little wind. This means the field of ~65 racers was packed together, and actually sped up on that 5-mile straightaway. A bit boring of a race for the first two laps. About the third, a break got away with Duane, our fearless captain, and four others, including a rider from Hagens-Berman, the other strong team in the field. Well, once a break with teammates has gotten away, the team in the pack knows what to do: mail it in! So, nobody chased. Starbucks tried to chase, but couldn’t quite get one together and just ended up blocking and getting yelled at. Then, around the end of the third lap, a few people went down near me inexplicably… one bumped my wheel, but I was able to get around it and get back with the pack. A few minutes later at the beginning of the fourth lap, another crash, again far too close to me for my liking. At this point the pack settled having lost about half its number due to the crashes, and we had a nice ride to the finish.

Near the end, I tested joining a minor break, but discovered my left leg was cramping… I went from 3rd to 20th in a second as I worked it out. At that point, I decided that a simple finish would do fine… no sense in killing the leg on the second race of the year. So the pack rounded the final turn and sprinted for 6th place. I finished with the pack, somewhere below 20, but hey, it was a fun race. Duane ended up taking 3rd after hearing he and the two remaining in the break were 2 minutes ahead with 3 miles to go and letting the other two get away (the 4th and 5th in the break having been dropped earlier). Ben Collins, a rookie pro triathlete and the ox leading the break, towed HB’s Cat 2 track sprinter to the finish in time to watch what sprinters do best - pop around and win from behind. Oops.

9:30 AM. Dave Douglas, former president of the WSBA, gives his annual inaugural speech to 70-odd Category 4 racers.

This is a training race. There are no prizes, no cash, no merchandise, no points for winning. This is just to remember how to ride in a fast pack again. The centerline rule is in effect, so don’t go over the yellow line. If your team put in some wheels and you have a flat, move over to the right and get a swap. If not, sucks to be you. Make sure your numbers are on the right side. Last lap, the full road is available for sprinting to the finish for the final 200 meters. Neutral until the first corner, and then you’re racing!

And we’re off! I’m towards the back, foolishly, and spend the first lap getting my heart rate under control and trying to move up a bit. I get to the 2/3 mark of the pack… a bit better, but still yo-yoing too much on the turns. There are some new kits to old teams… the brown Zoka is now red Cucina Fresca, and red Native Planet has turned into green and white Starbucks. My team, Wines of Washington, is still black, white, silver, and yellow… a bit too noisy for my tastes, but that’s OK.

Laps 2 and 3 are OK… my heart rate is under control and I think I’ve got gas. Last year at this time, I was dying 4 miles from the end of Lap 3. This year, no problems. We sail through, bounce about and make a left onto good road and an incline. I handle the turn nicely (a shock, as I’m still horribly at following wheels on turns), keep behind a guy as we latch back onto the pack… and I’m done.

It was a weird sensation… the legs just lost energy, and I saw the pack starting to slip away. The follow car was quite generous in giving me time to catch back on, and I knew in my head that my race was done, but didn’t want to admit it. I tried pushing to get to the downhill and catch back up, but nothing doing. OK, fine… I’ll have a slow 11-mile cooldown. Bad idea… left side starting cramping and freezing, and really, by the time I was at the 6 mile mark on the course (halfway around), I was hurting. Spun my way out of it at maybe 15 miles per hour, going very slowly up the rollers. Oof…. not an auspicious start, but hey, it’s a rolling course, and clearly, I still suck at hills. And really, gotta be in the front from the beginning!

BTW, our team plan generally works… we hid until the end, and then we bunch sprinted on the right side to the finish. Got 2nd and 3rd, although one of our guys went down hard in a 4-man crash… that sucked. 2nd doesn’t get you anything in this race, but Greg got some stitches in his knee for his effort. Ah well, that’s racing.

Next week: points matter, as we head up to Sequim for Tour de Dung!

My pal Nick Craswell was in town, which means he was up for another attempt for me to prematurely end his life by doing something “fun.” Last year about this time, he went with me on Chilly Hilly while I trailed Laura. This time around, he opted to take my Bianchi Veloce that I use for commuting (and trailing) and I hopped on the Trek 5900 race bike, as Laura would be unable to join us this year due to a birthday party. Now, for those thinking I just set Nick up because I gave him a heavier bike, you’re sort of right. However, the lighter bike doesn’t have a granny gear like the Bianchi, and has a maximum rear gear of 27, as opposed to the 25 on the race bike.

We decided to bike down from my place after MK got back from church, meaning we started out about 10 AM for the 11:25 ferry. For some reason, I thought that “Course open until 3 PM” meant they’d have day-of registration until noon… silly me. We got down there about 11 AM, couldn’t find anyone, so paid our way on the ferry and started off with about 15 other random riders.

This turned out to be a brilliant idea, as the course was generally unoccupied, allowing us to wind our way up some of the bigger climbs and letting us bomb down the big down & ups. Also, the fog and clouds parted for a beautifully sunny day for the last half of the ride. We also didn’t feel terribly guilty at the VFW hot cider rest stop as they were pushing the late-comers like us to eat everything left over lest it go to waste.

Last year, it was a typically cold and rainy Chilly Hilly, so Nick and I bailed at the VFW and headed straight home. This time around, we decided to go up the extra big hill - Anderson! This must have been my first time up it, as I don’t recall it being that bad. Ah well. I got up it pretty well, Nick was dying. Here he is near the top:

Sadly, the decent down isn’t nearly as rewarding, as it curves a bit and ends at a T, forcing the use of brakes. Bah! Anyway, we trucked around the south end of Bainbridge, and then grumbled up the final sets of hills to the finish. Why do we keep forgetting about those final hills? Ah well, Nick kept his composure… here he is cresting one of them:

We decided to skip the finish chili and just head straight home as we were spent… plus all that was left were the dregs. We realized at this point that biking down was foolish given we had to bike back. It took us about an hour for what really should be 30 minutes… yeah we were tired! But all in all, a good day. We ended up totaling 50 miles and for me a bit over 3500 calories burned, so a full pound! The beers at the finish were also quite tasty!

Officially, Union Bay Cycling / Wines of Washington’s colors are now black, silver, and gold. Or perhaps yellow, but I’ll still think it’s gold. Why? Well, because here’s next year’s team bike:

That’s right… it’s a Speed Yellow Black & Gold Trek Madone 5.5, and you’ll be seeing a number of the team racing around on them next year.

Now, I need to think of something to convince Mary Kaye… perhaps, it’s what Troy would ride!

Good Morning Race Fans,

This past Sunday I completed my first triathalon (Seattle “Escape From the Rock Triathalon: http://www.envirosports.com/events/event.php?eventid=1928) The race day was a sunny and gorgeous start at 8am and water temperature was a lovely 72 degrees. I was fortunate to have a cheering section of Lauren and Elias and Joan (who all woke up at 6 am to get me to the start in time), and Linda and Mitchell who cheered and took the pictures enclosed below.

Compared to Danskin, Escape from the rock felt like a private family event. With only 500-600 entrants it was smaller and you felt like you could actually get some breathing room. Pre-race nerves had me talking with Anthony LaMarca about leaving in an earlier wave just “to get it over with”, but Anthony convinced me to hang out for the last wave and just enjoy the passing of people.  The start was in the water and it was certainly a unique experience in getting bashed around while trying to “relax in your stroke.”  There were only a few moments of “I wish I could get more oxygen while doing this”, but all in all the swim was a quiet affair as I took a _very_ outside lane and just took the course as quickly as possible. (Of men swimming I was 146 out of 219 in my swim time).  I left the water ready to get out of the suit and get to the biking, and happy that the hard part was behind me.

The transition had a 250 yard run to get from the beach to the bikes. I got there to see a lot of people had already left, because being a slower swimmer  and leaving last left me a little behind the curve. That said, the transition to the bike was smooth, I ate my little packet of caffeinated goo and went flying up the hill to play catch up. The only distraction on the bike ride was that my GPS watch got into a bad state and ended up losing the data for the event. (*sigh* more lost data to mourn) The personal achievement on the bike was that I was able to average 19 MPH the length of the express lanes on the I-90 bridge and ended up catching a lot of people (37 out of 219 of men biking)

The last transition to the run was a quick 50 second turnaround and off to the run. This is the part that worried me the most, as I have been coddling a back injury and even though I have been doing exercises I was given explicit instructions by my Physical Therapist: “Don’t Run”. I couldn’t not do it for this event. The day before I couldn’t take a step without some twinge of back pain, but through some miracle of lack of sleep, not running, and other events, I was able to do the 2.5 mile run healthy, (tired) and whole. (I finished well placing 83 out of the 219)  I was able to average 7.9 MPH for the distance and crossed the finish line the way I wanted to, happy healthy and strong with no flats and no injuries.

The really cute thing we saw at the finish line was this cute couple crossed the line, and while she got her award, he got down on one knee and presented her a wedding ring and proposed at the finish line. We joked it was a little unfair doing it when she didn’t have the oxygen to think straight, but she smiled and said yes, and it was really a cute and lovely moment. [Makes you wiggle and we all cheered for them again

This was great, I have to give a special thanks to Lauren for running all the kid interference while I was training. Elias and Joan for waking up at 6 am and cheering me on at the break of dawn. Mitchell for taking all the glorious pictures during training and race day. Linda for getting in the water with me the first day and showing me it could be done……with a wetsuit  :)   I ended up biking the 11 miles home after the ride as it was such a beautiful day and a small victory ride doing what I like best is always great 

I recommend this Triathalon, and would gladly do it again, if I weren’t thinking about training for an olympic or 1/2 next year……if I can get this damn swimming figured out.

Obligatory statistics:
http://www.envirosports.com/results/event/1928/results.php

Total time: 1:22:47
Swim (1/2 mile) : 22:14
Bike (12 mile) : 37:31
Run ( 2.5 mile): 18:56
22nd out for 42 in my age group (35-40)
76th overall

-Ruben

http://homepage.mac.com/mschoenfeld/PhotoAlbum19.html
http://homepage.mac.com/mschoenfeld/PhotoAlbum20.html
http://homepage.mac.com/mschoenfeld/PhotoAlbum21.html
http://brickware.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5817

Well, after a month or so galavanting around Europe, I was back on track on the track - Pacific Raceways, counter clockwise down the escape route. An hour around the track. There was a decent field; a bit small but enough for a good race. I was hoping to make at least half the laps before getting dropped, and that turned out accurate. Around lap 5, the legs started to burn up the hill, and lap 6 I got popped. I chased back on during the flats, but on the next uphill I had no energy left. I sat out a lap and caught back on for another couple when the pack came around again after five minutes. This was actually much better than toughing it out solo… the final laps are interesting, especially the last which feels more like a 2-mile semi-sprint rather than a normal finish. Because of the big uphill climb, on the downhill everyone spreads out and then on the uphill people are already sprinting, as there’s no help from drafting.

Good race regardless… next week is up, which I’ll probably miss, and then the final race in two weeks - flats!

Earlier this year, Jennifer, Brandy and Sharon made a decision to do Barb’s race on August 4, 2007 - the only Women’s only 1/2 Ironman. Barb’s race is held at the same time as the Vineman Ironman - so there’s no “time limit” - i.e. typical 1/2 Ironman triathlons have an 8 hour time limit to complete. This one didn’t.

After hearing the training schedule, I realized that I didn’t have enough time to train for a full 1/2 Ironman this year, but that if anyone needed me to do the bike leg of a relay, I could do that. I also offered our hearty friends to drive their bikes down to the wine country as an excuse for a road trip. I planned on taking my bike and going for a ride around there anyway.

The Sunday before the race, Joan (who is training for a marathon) decided that since she could already swim a mile AND she had to do a 12 mile run that weekend anyway, that she’d do those two legs of the relay if I was willing to do the bike. How can I say no to a supported 58 mile bike ride?!?!? We signed up on Monday, having not trained a lick specifically for this particular race.

Photos are here

Joan and I left around 6:30 pm on Thursday. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Whole Foods and was on our way. We also saw 2 deer (including one with a huge rack) eating on the side of the road. We arrived for our first stop at Joan’s mom’s house in Hillsboro for the night. We were back on the road at 6am and arrived some 12 hours later at Windsor, CA, having taken the twisty windy scenic route through Clearlake CA (which also managed to avoid a Friday night traffic accident near Novato). The drive was beautiful and amusing, as always.

We missed the pre-race meeting, but had no trouble meeting up with Jennifer, Brandy and Sharon and getting our registration packets. Then we checked into our hotel in Santa Rosa, unloaded the bikes again, then went to dinner (mmm pasta). We made an early night of it so we could wake up at 5:15 am…

Even though we KNEW what time we’d be waking up, 5:15 comes REALLY early. We dragged ourselves out of bed, dressed, loaded up the bikes and followed Sharon and Brandy’s car first to the Starbuck’s then to T1 (first transition site) in Guernville, CA.

Here’s a general image of the whole race.

I didn’t realized that the full Vineman started as early as 6:30 am. By the time we got there, there were many people in the water. While I was setting up our transition area the first full marathoner came out of the water and had transitioned and was running down the carpet to the bike start. His time for 2.4 miles of swimming? 45 minutes. Unreal.

Barb’s race swimmers were started at 8:15 (for the < 40 women, including Jennifer and Brandy) and 8:20 for the second wave (> 50 and “Athena”), including Sharon. Joan started in the last (Relay only) wave at 8:30.

I waited for a while watching the swimmers come out of the water, then I went to my transition area. I saw Jennifer come out of the water first, then Brandy. Joan came out next and we transitioned - they have our time listed as 0:45:34 for the transition, but I think that was her swim time. I was off on my bike. Joan took some pictures of Sharon coming out of the water and transitioning to her bike, then took the key (I fortunately remembered to give her) and headed back to the car.

Joan spent the time with James (Siggy) having a nice long lunch while I was sweating it out on the course. I saw Brandy and then Jennifer on the route (and Jennifer’s touring entourage of husband and 3 kids)… I managed to talk to a couple of people on the route - a few of the women were really pretty evenly paced with me. I lost one “ride buddy” when I stopped to fill my water bottle at mile 28 (she later found me when the race was done). I did do my fair share of passing people - including a couple of guys.

I sent a text message to Joan at mile 40, I was ahead of what I thought I’d make (I was thinking 4 hours with stops), then hit the “hill” - a 6-11% grade up Chalk Hill Road… I saw a couple of people walking up, but I slogged it up the hill. It wasn’t as bad as I thought (not as long, but steeper), but I was tiring by the time I got there.

One minor sub goal I made - I beat the first Ironman into T2 Since I couldn’t listen to my tune on the bike (no personal audio devices allowed, even with the speakers), I was doing calculations in my head - like how fast it would take the best Ironman to make the 112 mile bike course. I figured I’d be passed around mile 50, but wasn’t sure. I asked one of the volunteers near that point on the route and she said an Ironman HAD come by… but she was WRONG. LOL! I got to T2 at around 12:40, the first ironman made it in around 1pm.

Per Elizabeth’s thread on how much fluid she drank on STP, and because it was so )(#@*&$ hot, I made a special effort to drink at least one full bottle between stops (mile 13, 28, 40). The first bottle was plain water, 2nd was Accelerade, 3rd was SmartWater (what they were handing out) and 4th was Gatorade which I didn’t finish, but I was drinking more water. I got to the point where I’d take a at least sip or two every 10 minutes. I also ate 1.5 bananas and a small cliff bar. I know I drank at least 4 x 24 ounces - maybe a 5th… I got a little wonky after Chalk Hill. I saw a lot of people having problems because they weren’t drinking enough and offered one of my untouched bottles of Smartwater to one woman - she refused, but saw me later in the transition area and said I was her “carrot” (I was just in front of her for a while)… she thanked me.

Here’s a link to my GPS data
. Unfortunately my GPS must have missed some of the data in the trees because the official distance is 58 mile route. I did it officially in 3:28:42 - averaging approximately 16.5 mph, while keeping my heart rate around 155.

At T2, Joan was waiting for me under the relay tent, and walked over to the Transition rack with me. She took 2 pictures, I swapped the timing chip and she was off and away. I stayed around in the transition area to take pictures of Sharon (who came in a bit after me) then Brandy, then Jennifer. Jennifer had gotten a flat RIGHT before the end of the ride, but rode the bike in and slipped and fell on the turn into the
transition area. She didn’t look so happy right after, but then the endorphines must have kicked back in after she transitioned, and she was on her way for the run.

I found the car and changed my shoes, then sat around and pictures of the runners as they came around their loops (it was an 8 mile loop then a 4 mile loop for the 1/2 marathon). It was REALLY hot - high 80s through the whole run. Even still everyone finished! I was so incredibly happy for everyone.

Note, the run times have to be wrong in these. I know Joan’s time yesterday was listed as 2:48:??. They also have our Swim/Transition1 time mixed together. The total times are correct.

1310 Boyles, Joan/Bricker, Lauren
Total: 7:06:27.9
Swim ( — )
T1 ( 0:45:34.6 )
Bike ( 3:28:42.7 )
T2 ( 0:03:35.5 )
Run ( 0:00:15.6 )

1042 Simis, Brandy
Total 8:47:49.8
Swim ( 0:54:14.8 )
T1 ( 0:05:37.0 )
Bike ( 3:48:44.8 )
T2 ( 0:04:19.6 )
Run ( 0:00:23.7 )

1113 Cruz, Jennifer
Total time: 8:18:27.5
Swim ( 0:52:05.2 )
T1 ( 0:04:26.8 )
Bike ( 3:59:13.9 )
T2 ( 0:04:38.0 )
Run ( 0:00:18.2 )

1232 Signorelli, Sharon
Total time: 7:45:14.4
Swim ( — )
T1 ( 1:03:24.4 )
Bike ( 3:44:35.0 )
T2 ( 0:04:40.4 )
Run ( 0:00:18.3 )

I have to say the Vineman race was VERY well supported AND supportive (so many people encouraging us on the route!!!) The only negative was not enough port-a-potties to support the athletes’ pre-race jitters…. What I heard was that the 70.3 1/2 iron wasn’t so supportive in terms of the athletes - because it was a qualifier a lot of the athletes get very very pushy. I could definitely see doing a full 1/2 ironman *some year*, but for now I’m totally happy with doing the bike portions of a relay.

Joan and I left at around 6:30 am yesterday and re-traced our steps through the mountains to I-5 (rather than taking the route through Novato and Vallejo). We stopped in at the Cowpoke Cafe for breakfast - a tiny place in Middletown, CA… very cow kitchy! And very very very filled with regulars. We did few other stops except in Redding (for Jamba Juice) and in Jantzen Beach (Portland OR) for some brew-pub food. We made it back to my house around 10pm - only to find that Joan’s car tire was flat! At least she was here (tired, but here) and had AAA to come fix it (they were around the corner). We’re both pretty tired today, but it was so worth it.

At Greg’s behest Elias and I did a ride to protest the fact that the city went back on their promise to have a bike lane on Stone way

Which quickly got written up on the Strangers blog Comment: I saw the “Bike Bullies” guy they mentioned here.. I had to laugh. Elias and I slowly chugging along on the tandem is SO DAMN SCARY. We’re SUCH BULLIES!

When we got home and I was watching the news to see if there was anything about it… No mention of it on the news, even though a helicopter hovered over head for about 15 minutes - I guess we we didn’t clog up traffic enough. Elias did hear the word “protest” and got all excited - ’cause he knew he had protested something today (we had been
talking about it this week).

As a note, Elias biked this route to get from camp to the protest, then around the protest loop once, then back home. He did 12.5 miles, a new
record for him. I did an extra 2.5 miles to go pick him up by going from my house up and over 68th to Magnusson park where his camp is on the tandem with the stoker
position empty. I know it looks odd. I get many weird looks (like “did
you forget someone??!?!”) That’s a big heavy bike and I had to go up and
over hills with it. I don’t know what’s worse, the bike with out him on
it or the bike with him on it… he does help, but does he help 57lbs
worth?

Nick, a friend of mine whom I normally rope into fun adventures, and I happened to be in Amsterdam towards the end of the Tour de France. As Paris is a mere four hours away by train from Amsterdam, we decided to hop on down and catch the finale of the Tour! Random doping issues aside (and ripe for another post), the finale was a fantastic spectacle and well worth the trip.

The 20th and final stage of the tour is is a 85.5 km / 53.1 mi flat ride into Paris followed by eight 7.5 km / 4.6 mi laps up and down the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysées. People start staking out the best sight-lines about 9 AM or so, in similar fashion to tailgating at major events, with the exception that once the race gets in, you don’t have to move (and indeed you can’t, given the crowd that surrounds you). It was raining off and on, so Nick and I decided to hit the Musee d’Orsay for a few hours and then find a space about 2 PM, when the Caravan arrives. We found a nice spot at the upper NE corner maybe four people back, which gave us great sight lines and enabled us to take some great pictures (and a lot more bad ones!).

About 2 PM, the Caravan arrives, which is a huge parade of the Tour sponsors. While cars decked out in flowers are not to be seen, there are a number of cars, vans, and semis weaving about up and down the course. At one point, the Caravan managed to get stuck, leaving the Aquafina clown stopped near us have a bit of fun.

After the Caravan arrived, we stood in a densely packed crowd, anxiously awaiting the peleton, to arrive. After a wait of nearly two hours after the Caravan ended, about 4:40, the peleton arrived! The peleton takes surprisingly long to travel up the Champs-Elysées. It is proceeded by a large contingent of lead cars, as then the peleton of 130-odd riders arrives!

The peleton then arrives, and in just a few seconds the riders have cornered and gone. I managed to get a number of photos as they passed; on the first round, I happened to get a great (albeit slightly blurry) shot of Alberto Contador, who was in (and kept) the yellow jersey. Check it out… he was even on a custom-painted yellow Trek Madone! It looks to be an amazingly sweet ride… and you know that they had that pre-made in case Contador was in the lead!

I also caught a number of other good shots. Here is one of my favorites, which is a shot of a José Ivan Gutierrez in a breakaway of about 8 riders passing in front of the photo pool. I happened to catch the rider just as the flash of another photographer was going off, which made for some spectacular lighting conditions:

For those interested, I was taking the shots using a Nikon D70 and a 70-300mm F/4.5D lens, shooting using continuous auto-focus and alternating between aperture priority (when we had a bit more light) and shutter priority (which was better, as it prevented some of the blurrier shots), and continuous shot mode. When the peleton would come about, everyone would raise their cameras up and start shooting… this generated a ton of bad shots, but hey, it’s easy to delete shots in the 10 minutes between laps.

After the tour, the crowd dispersed, and Nick and I headed to an amazing French restaurant, Le Coupe Chou. I remember eating at the fine Latin Quarter restaurant when I was last in Paris in 1999, and noticed that even back then they had a website. It’s still as charming and tasty as ever!

Incidentally, for those going again — I highly recommend staying at the Hotel Belfast, which is a block away from the Arc and right next to a RER and Metro stop, making it super convenient for both the Tour as well as getting about in Paris.

All in all, an amazing experience… I’m glad we were able to go and see it. Now, if only I can convince Mary Kaye to go with me again for so we can follow the full tour!

Good evening ride fans,

I took some time off yesterday in the middle of a busy month to ride in the RAMROD 2007 event. Typically RAMROD is (Ride Around Mt Ranier in One Day), however due to the road closures from rainstorms this past winter they modified the route to be 3 out and backs starting from Enumclaw, up to Sunrise, down and up to Crystal Mountain and then up and back forest route 70.

The ride is advertised at 143 miles and 10K feet of elevation gain.

The ride start was at 5am in the dark, but with so many riders and the sky just starting to grow light there was a lot of safety in numbers and an endless chain or red blinking real lights from 300 (of 850) riders who started at that time. The slight uphill climb from Enumclaw to Mt Ranier was not that bad but you really didn’t need a jacket after the first 5 miles as it gets warm enough from the climbing.

The ride up to Mt Ranier and the arrival at the top is just gorgeous. Sunrise is a long 20 mile climb to get to the top, but the last mile is flat to slightly downhill pointing straight at Mt Ranier. After the endorphin high of 2 hours of climbing, (and being slightly out of breath at 6,000 feet) you feel fantastic free-wheeling into the food stop. The ride down was even better with a 20 mile ride down averaging 25-35 MPH the car traffic was light and all you really had to worry about was the crush of bicyclists still climbing up the mountain. If you only do this as your one hill of the day its worth the ride.

A photo from the peak wearing Pastry Powered:

The climb up to Crystal is less notable only in that it is 6 miles of up, and 6 miles of back down. The road was really chewed up and I did lose a water bottle on some of the bumps coming down. The cruelest climb was Route 70 which was 10 mile out and back. At mile 5 of that section there is a 12 % grade and when you get to the top of it you think “Hey, I am done” but then you see a sign that says 12% grade downhill and you realize that not only do you have to go down, but when you turn around you will have to do a 12% grade coming back. Heading back towards the highway I didn’t have the heart to tell all the people heading out what they were getting themselves into.

The ride back to Enumclaw ended up having lots of headwinds, but by that point you just find a group of people to draft, and socialize with, and talk about your next ride. Its slightly downhill all the way back to Enumclaw so that compensated from some of the headwinds. I caught up with several people at the finish line including Mitchell (Linda’s husband) and several other riders, ending the ride at 3:20pm. After 10+ hours of riding I was done.

The most dangerous part of the trip was the drive home because I almost fell asleep at the wheel with some extra long blinking and fighting to stay awake as apparently I was more tired then I thought.

Food notes:
The food on the trip was excellent simply for the slight variety at every stop. Each stop (at the top of each climb) had the basics of Bagels, cookies, peanut butter, fruit and cream cheese. That said one stop had the little brown potatoes, another was entirely of chocolate croissants, another was a deli food sandwich and sodas, and the Finish line had an ice cream truck where you could pick out your bar of choice. (I chose the Oreo ice cream bar.) Given that my watch indicated I had burned 14,000 calories it was OK.

I highly recommend the ride and the support, and I look forward to when the route changes to actually circle Mt Ranier, which is when I will try to ride it again. Also, wearing the jersey people are starting to recognize pastrypowered.com from the other rides.

Yours,

-Ruben

P.S. I have video of the view of Mt Ranier as you circle the top and ride in if you ever want to see it.