The Night Before: KJ keeps signing "Ride 30 miles Sunday", so he's definitely ready for this. Since I wanted to leave the house around 7 am (significantly earlier than we usually get out the door when we ride), I tried to get as much ready the night before as possible. I had the rack on the car, put our Gatorade bottles in the freezer, and packed our rack bag with just what I wanted to take with us. I even had the jersey and shorts I planned to wear laid out.5:00 am I haven't gotten up this early in months. Fed the cats and made coffee, in that order. Turn on the Weather Channel. Rain is moving out of the area. Good. And today looks to be our first 90 degree-plus day of the summer. Figures...
6:00 am Wake up KJ. He gets out of bed quickly. Like I said, he's ready for this. Try and wake up wife. No such luck. KJ has his usual breakfast (muffin, cereal, spaghetti, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich).
6:45 am Go put the bike on the car. Noticed the rack is wet from the overnight rain. The pavement is wet also. Made sure to take along our mud flaps, just in case we needed them.
7:15 am We left house, more or less on time. It is warm enough out that we drive with the windows rolled down. It is so early that there is no traffic in the Rankin Bridge construction zone.
7:45 am Arrived in Elizabeth and parked the car. I noticed that it is a lot easier to find a place to park than in past years. We take the bike and head over to the registration table. There is just one table with two guys handing out the packets. Clearly this is a much smaller affair than the last time I did it (back when American Youth Hostels ran it). Back then, there were multiple lines for registration, broken down alphabetically, with a separate line for those who hadn't pre-registered. Our tag numbers are 378 and 379. I was concerned that KJ might not like the idea of pinning a tag to his back, fortunately his backpack provided an simple and effective alternative.8:00 am Started the ride, more or less right on schedule.
8:22 am, 3.60 miles Stopped on side of road to get some Gatorade. I noticed that there aren't near as many riders on the road as I remember, and the riders we do see are all passing us. Most greet us with a friendly "Good morning!", and some even ask if we're OK (since we're stopped on the side of the road). So far it has been a bit of a grind. Don't know if it is because it is too early, or the route in unfamiliar, but KJ doesn't seem to be putting much effort into pedaling. Which means it is going to be a long ride. There's no way we're going to be doing the 50 mile route.
8:47 am, 7.23 miles We take a second break at the side of the road. I notice that KJ is finally pedaling, so things are a bit easier.
9:15 am, 10.59 miles We stopped for Powerbar break and to check the map. I thought I had perhaps missed a turn for the 30-mile route when we came off the bridge, but it turns out we are on track and everything is fine.
9:48 am, 15.37 miles, average speed 10.8 mph. Gatorade stop at the side of the road.
10:05 am, 17.89 miles, average speed 10.8 mph. KJ seems to be really into the pedaling. I'm wondering if maybe we shouldn't have done the 50 mile route.
10:22 am, 21.96 miles, average speed 10.8 mph. Arrived at the lunch stop. It is somewhat cruel that you see the lunchstop (in a park along the river) a half-mile before you actually come to the entrance to the park. They actually make the sandwiches for you. KJ had a PB&J, cheese crackers, a banana, and pasta salad. There aren't as many riders here as I remember from previus years. In looking at the other riders' tag numbers, I notice they all seem to be within 50 numbers of our own. The tags do not have a year on them, so I'm guessing they have a stack of tags and just use the next available numbers each year until they run out. Before we left we filled up our waterbottles with the most potent Gatorade I've ever tasted. Someone definitely used too much powder for the amount of water in the container. Can't really complain though, because it is better than the watered-down stuff I remember from the last time I did the Mon Valley Century.10.54 am, 21.96 miles, average speed 10.8 mph. We leave the lunch stop. We're two-thirds of the way through the course.
11:15 am, 25.14 miles, average speed 10.7 mph. Gatorade stop. KJ's pedaling seems mixed. Sometimes he's putting forth effort, other times he's not.
11:31 am, 27.63 miles, average speed 10.8 mph. Stopped for a Gatorade break. KJ's doing a better job of pedaling. This should be our last stop. We're in the home stretch.
11:59 am, 31.85 miles, average speed 10.9 mph. We're over 30 miles, where is the end of this ride? Stopped at the bottom of the biggest *&#@%^ hill. Between the size of the hill, the distance we've ridden, and the fact that we're just hoping for the end of the ride, this really took the wind out of our sails. This hill looks like Alpe du Huez to me...12:15 pm, 33.19 miles, average speed 10.8 mph. Finally made it back to the car. Unfortunately there isn't really any sort of finish line or official end point. Which is too bad. A bigger concern is that there is no water or snacks at the finish, which is arguably when you need those things the most. The most amazing thing is that our average speed remained fairly constant over the length of the entire ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment