Taxes are still being filed. I have a stack of papers twice as heavy as today’s lunch filling my bag. The non-members need to be sorted from the members and then you need to sort out the members who didn’t pre-register. Alphabetize them… that helps. Wait, did I give a follow up call on this person? Did they finish already and it didn’t get marked? Maybe they pre-registered and never started.

I went home Saturday with a pounding headache. Instead of blaming the lack of water I drank, I blame Dan Boxer and Mark Thomas for buying me beers after the ride. How was I supposed to know that they don’t actually hydrate?

Everything ended on a sour note for me. I took a call at the last minute that made my heart sink. John Vincent got into an accident with an SUV a couple of miles from the finish. He was understandably pumped full of adrenaline and tough to talk to on the phone. A very expensive carbon recumbent took one for the team. Thankfully, he was alive and walking around. I hope he is still doing alright.

Sour notes aside, the day was a pretty amazing experience for us. I had lots of nervous energy going in to the morning and woke up a few minute before my alarm hit. Apparently Jane didn’t have the same excitement for the day because my enthusiasm didn’t encourage her to get up any quicker than usual.

I met Chris and Paul at the park in the morning about an hour and a half before the kick off. Emily was down buying some coffee from All City for the start and a local came down with a fresh pot of his own to help out. I had a mish mash of chicken scratched notes of things to go over on the pre-ride announcement and paced around a little bit trying to thank everyone that came.

Jane showed up with Chibi to help riders make sure they were relaxed. Mark was around snapping pictures. He might have told his wife that this was one of the easier rides for the year. K from Cycle Commuter introduced himself and showed off his bike for me. He rode up from Tacoma for this one. Pete showed up unexpectedly with his amazing mustache. It was nice to see so many familiar faces along with some fresh ones.

The five minute mark came up fast and I had to scramble a bit to get off the pre-ride announcements. Everyone set out… you know… relatively on time. Pat Leahy rolled in as we were breaking things down. He got stuck in some of the marathon traffic. I helped him get his bike off the roof and on to the road. I guess he forgot his ID in the car and had to come back for that too. He managed to finish the ride on time though.

John Whitenack, Matt Mikul and Vincent Muoneke took on the first control (which was very close to the start) and the Dash Point control at just past the halfway point. I appreciate their support and handling all of those hungry riders after the much tougher first half of the ride.

Chris and I drove out to the secret control at the top of Seahurst. There is an epic climb that we diabolically routed towards. There is a truck sign for the descent with 16% marked on it. That wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Mark set up shop with his camera to take pictures of people coming up it. He dubbed it the “Seahurst Wall Climb”. There are some amazing photos on the SIR flickr account. It is funny (in a sick way) to see peoples faces as they turn the corner only to realize that the climb isn’t finished yet. Sorry, everybody.

Even the fastest guys took about an hour to get to the 12 mile mark at our secret control. That should really say something about the difficulty of this ride. When Chris and I rode it fresh off of the 600K, it was pretty brutal on the legs. Most everyone seemed to be in good spirits though. Nobody punched us. We got a few middle fingers, but always followed by smiles. I think it might have been the brownies. I didn’t lace them or anything though, unless butter counts.

We had more than a few walkers up the hill but everyone seemed to come in together for the most part. There wasn’t a huge difference from the front and back this early in to the ride. Chris and I eventually packed up and drove back towards home to get some tables to set up at the finish at Loretta’s.

Loretta’s turned out to be a huge hit with everyone. The beer is solid, the burgers are just what you need post ride, and the staff is pretty friendly. They let us open up the back and everyone was able to safely park our bikes on the large patio.

The two fastest riders of the day (Ohlemeier and Ragsdale, surprise surprise) came in at an amazing 3 hours and 54 minutes. Good lord, gentlemen… maybe take a few breaks to stop and smell the flowers, eh?

The rest of the pack came in waves. Everyone seemed really happy. I kept waiting for that “Thanks a lot, jerk” comment. All I got were loads of tired looking people beaming with a sense of accomplishment. A few even said, “That was the hardest metric century I’ve ever done. Thank you.”

Volunteering is a wonderful humbling experience. It feels great to give back to a group that has given so much pain, experience and thrills to me. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the last year and a half of wonderful suffering. I will be volunteering again for a longer ride next year. Perhaps it won’t be as hard… Thank you again, everyone. It was a beautiful weekend.

Update: Check out John Whitenack’s photos from the day.

I went over to Dan’s yesterday to drop off the handlebar bag. The bike is stunning so far. He is really doing a fine job. We chatted on cable routing methods and different options that I have to keep my components working on the new bike. Were I made of money, I’d probably be ordering stuff right and left. I’m doing my best to keep the purse strings tight’ish on this one though. I can always upgrade here and there in the future. It has a fantastically classic look that some my Shimano stuff doesn’t really do justice, but I’m really excited about it overall. There is nothing wrong with a little marriage of old and new. Did I mention that it is an attractive bike? Dan started a new blog all on his own. You should go give him a shout out and buy stuff from him. He has been putting together food thermoses with custom cages that fit in water bottle bosses. They would go splendid on any tourer/not weight weenie bike you might own. Ask him about them. I stole these pictures from his Flickr account. It was for a good cause though. I’ve been mind numbingly busy lately. I’m juggling some fresh logos, old work, my full time, lots of cooking, prepping for the 100K and a new puppy. I managed to fix our washing machine yesterday. I had to replace the drain pump. That was the second time it broke. The first time we paid some guy 450 dollars to fix it. I replaced it for 50 and some change. That doesn’t factor in my stiff hourly fee of course. This butt crack isn’t on display for cheap. I’ve also had a bout of crazy sore legs. I’ve had to stop exercising this week. A year ago I would have broke out a tiny violin on a line like that. These days I can’t seem to not exercise one way or another. Taking it easy has never been so difficult. Speaking of crazy, the last minute prep for the The Sound and the Fury has been really intense. The paperwork is no joke. There are forms for forms. I feel like I’m filling my taxes. Everything is really well organized overall though. People are coming out of the woodwork to help piece everything together. It really is an amazing group of people. Provided nobody punches me out after the hill at Seahurst, it should be a fantastic day tomorrow. An element of a Populaire (100K) that slipped my mind was the fact that we will have medals available to the finishers. You can keep it on your mantle next to all of your bowling trophies or just sell the metal for scrap. Either way, it is a sweet deal. The ride is free. You have no excuses really. Tonight I’m baking a boat load of brownies from scratch. I make no promises on their quality. You will just have to come and find out.

You should go and preregister right now. Seriously. Go for it. I’ll still be here.

Chris, his wife Emily, and our friend John Whitenack joined me to pre-ride the 100K this Saturday. Jane was nice enough to drive out to a few controls and make sure we had enough water and some goodies.

Thursday night I managed to hurt my knees pretty bad while riding my bike around town. I think the weeks worth of exercise just really caught up to my joints. I went to bed for a couple of nights in pain. There wasn’t a position that I could find that would make it stop. Naturally, I was pretty scared that I wouldn’t be able to ride on Saturday. In fact, once Friday night rolled around, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to.

Surprisingly the knees felt slightly better once I woke up. I really didn’t want a DNS or DNF next to my name on a ride that I helped organize. I figured I could suffer through it and just take a little time off the bike after that… yes I really am that stupid. Even more surprising was the fact that the ride seemed to get rid of the pain all together. I guess they just needed to be worked over to help the fact that I… worked them over?

Chris’ wife Emily was the trooper of the day. She didn’t have a ride longer than maybe 30 miles in her legs all year and she got through all of the hardest parts of the ride. She hitched a ride with Jane at the Dash Point control where we bought some croissants (twice baked chocolate!) from Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle for the riders. Don’t be expecting that on the actual ride though, I’m not made of money, damnit.

John clearly had fresher legs than Chris and I and cooked us on every single hill throughout the day. Between a flat tire and some general meandering/chatting, we were cutting some of the early time cutoffs close. The first portion (20 miles or so) of the ride is definitely harder than the rest of it. Once you get through that portion, you should make up plenty of time on the second half.

We are all pretty exciting to get this thing off of the ground though. I hope you can join us.

In other news, we welcomed Chibi to our family on Thursday afternoon. She was helping me build some muscle after the ride Saturday.

It should be noted that 25 out of the 30 total pictures I took of this ride are in the first 50 miles of this 374 mile ride. I went into the ride with two goals; Finish the ride and take lots of pictures. At a certain point, I lost the will to do either one of those things.

Our journey started in Auburn with promises of a pancake flat route and tailwinds both directions. We’ve been in SIR long enough to know that neither would be true, but it was still promising to hear that we might have an easier 600K than “normal”.

The paceline head out at a brisk pace and I felt pretty loose. I knew I wasn’t the strongest I’ve ever been once we hit a couple of early hills near Military Road… so much for the flat ride. The bunch split up very early and stayed that way throughout the weekend. I hung with Chris for a while through some beautiful roads in Tacoma that pushed us up and over Ruston and across the newly expanded Tacoma Narrows bridges. It was quite a pleasant ride across.

I lost Chris at some point between Tacoma and our 2nd control at Waterman Point (mile 52). He managed to find a nice double paceline with Dan Boxer that I hear they held for most of the day.

I rode with Matt for a while and we eventually caught up with a group including the always entertaining Andy Speier and Joe Platzner. They both can hold a conversation for longer than any bike ride will ever take. Andy can whistle like a radio and it seems to turn on while descending. It is always pleasant to ride with them.

We rode along the water front on the South end of the Hood Canal and generally enjoyed the beautiful scenery and pleasant weather. My legs weren’t quite there though. I never felt like I could pace with anyone all day. It was frustrating because I think I finally got my nutrition right, but it didn’t seem to matter.

The course took us on some of the roads that Joe, Matt and I did a few month back on our Fleche ride. I was starting to really hate the ride at that point though. I lost pace with Andy and Joe’s group. Matt was nice enough to hang back with me, but I couldn’t even keep up with up on the small inclines.

We were maybe a hundred miles in to the ride and I actually considered the strength it might take to get me back to my car. There were headwinds all the way to the coast that weren’t helping my outlook any. Hell, if I turned around, I would probably be able to ride even faster! I seriously considered whether or not I was actually cut out for this type of ride. It put everything in to perspective, including PBP and the 1000K I wanted to take on this year. The fact that I was 1 for 2 in the 600K department helped push me along. I’ve said over and over that it is a mental game.

The funny thing is, at just about every control people were asking about how I was feeling. I gave them a general “so-so” response and they would usually follow it up with questions about my stomach issues. I appreciate that people actually read this BS. Thankfully, I never had a single stomach issue on this ride.

Another rider in a white sleeveless jersey caught up with us and traded some pulls in to Cosmopolis. I am terrible with names, so I apologize if you are reading this! He was quite nice and let me sit on his wheel for probably longer than I deserved to.

We caught up again with Andy and Joe’s group at the Cosmopolis control. They were in good spirits and I wanted to try and latch back on to their group. We ate some mystery foods and tried to get back on the road. I felt bad for leaving the rider that had come in with us, but I really wanted to keep pedaling.

The route had us ride along Grays Harbor to the Pacific Ocean (a first for me) and a town called Westport. It was probably the most redneck coastal community I’ve ever been to. They had a Subway inside of the mini mart and the guy at the register looked very angry that we were giving him our money. There was a junkie trying to chat everyone up while buying some beer. He seemed pretty excited on life, for the moment. Still, the control filled my calorie and water requirements.

We rode the coast south for a while, happy to be rid of the headwinds. Joe seemed to get great pleasure from the city sign that read “Tokeland”. We rode along an amazing water side road that had a beach as the sun was starting to set. I finally pulled my phone back out to snap a couple of crappy pictures. This was the start of my turn around. It was damn beautiful and I was happy to be there for the moment. I still wasn’t strong physically, but I wanted to win the mental game.

After a number of pretty flat miles, there was finally some climbing near Pe Ell. It felt pretty good to use a different muscle group to slog up a few hills. I got dropped a number of times, but they wouldn’t let me go. Andy mentioned the next day that they wouldn’t have let me ride alone at night. It was very much appreciated.

Near Rainbow Falls State Park, Paul Johnson (Dr. Codfish) had a control set up with all the goods including coffee, Cup O’ Noodles, sandwiches, chips, etc. We thankfully didn’t sit too long. It was a little too comfortable with the space heaters at our feet. I grabbed a couple of cookies for the road and stuffed them and the rest of my sandwich into my jersey pockets.

We picked up Ian Shopland for the final section in to the overnight control. He was good company and joked (sort of) about how close he was to his home in Olympia by that point. The final miles were mercifully quick somehow. We rolled in to Centralia around 2am.

The overnight control was a major operation. It was run by Peter Beeson, Vincent Muoneke and others (again… terrible with the names). They had salmon, chili with rice and/or noodles, breakfast burritos cooking and pretty much any drink you could want (including beer). Peter Beeson was nice enough to take an Ensure order for me so I could stock up in the morning. I ate what I could, but I really just wanted to get some sleep. We asked for a 6am wake up call.

I was out like a rock, but Joe had a tougher time sleeping. My eyes cracked open and saw Andy up and getting dressed. He said it was 20 until six so I figured it wasn’t a big rush. I closed my eyes for a couple of minutes and then checked again. Ian was up and getting ready. Joe and Andy were both gone from the room. I was pretty confused so I just got up and gathered my things. Joe had left half an hour earlier and Andy was out getting some breakfast. We managed to leave a little before 6:30 that morning. There were promises of climbing ahead.

Day two had almost all of the 10,000 total feet of climbing in it. Somehow I managed to regain the strength in my legs though. I felt really great and was pushing the hills well. I split off from the morning group that I left with pretty much at the first major hill out of Centralia. I didn’t see most of them until the end of the ride.

There were tons of ups and downs (mostly up) for the next 50 miles topping out at around 1,800 feet. That isn’t a massive elevation, but it really made you work for it. There were plenty of times where it would dip back in to a valley and you would lose your gains. I had a rider in front of me dangling a carrot for me to reach. I was slowly catching up to him, but was in no hurry to push myself. I stopped for a photo op on a great uphill switchback that looked down on some trees. Unfortunately, my phone was all foggy from my back sweat, so they didn’t come out quite right.

I finally caught the rider ahead of me right before Morton. I was buying a morning snack and he was already back out on the road. I saw him a few more times that day, but he kept his stops very short.

Going up Highway 7, I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad. There was a tight shoulder and open roads. If I were to go, it would be pretty obvious what I was doing and there was a decent amount of traffic. I finally saw a little forest road shoulder and started to pull off. Amazingly, both Matt and Joe were there taking a little break.

Joe and I rolled out together but Matt took another minute and said he would catch up. The cue sheet confused Joe and I several miles later into Elbe. We started to go the wrong direction but saw Matt sweep in behind us going the other way. We pushed and caught up to him riding in to Eatonville as a trio.

A Subway sandwich was thoroughly enjoyed at this point, with only 50 miles left to go. It wasn’t an official control, but we all wanted the rest and calories by then. Subway is apparently a very popular lunch destination in Eatonville, because the place exploded with customers while we were eating.

The journey north took us along Lake Kapowsin and through southern Orting. Large trucks and angry drivers were in full swing. We had a number of drivers swing around us on blind corners, a few almost hitting opposing traffic. It would have been comical if it weren’t so dangerous.

We spent a few minute in Enumclaw making sure we were prepared for the final 20 or so miles in to the finish. It was a pretty amazing feeling to be so close to a ride that looked so uncertain at points.

Joe, Matt and I stuck together until the finish. We even started a little paceline pushing 18-20 through Green Valley Road. I was pretty amazed that I felt so good. It wasn’t until Joe asked if we could slow it down a bit that the pain hit my legs. It is funny what you can block out sometimes.

The final stop in Auburn was welcomed with high fives, pizza and soda. I can’t ask for much more than that. The finish of a ride truly puts everything in to perspective. You suffer for that singular moment sometimes. It makes everything you just went through completely worth it.
Stats:
Miles ridden – 375ish
Total Time – 34 ½ hours
Sleeping – 3 ½ hours
Feet climbed – 10,000
Flat tires – 0
Avg. Speed (with stops) – 10.9 mph
Road kill – Lost track
Dogs chasing – 3
Touring cyclists met – 4

Check out the map here. See the results here.

Jane has been doing a great job holding down most of the watering and weeding. Those little caterpillars are having a field day on the Brussels sprouts leaves. We pick them off pretty much every day.

I’ve made quite a few dishes already with the lettuces and herbs. We’ve been pulling at the leaves without taking the whole head out so they grow back. I am pretty astonished at just how well everything is doing.

We have only had a couple of casualties to date. Some of the lettuces wilted and a few of the seeds never really got moving.

Last night we spent almost 3 hours harvesting the broccoli rabe, kohlrabi, arugula and all of the beets. It was quite an operation to pull, clean and store everything that we needed to. Norman was over and he took a portion of them. We are all learning together and it helps to have a cook like him to know what to do with things once they are up.

He is making some pesto out of a bunch of the arugula so we aren’t slammed with salad 3 times a day just to use it all up.

I’m planning on roasting some beets tonight to make a beet and orange salad with the greens from the beets.

There is a lot to learn and experiment with, but it has been very rewarding so far.

I broke another Honjo fender last night… again in the rear and again on my Indy Fab. I am wondering if I just stress them too much, or the fit is too tight for those particular seat stays, or if they are just too weak of fenders for my needs. The pair I’ve got on my Salsa are still running strong, and I bought a brand new pair for the incoming Boxer bike, so I’m really hoping that I just have had bad luck in the past.

I might ask Dan to get creative with the mounting so we can spread some of the stress at the brake bridge. I don’t want to be in another situation where I am in the middle of a brevet and have to ditch the fender.

Chris and I went out and scouted a road last night. Microsoft Streets and Trips put it as the quickest route back in to South Park at the end of the 100K. I was worried that it might not be very bike friendly. Thankfully, I was wrong and it is even more fun than the original route. It adds a couple of rolling hills but pays off with an awesome bomb downhill with a fantastic view of Seattle from the top.

The sky was an amazing apricot color last night as some unexpected clouds rolled in. Because I took off my broken fenders, it rained of course. I was in shorts and a loose shirt. The spring rain felt wonderful though, especially after all of the heat we’ve had.

I had about half an entry done up on Perpeteum and why I think it affects me the way it does and blah blah blah. It spent a couple of days on my desktop before I finally deleted. The long and short of it is that it doesn’t work for me. I have to eat sugars at some point in the day on a ride. There… that saved you a good 5 or 6 paragraph of reading about my weak stomach.

Chris and I have unofficially broken our 200K+ a month streak now with the DNF on that 3 pass ride last month. It feels kind of nice to have the pressure off now that I’m not trying to qualify for any particular award or achievement. I am just enjoying the rides now (except when I’m not). That said, I would still like to get a full series in this year, so I’ve got some catching up to do since I didn’t make it to either the 300 or 400K.

So what is next?

June 13th and 14th is the SIR 600K that will take us over the newly finished Tacoma Narrows Bridge and out towards the coast. We will loop back south and finish where we started in Auburn. It looks like a fun loop that should cover some low traffic roads. I’m a bit nervous about it since I am only 1 for 2 in the 600K department.

Pushing on with riding on in to the night is still nerve racking for me. There is something about the feeling of the sun going down that makes me a little antsy after riding all day. It usually takes a few hours for me to settle in properly for a night ride. With any luck, I can make good time in to the overnight control for a couple of hours of sleep.

Two weeks from there, on the 27th, is the 100K Populaire that we are putting on. It has proven to be quite a chore to get the route together on an urban ride. There are just so many shortcuts and areas that people could potentially cheat. I have lots of respect for Eric Vigoren for putting on the spring 100k the last couple of years. I’m sure he had to deal with this same business getting it all together.

In the long run, it will probably have more controls than I was hoping, but I think it will be worth it. The route really is pretty stunning. I have been in the middle of making revisions over the last couple of days. I made a few assumptions about easiest route vs. shortest route that I shouldn’t have. With any luck, the route will remain mostly intact with just a couple of minor changes.

July 11th and 12th is Seattle to Portland. Jane and I got a little late on ramping up towards training, but we have been working out off the bike, so I’m sure that will help a bit. Jane and I are on week 6 of our P90X training program. It has proven to be very effective but I’ve been waking up extra sore lately.

Chris and I are doing STP in 1 day this year (for the first time) and hope to enjoy beers in Portland by Saturday night. With any luck, it won’t be nearly as hot as it was last year.

The ladies have a hotel room booked for their overnight in Centralia. It should make things a bit easier. There are usually pretty crazy lines for the shower at the college (where we usually stay). I’m going to miss the camping aspect of it though. My favorite STP so far was when I rode with Jane both days. We were tired and sore, but it was quite a feeling of accomplishment.

In other news, the garden is looking amazing these days. I’m planning on setting up a post on that soon.