Pre-Ride Brain Boondoggling
I had no idea just what I was getting into when I put this
on my calendar as an event I might want to do.
I had no idea what I was thinking when I said, “Screw it, no more
toddling around, I’m just going to sign up for this thing and see what
happens.”
Some great things happen when we fight through our
reservations and fears and tackle the things we’re afraid of, things we think we
cannot do. This was one of those
things.
DMD? #2 with a
difficulty of “Radically High”. But,
it’s my backyard, the closest double on the Triple Crown calendar to me. And it goes over one of my favorite places in
the whole world, Mt Hamilton. So, I had
to try it.
That was the original goal.
I’m not that great of a climber.
It’s something I work on quite a bit, but it’s still not my strong
point. I knew going into this thing that
I might not finish, and that would be OK.
It was time to push myself beyond my limits again. You have to do that every now and then to
keep an eye on just where those limits are.
Life is just no fun if you never tighten the screws, let loose and do
something crazy.
So, here I went. 206
miles and 21,000 feet of climbing. Mt
Diablo, Mt Hamilton, and Sierra Road. As well as Morgan
Territory, Altamont
Pass, Patterson Pass,
Mines Road/Junction, Palomares and Norris Canyon Roads. I gave myself a 50/50 chance of
finishing.
The Ride Itself
There was a pre ride meeting at 4:55am and we would all ride out at 5:00am. OK, most
would ride out at 5:00am. The fast riders would ride out at 6:00am. But
the majority of the ride rolled out at 5:01am. The beginning was great. It was cold, but I warmed up quick on the way
to the base of Mt Diablo.
My how quickly things turn from great to shit.
At mile 8.7 there’s a Stop Sign where we turn right onto Mt
Diablo Scenic Blvd. I was riding in a pack, on the inside. We began to make the right turn, and I must
have either turned early or just cut it to much, because suddenly there was a
gigantic hole in front of me, and I went right through it. I managed to keep the bike upright while
cyclists around me yelled “HOLE!” and “STAY LEFT!” and “WIDE RIGHT! STAY
WIDE!”
I thought I had made it through, another cyclist riding next
to me actually said he was convinced I was going down and was surprised when I
saved it and kept riding. As he finished
that statement, the air from my rear tire began saying goodbye. I pulled over with a blown rear tire before
mile 9. Of 206. Not a great start.
Lucky for me, SAG showed up quickly and let me use a floor
pump. Unluckily for me, in the confusion
of trying to change a tire at night, I didn’t get the spare tube seated
correctly and it blew out. Two tubes
down. The SAG guy let me borrow one, and
as I got it ready I noticed that my rear tire itself had a gash in it from the
hole. The tire was beyond dead. Luckily (again) SAG had an extra tire and let
me use it. I took my time setting it up,
made sure it was all seated correctly, and pumped it up.
I was on my way, but not before I wasted 25 minutes sitting at the side of the
road. That meant 2 things. 1: I
was now 25 minutes down on a ride that I already didn’t know whether I could
finish. 2: More importantly, I was 25 minutes behind the
rest of the pack. I would be riding solo
from here on out, playing catch up the rest of the day. No pack, no drafting, no encouragement. Just me, myself, and I.
Sort of an inauspicious start to the day. I told myself to be patient and to sit and
spin comfortably up Mt Diablo, which started pretty much right away. Once I got going, I started to feel better.
At the top, I lost even more time due to a recumbent rider
with a broken chain. I had a chain tool,
and of course I let him use it. I filled
my bottles, used the bathroom, got a stretch, and he still wasn’t done. Another 15 minutes gone. That put me 40-45 minutes behind my goal and
the pack.
I suddenly had a new goal:
Time to suck it up and play catch up.
There are two cutoff points for this ride: You have to leave Rest Stop 3 (mile 91) by 1:00, and Lunch (mile 116) by 4:30.
My goal was to make it to Rest Stop 3 in time. It was time to push. Hard.
The descent down Mt Diablo would be a lot better without the
speed limit, I had to ride the brakes hard to keep it below 25. But once I got to the bottom, it was time to
open it up.
Morgan Territory
was pretty tough, but I was able to push through and even start passing some
people. Then we had some flat roads
before Altamont and Patterson
Passes.
Altamont was AWESOME. A nice little tailwind let me do it wide
open, climbing at close to 20mph. That
felt great.
Patterson Pass
was next. Tough one, but not too
long. Now I was really catching and
passing folks. It was starting to get
hot, and the little end bit at 15%+ gradient didn’t help. But I made it over and then BOMBED the
descent. I was greeted with more flat
roads at the bottom, which I can cruise pretty well on, before turning onto Mines
Road and beginning the long trek up to Mt
Hamilton. But first, Rest Stop 3! I MADE IT!
Quick refill, quick snack, and I rolled out at 12:35. Still more
work to do, it was time to continue my game of leap frog.
Mines Road was great.
Lots of climbing, some descending, but fairly consistent, right up my
alley. Also hot. No problem, just keep cranking. Made up a lot of time here, passed a LOT of
people. Got to lunch, which was at
Junction (Mt Hamilton fans, you know…) in plenty of time. Now it was time to start heading up the
mountain. Sit and spin, you can make it.
There was a mini stop somewhere in here, and I started
noticing the same riders resting. I had
found the riders at my level. Now the
only question was, just how far was I going to go today? Was I really going to attempt Sierra
Road at mile 150, after 15,000 feet of climbing
already? At that moment, my answer was
no, my new goal would be to make it over Hamilton
to the next Rest Stop at Crothers Road
and reassess my goals.
At the top of Hamilton
I met a guy that I had been riding with on and off for probably 20-30
miles. Jason. He was thinking the same thing, about
probably not finishing, and about rethinking his goals at the Crothers Road
Rest Stop.
So, we started our descent down Hamilton. I figured this very well might be the last
leg of this ride, so I would enjoy it.
We made it to Crothers Road
at around 6:30. Had some Cup-O-Noodles, V8, and a Coke. Jason and I made the decision to keep
pushing, and if we rode together, pushing each other and supporting each other,
we might stand a chance of finishing.
Of course, the next major hurdle was Sierra
Road.
Whoever planned out Sierra Road,
I have some questions for you: Mainly,
why the hell did you run it STRAIGHT up the side of the mountain? Yeah, that hurt. But we got to the top where the next rest
stop was at 8:15. With 47 miles to go, we knew it would be at
night. And it would be quite a while.
Lights went on, the vest went back on, and we started
pushing.
This portion of the ride was what I can only describe as “terrifying”. I’m not a fan of riding at night, especially
back country roads with lots of tree cover.
It was PITCH BLACK out on Calaveras, luckily Jason and I road together. I guarantee, without a doubt, if he had not
been there I would not have attempted that road. Not a chance.
But I did, and we pushed through and made it to the Sunol Train
Station Rest Stop. They had chili
dogs. And hot tea. Yeah, we chilled here for a bit.
27 miles to go. Niles
Canyon Road, Palomares
Road, Crow Canyon Road,
Norris Canyon Road. All had some climbing, all at night. Some was nice, through towns, with street
lights. When I say “some”, I mean almost
none. The vast majority was out on
country roads. But, Jason and I kept
pushing. We were patient, took it easy,
and just kept cranking.
Then it happened. His
light was dimming and going out, so he turned it off up one of the climbs and
we road side by side to save what battery it had left. I turned my light up to full power, which I
now know was a mistake. It went
out. It shut off like, well, like a
light switch.
Now, I have to tell you about a bit of luck. I read somewhere that lots of riders used a
high powered light for full darkness, but for dawn and dusk they would use a
cheaper, weaker light that lasted much longer.
I almost didn’t put it on that morning, but at the last second I
figured, meh, I’ll pop it on and see. So,
I had my powerful, expensive, super nice light AND my old, cheap, AAA powered
light that lasted dozens of hours. It
sucked, but it gave us something to get through. His light fading fast, my light illuminating
a small circle of road in front of me. 10ish miles to go.
We took a small break right before the last climb up Norris
Canyon Road, and while we chatted on the side of
the road, my Garmin Edge 500 finally died.
Well, it made it longer than it should have. It was rated for 16 hours of battery life, it
made it over 18.5. But, with under 6
miles to go, it was dead. All of our
electronics were failing us.
But, we were pretty much there. Once we were over that last hill, it was a
short, straight, bomb down into San Ramon and back to the San Ramon
Marriott.
I couldn’t believe it.
A ride I gave myself a 50/50 chance of completing before I started,
loosing 25 minutes to a botched road side repair, 15 more to helping another
rider with his chain, not being a strong climber, having my light go out on a
pitch black country road. All the
problems I ran into seemed to be matched by some good luck, perseverance, the
will to finish at any cost, and a cat named Jason Mills.
If it wasn’t for him, there is no way I would have finished. And vice versa. We pushed each other, helped each other
through our bad luck and benefited from each others good luck.
We pulled in to the San Ramon Marriott to finish the ride at
12:14am. I was freezing, I was tired, everything
hurt. My legs were screaming at me, my
feet throbbed, my back hurt, my neck was sore.
I was cold in that way that feels like you will never defrost
again. Chilled to the bone.
None of that mattered, I felt like I floated down the hall
into the victory dinner room. Lasagna. Salad.
And a big bottle of orange juice.
I think it was orange juice.
Whatever it was, it tasted glorious.
It tasted like success. I was too
tired and sore to really realize what I had just been through, but I knew that
I had finished, and that is all that mattered.
I did it. I was done. I had made it all the way back.
Now I know where my limit is. Now I know that I can push myself to that
next level. I think I’ll leave it here
for a while. But, eventually, I’ll have
to push that point again.
Just how and with what, I don’t know. Some day I’ll have to figure that out.
For now, my next ride is in 3 weeks on May 18
th.
The Davis
Double Century.
If I finish it, I will
have completed my first
California
Triple Crown.
But for the moment, I
will continue to relish my current success.
And maybe go lay down again.
I still hurt. All
over.
Now for numbers. My
Garmin died with about 6 miles to go, but I mapped those 6 miles into MapMyRide
to estimate what I missed and to get the full picture.
Numbers:
Garmin:
201.4 Miles
19,153 feet climbing
8,175 calories
18:36:37 total
time
Garmin + MapMyRide:
207.2 Miles
19,658 feet climbing
19:13:00 (have to
wait for organizers to release official finishing times)
Time to go lay down.