Second Chance 300k: Almost perfect

It's 4 weeks after the 200k and it's time to get serious about this Randoneurring thing.  Our club is putting on two series of qualifing rides for the P-B-P, so that's two rides of 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k.  I missed out on the first 300k due to schedule conflicts so this week's "Second chance 300k" was really my first and last chance to get a 300k close to home.  Do or die, or at least "do or drive a long way to get a 300k".

The ride runs from Bremerton, on the west side of Puget Sound, to Bainbridge Island.  A ferry ride to the start, from Seattle, and then another ferry ride back to Seattle after the end of the ride.  First ferry to Bremerton is 6:00 AM, and about 20 hearty souls assembled at the ferry dock in the dark:

We boarded just prior to 6:00 AM, and then headed west.  There was a nice view of Seattle in the growing dawn:

Once across, we stopped briefly at the Starbucks and then at 7:15 sharp, headed out of town.   It wasn't long before the group split up, because there are some nasty hills during the first few miles of the ride.  The faster riders built up a lead that would stretch to hours by the end of the day.  I was not in the "faster" group.

In situations like this, it's not uncommon for riders of a similar pace to "find each other" and that's what Jeff Tilden and I did.  Although we split up for various stops now and then, we wound up riding many kilometers together.  It made for a fun ride and the distance really melts away when you have someone to talk to.

To put all this in perspective:  Last year I did a 300k in 18 hours.  With the 7:15 start, I would have to finish by 1:15 AM to match that time.  And that was critical because the last ferry back to Seattle was at 1:25 AM.  Of course I could finish sooner - there was a midnight ferry, too, and that would require finishing by 11:45 PM, 16 1/2 hours.  I was going to target 16 hours.  I divided the distance by a rolling average 19 kilometers per hour (11.8 mph) which includes all stops, and figured out mid-point target times for stops and checkpoints.  If I could maintain that speed and make the checkpoints I could make the midnight ferry.

So, we're riding along, sometimes I'm alone, and keeping and eye on the clock.  And everything's going great.   I get to the Brady store about 1/3 of the way, and run into an old friend Gin Parsons from our Aberdeen fix-up days over 10 years ago.  What fun to run into someone like that!  We got caught up and then I and Jeff headed out again.

The ride north from Brady was great.  It sprinkled on us briefly, but we had a tailwind and were heading along at a good clip on a straight road with little traffic and despite a gentle (imperceptible) grade uphill, we were moving along at 25-26 kph which was keeping up our average pace to nearly 20 kph.

At 183k, we hit Hoodsport where I said I needed some water.  Jeff said he needed a hamburger.  That sounded OK to me, and we had some time "in the bank" so I agreed and we stopped for a burger at a roadside eatery.

In retrospect, I'm not sure that was a wise choice for me, because when we left, Jeff took off like a shot and I felt sluggish.  Different foods affect people quite differently on these rides.  I wasn't in the mood for a burger like Jeff was, and probably would have been better off skipping it at that time.

At any rate, he gained some distance on me after I finally decided not to try to keep up with him and then he pulled over for a 'comfort stop'. I rode on, and he caught up with me in a bit.  We rode up and down the rollers along the water until we hit the "big hill" of the ride, Walker Pass.  The pass is 5 km up to the summit, starting at a steepish 8% and then calming down to 4%.  Then 5 km down the other side and you're done.  One little hill and we are in Quilcene, at 243km.  On pace, with just 60km to go.  It's 8:00 PM and will be dark very soon.  I had been hearing about "Walker Pass" and although I had seen the ride profile, hadn't considered what would come after it.

And here's where it started going worse.  Jeff, who had been keeping up with me on hills, all of a sudden was far ahead, and I couldn't catch him.  Further, it turned out that the last 60km of the ride is nothing BUT hills.  No more flats, no more tailwinds, just one grade after the other, and it's dark, and I'm getting slower.

If you do the math on hills vs. flats, given the same effort, you go about 20% slower on hills, so my "19 kph" pace to the finish should have been adjusted accordingly ahead of time.  One more lesson learned.

And that wasn't all that was going wrong. While heading down a grade to the Hood Canal Bridge, going about 18 mph, in the dark, I ran over something that sounded like metal strapping, and my rear tire flatted.  It turned out to be a beer bottle front held together with the label.

Just then Bill Gobie from the club who had been running the control at Quilcene drove his van by, saw me, and pulled over.  He helped me by holding the bike, shining a flashlight where I needed it, helping me figure how to use Park tire boot patch, and providing support.   We got the tube changed and the tire fixed up - it had a sidewall cut but was still rideable - and I headed out, now convinced that the midnight ferry wasn't going to happen.

Once over the Hood Canal Bridge, I was now on the Kitsap Peninsula, and the hills did not let up.  In fact, Port Gamble Road just kept dishing them out mile after mile, some very steep.  I was looking forward to getting on the real highway on Bainbridge, at least those roads are engineered not to be over 6% grade, vs. back roads that simply pave whatever hills exist, regardless of how steep they are.

And after not too long, I was over the last bridge and onto Bainbridge. Just then a lot of cars were coming down the road at me, and I realized it was all the cars that just got off the midnight ferry that I had been shooting for.  Oh well, I was nearly at the end, and the 1:25 would still get me home.

I rolled into the finish control at 12:18 AM, 17:03 for the day, the penultimate rider.  I greeted the ride organizer Theo, and dug into the pizza and beverages they had available.   I now had about an hour to relax, and we talked bikes, tires, and rides until I left around 1:10 to head to the ferry.

So the ride was a success!  I have my 300k in the books and although I didn't make my stretch goal of the midnight ferry, I did make the important goal of finishing at all.  And in fact 300k rides are budgeted at 20 hours, so I really finished with nearly 3 hours "in the bank" which, if I can keep up the pace, will be essential this summer on the P-B-P -- that's the only time you get to sleep is what you can build up between the controls.

Stay tuned, 400k coming in 4 weeks.