2nd chance 600 day 2 of 2

At the end of day 1, we (Gary and I) rolled into Issaquah after over 400k of riding (lots of bonus km) at 5:00 AM.  I was greeted Keith Moore and his wife Kasia who offered me any and all assistance and food they had.  I ate most of a piece of pizza and grabbed a Sprite and headed off for the room.  My roommate had decided to DNF his 600 and was just leaving, so I had the room to myself.  It was about 5:11 when I hit the sack, setting my alarm for 6:30, figuring to get as much sleep as I could and still leave with a few minutes in the bank, or not too far out.  The control "exit time" to stay on pace was 6:44 AM.

I was awakened by Kasia knocking on my door at 6:30.  I had failed to set my alarm properly.   I woke up, got up, showered, dressed and as I was brushing my teeth, I heard a knock at the door.  Kasia again.  I think Susan sent her down there and said "You stand at that door and knock until he comes out!".  I finished brushing and headed up for breakfast.  Susan had set out oatmeal, watermelon, and coffee for me, and encouraged me to eat quickly.  What did I need? They would do ANYTHING to get me out of there quickly.

Why? Because, she explained:  You need to get to Carnation 13 miles away by 8:16 and it's too far to do that.  But there is an unwritten rule that sometimes if you miss one control, you'll be OK if you can make it up by the next one, in Snohomish, 42 miles away.  That's at 11:11.    So you need to move it, don't stop for anything until you get your card signed in Snohomish.

OK, got it.  I got outside, packed up and ready to roll, and found my front tire "soft".  I was a bit concerned but I figured if it was going to go flat, it would have by now, and no time to replace the tube.  I asked Keith to pump it up to 50 psi and I'll be off.

I rolled out of Issaquah around 7:15, about 30 minutes behind.  And in a half mile, I hit a wall of a road going straight up.  Susan had said "You will hate this hill, just walk it."  And walk it I did, and even that wasn't fun.

Once at the top, I started riding - more hills, but manageable.  I felt surprisingly good considering I had just ridden 240 miles over 24 hrs with just a little over an hour of sleep.   However, when I tried to 'get out of the saddle' and stand on the pedals, I didn't have any power, all I could do was sit and spin.  Fine, that'll get me up the hills too.

I am all alone today -- everyone else left long ago.  The route goes up to the Issaquah Plateau, with it's steep rollers - and then down the other side on Issaquah Fall City road. My mantra was "No coasting".  On every downhill, I put it in the big ring and found some gear I could keep pedaling in.  I needed to make up some real time.

Once down into the flats, I was cruising, at 25 kph.  I think I may well have had a tailwind from the south at that time of day, but whatever, I rolled into Carnation at 8:26, 10 minutes late but having made up about 20 already.  I was actually thinking I wasn't doing so well because the time on the control card was 8:016 - a typo - so I was thinking it was 8:01.  I was still pretty sure I could get to Snohomish in time.

From Carnation to Snohomish, there are more rollers, but nothing serious, just a short 5% here and there, with similar slopes on the downhills -- no coasting!  -- keep moving, we are under the gun.  My Garmin was working, and I knew the route, having ridden these roads many times on different rides. The sun was out, it was mild, and my power was coming back. I could stand on the pedals to get up some of the short hills.

And my work paid off. I rolled into Snohomish to the Snohomish Bakery at 10:37 - over 30 minutes ahead of the deadline!  I had made up nearly an hour by riding like there was no tomorrow.  There were lots of people out on Sunday morning for breakfast - and I stopped and celebrated with a breakfast croissant, chocolate croissant, and coffee.  The food took forever to arrive, but I still managed to leave Snohomish at 11:11, the official time.  Now I'm not ahead or behind, but confident in my ability to keep up with the clock.

From Snohomish, we head north on the Centennial Trail, 50 km (30 miles) north to Arlington.  This is a "rails to trails" trail, an old railroad bed. It's not hilly, but it isn't flat, either.  You go up long 2% grades for miles - and that affects speed.  Also, there was a pretty constant headwind from the north. Hour after hour, the wind did not let up, and fighting the headwind was pretty demoralizing. I knew it would eventually not be an issue, but that long in a headwind is tough.  I figured I had 3 hours to get to Arlington, where we had another "Info Control".  They aren't timed, but I still needed to know how I was doing on the day.  In fact it took me 2:44 to get there -- not  fabulous, but it was good enough.

And now I head south  - looking forward to a tailwind.  And I get one - for a couple of miles. I'm hitting 30 kph, which is 50% faster than I was going north -- and then the wind shifts!!  It starts coming from the west, as a crosswind.  Really?  Really???  Yep, really.  Well, OK, fine.  Mostly fine.  My arms hurt. My hands hurt.  My toes are hot.  But the legs are turning the pedals, I'm making good time, I have 500 of 600k done, and I have 7 hours to ride the last 100k, 65 of which is pretty flat - plenty of time. I predict a finish of 8:30 or better.

I think about how I'll feel when I finish, and get almost emotional about it - and then remind myself I have to finish first, and then I'll celebrate.

I'm riding through towns, lots of little road crossings.  People everywhere having a great Sunday.  The route goes over a river, and you can look down on all the people on the rocky shore having fun on this beautiful day.  Dogs romping in the shallows.

And then at a road crossing,  I crashed.  And the ride was over.  You can read about the crash HERE .

So what next?  I'm out for PBP 2015, it is not going to happen.  I don't have the time to do another 600k.  And I'm not that fast.  Although I was able to make up time on day 2, it was pretty easy miles.  I can finish brevets - usually - but have some DNF's on my record, and also some lantern rouge (Red Lantern, the last rider) or near LR on my record.  For PBP you have to be fast enough to build up some hours in the bank for sleeping.  I don't know that I'm that good at it -- yet.  But no matter -- it was an idea that became a mission, but even without PBP I had fun along the way, and will continue to ride Rando.  It's a disappointment, but I'm very happy with my performance on this last ride.  I didn't quit after that last DNF, but gave it my all, and I think I really would have finished in time had I not crashed out.  And I don't think I'll forget how good I felt the night before as Gary and I rolled up and down the hills of east King county.  I've met lots of good people and we'll just have to see how things go.  And I will mention that all the support I got from people who read the blog, Susan Otcenas who was a huge rooter and coach, and all my Facebook friends who were giving their encouragement -- that all helped keep me going when things got hard.

There's another PBP in 2019.