The First Century of the Year
After close to eight hours in the saddle today, I'm more than a little tired, but otherwise happy. This morning was like Christmas for me - I woke up before 6am and despite my best efforts, I couldn't get back to sleep. With all that extra time, I took the fenders and rack off my bike, watched a couple hours of the Giro d'Italia, had four slices of toast with raspberry jam, two fried eggs, a banana, and a whole pot of coffee for breakfast. And even after all that, I still ended up sitting at the closed bike shop on the trail, waiting for Justin and Eric to arrive.
We kept a real solid pace all the way up the trail right up until we hit the first big hill in Woodinville. That got us warmed up for the climbs to follow and the other trails weren't too damaging. We rolled into Arlington, the halfway point, in pretty good time and stopped for lunch at Playa Bonita, the Mexican restaurant Justin and I hit last summer when we rode up.
For a while after Arlington, we were on a bike path and cruised along at an 18 mph clip. The the trail ended and suddenly we hit the hills. The killer, endless hills from hell. That went on for what seemed like days, ending in a nice descent to a corner store just outside of Mount Vernon. I had blocked out the pair of terrible hills, but my memory was revived pretty quickly after seeing the first one from the bottom.
Unlike last year, we didn't take a bunch of wrong turns through the commercial big box store strip. We followed the correct route, and for miles and miles and miles we ground through wide-open, windy fields. They went on forever, sapping energy and morale and time.
Finally we got to Chuckanut Drive and paused on the bridge to rest and recoup briefly. That was almost exactly at mile 95 for me, and at mile 100 or more for Justin and Eric, who started the ride this morning from their respective houses.
Here's where I get a bit of swagger, which I've picked up from watching bike races. Justin, and particularly Eric, started to crack. Their legs were dead, they were completely fatigued, we had been in the sun for hours and hours, and we were all probably getting mildly dehydrated. And then, I completely dropped them. I kept looking behind me, and for the first mile or so, with a dozen miles to Bellingham, I caught glimpses of them back in the distance. I took full advantage of the descents to get me back up the climbs, and looking at the last few miles, my average speed was 14 mph on the low end and 22 mph on the high end, with a median around 17 mph and a mode of about 16 mph. I stopped twice to let them catch up, but even for the final brutal climb up to Bellingham, I had more than enough steam left in me.
But with a 7:49 train departure time, we had no time to hit a restaurant, AGAIN. We stopped at a grocery store to get food and drink for the long train ride home, then went right to the station. Angela met us there, with Justin's and my backpacks. She was a bit irritated because Eric had led her to believe we would ride much more quickly and arrive much sooner than we did. She left home at 1:30, probably arriving in Bellingham around 3 or 3:30. We rolled up just after 7:00. And we called her away from the restaurant where she was going to meet us for dinner, meaning she didn't get to eat until Justin and I were on the train and on our way back south. Poor girl. I guess that's what happens when you're married.
There were all sorts of strange characters on the train home, and we couldn't avoid hearing or seeing them. There was a group of two middle-aged couples playing cards behind me and making all sorts of wise cracks. There was a Chinese guy photographing and taking video of EVERYTHING. He photographed every part of the train car, which isn't particularly exciting because it's Amtrak. He had his video camera aimed out the window for at least half of the two hour journey, shooting nothing and everything at once. And there was the LAMEST father/daughter couple imaginable.
We finally arrived in Seattle with no one to pick us up and no energy to ride our bikes all the way back home. I caught a bus which dropped me off a few blocks from home. I hopped on the bike to climb the hill to my house, which wasn't the best part of my day. But the shower! I earned the shower, and after that, I feel much much better. And you know what? I still have two more days off, then one day on, and another two days off. And my tomorrow, which is nearly here, is Halphasian's milestone birthday, giving me a blog topic.
We kept a real solid pace all the way up the trail right up until we hit the first big hill in Woodinville. That got us warmed up for the climbs to follow and the other trails weren't too damaging. We rolled into Arlington, the halfway point, in pretty good time and stopped for lunch at Playa Bonita, the Mexican restaurant Justin and I hit last summer when we rode up.
For a while after Arlington, we were on a bike path and cruised along at an 18 mph clip. The the trail ended and suddenly we hit the hills. The killer, endless hills from hell. That went on for what seemed like days, ending in a nice descent to a corner store just outside of Mount Vernon. I had blocked out the pair of terrible hills, but my memory was revived pretty quickly after seeing the first one from the bottom.
Unlike last year, we didn't take a bunch of wrong turns through the commercial big box store strip. We followed the correct route, and for miles and miles and miles we ground through wide-open, windy fields. They went on forever, sapping energy and morale and time.
Finally we got to Chuckanut Drive and paused on the bridge to rest and recoup briefly. That was almost exactly at mile 95 for me, and at mile 100 or more for Justin and Eric, who started the ride this morning from their respective houses.
Here's where I get a bit of swagger, which I've picked up from watching bike races. Justin, and particularly Eric, started to crack. Their legs were dead, they were completely fatigued, we had been in the sun for hours and hours, and we were all probably getting mildly dehydrated. And then, I completely dropped them. I kept looking behind me, and for the first mile or so, with a dozen miles to Bellingham, I caught glimpses of them back in the distance. I took full advantage of the descents to get me back up the climbs, and looking at the last few miles, my average speed was 14 mph on the low end and 22 mph on the high end, with a median around 17 mph and a mode of about 16 mph. I stopped twice to let them catch up, but even for the final brutal climb up to Bellingham, I had more than enough steam left in me.
But with a 7:49 train departure time, we had no time to hit a restaurant, AGAIN. We stopped at a grocery store to get food and drink for the long train ride home, then went right to the station. Angela met us there, with Justin's and my backpacks. She was a bit irritated because Eric had led her to believe we would ride much more quickly and arrive much sooner than we did. She left home at 1:30, probably arriving in Bellingham around 3 or 3:30. We rolled up just after 7:00. And we called her away from the restaurant where she was going to meet us for dinner, meaning she didn't get to eat until Justin and I were on the train and on our way back south. Poor girl. I guess that's what happens when you're married.
There were all sorts of strange characters on the train home, and we couldn't avoid hearing or seeing them. There was a group of two middle-aged couples playing cards behind me and making all sorts of wise cracks. There was a Chinese guy photographing and taking video of EVERYTHING. He photographed every part of the train car, which isn't particularly exciting because it's Amtrak. He had his video camera aimed out the window for at least half of the two hour journey, shooting nothing and everything at once. And there was the LAMEST father/daughter couple imaginable.
We finally arrived in Seattle with no one to pick us up and no energy to ride our bikes all the way back home. I caught a bus which dropped me off a few blocks from home. I hopped on the bike to climb the hill to my house, which wasn't the best part of my day. But the shower! I earned the shower, and after that, I feel much much better. And you know what? I still have two more days off, then one day on, and another two days off. And my tomorrow, which is nearly here, is Halphasian's milestone birthday, giving me a blog topic.