Its been two hectic, busy weeks since I completed my 200k. Final stats for the day:
Miles: 130 by the time I got back to the house, 126 miles during the course.
Total Time: 12 1/2 hours
Riding Time: 10hours and change
Climbing: 6552ft
Finishing in one piece: Priceless :)
I got a later start than I had originally planned, due to missing the train I was planning to catch to the start by a few minutes. I remember thinking "great, I haven't even started, and already I'm a half hour behind schedule". Fortunately I was able to put that thought out of my head rather quickly. This was a solo randonneuring type of event, not a race. Heck, it wasn't even an "official" randonneuring event. I'm not a card carrying member of the RUSA, or any other randonneuring club.
The start was foggy enough at the start that I did run my lights for the first 10 miles or so, from the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station to Sunol. I took advantage of the facilites there, and topped off my water. Not that I had gone through that much yet, but I try to make it a habit of getting water when I can on the road.
The climb over Calavares was quiet, and downright other worldly at time with the fog slowly lifting. There were a few cyclists on the road, mostly coming from the Milpitas side. I didn't break any speed records with my climbing, but I wasn't shooting for that. I had a lot of ground to cover the rest of the day, and didn't want to burn through my reserves this early in the course.
Heading north after the climb through the urban sprawl of Milpitas and Fremont was uneventful, thank goodness. There was a bit of on ongoing construction that I had to go through on East Warren, under the freeway, but the traffic was light at the time, so not a big issue.
Heading back into the hills I rendered the first bit of assistance to another pair of cyclists during the day while climbing up Palomares. Between the two of them they had already had six flats during their ride. I gave them a few extra patches and offered a tube, but the tube was a bit too large for the 700x23c tires that they were running (I was rolling on 700x28c tires on the bike I took that day). I wished them well as I continued up and over Palomares and dropping into Castro Valley.
The next two climbs, Redwood Road and Pinehurst started to put me into a bit of hurt. I'm not sure how much climbing I had done so far, but it certainly did start to have an effect on my legs. I geared down and recovered as much as possible during that stretch. Kind of a futile attempt, but I knew once I crested Pinehurst, I could enjoy small rollers on the way into Moraga. It was on the climb up Pinehurst that I met another pair of cyclists, one of which was having a tough go of it over the climb.
After a few words with he and his friend, his friend proceeded on, to get back to the car and head back to give David a lift home. I stayed with David and paced him up the climb, trying to keep him talking and his mind off the climb. At the top of the hill, I let him go, telling him it was mostly downhill into Moraga from there. He had recovered enough by that time that he shot downhill towards his final destination, Orinda. I savoured the downhill, having ridden close to 70 miles at this point.
There's not much to say about the run out to Martinez from Orinda, except for the most part, its downhill. The route does pass by the San Pablo Dam Reservoir, which helps break things up a bit, and there is a bit of climbing over Pig Farm hill, but I didn't find it that difficult. By the time 5pm rolled around, I had almost 100 miles on my legs for the day, and most of the climbing behind me. All I had to do was the last 25 miles back into Pleasanton.
I did say MOST of the climbing was behind me. The last climb of the day, while not very long, really hurt! I was on the verge of cramping, in spite of my effort to keep hydrated during the day with a combination of plain water and cytomax, mostly cytomax. I kind of expected it, honestly. I had ridden this part of the course about a month and a half before, and it hurt put the hurt on me then too. I geared down and slogged through this part, getting off the bike and walking for a bit as needed.
During the final miles down Danville/San Ramon Valley Blvd., day turned to dusk, and into night. I was well prepared for a bit of night riding, with reflective clothing, two rear tail lights, and two front headlights (one handlebar mounted, and one on my helmet). It was a rather nice end to the day actually. In case you're really interested, the tail lights I run are planet bike superflash, and the front lights are a dinotte 200L on the handlebar and a princeton tec eos on the helmet. They do a good job of lighting up the road.
I finshed up back at the BART station just past 8pm, and got lucky with being able to roll onto a train for my return trip as soon as I got up to the platform.
Well, thats it. A long way to say "woohoo! I made it!"
