Basic blog

Saturday's note:

We made it to Ogunquit! It was supposed to be a 56 mile route, but due to some ... off-course bonus miles, we rolled into the finish line with 63 miles on the odometer. I feel pretty good, far better than I did last year or the year before even though we rode more miles. It really does help to have a drafting partner. My average speed increased, to boot.
When I pulled into the finish line, there were a couple of hams there and I had enough left in me to pull the front wheel up and ride a wheelie for a couple of pedal strokes. I got a good laugh and a cheer out of all of the onlookers for my efforts.
Butt is sore, legs are sore, and my left knee hurts, but they all feel better now after I had a nice hot shower and we went over to the meeting and had some supper. Tomorrow should be a piece of cake at only 35 miles - IF the weather doesn't let us down. It's already raining now.

Today's numbers:
63.0 miles, 4 hours 51 minutes, 31.8 mph max, 12.9 mph avg, up from 12.4 the last 2 years.

Today's conditions:
Overcast, but warmer earlier in the day and cooling off as we rode along the coast. The fog really rolled in by Nubble Light and the cold air from the ocean came along with it. It was so humid that water was condensing on my bike, and it was cold enough that we could see our breath.

Cool. Riding with a partner was great since we could share who was in front. I am so pleased at how well I feel I did especially considering that we never did get a good long ride in for training like we wanted to.


Sunday's note:

Back home after the Seacoast Bike Trek.

It was raining when we got up this morning and after we walked over the restaurant for breakfast and came back it had not slowed down any - picked up a little, more like it. We took a group photo then headed out.

The roads were of course soaked and full of puddles. Riding with other people meant eating the spray of the guy in front of you. I was wearing my sunglasses but ended up putting them away after the first rest stop because it was so hard to see through them. The weather changed as we climbed the string of hills a couple of miles long just after the start - it kept raining but suddenly warmed up a couple of degrees and the fog that formed on my glasses made it so that I couldn't see anything. Had to pull them down on my nose so I could look over them. An added bonus of the puddle-filled roads was getting blasted by water when a car going by in the opposite direction ran through a big one. That's just wrong. It started raining harder before it tapered off about halfway through the ride and my shoes got wet enough that when I went up hills and had to pedal harder I could feel the water squishing up past my toes. Ewww...

Other than the rain, the ride today was largely uneventful. Once we got soaked, it's not like we were going to get any wetter. I was wearing my water-repellent Boston Marathon jacket so my torso was largely dry and I was not cold at all. We had 2 rest stops on this course, at about 12 and 26 miles in. The rest stop volunteers were great and they were well-stocked with food and drink.

Riding through Portsmouth, NH we had one section of the course where we had to stop at a traffic light then turn right on a very short street, maybe a couple hundred yards or less before turning left onto another well-travelled street. Once we made the turn, I moved over and rode in the center of the lane so we wouldn't get caught by the curb behind a row of cars should there be traffic behind us. Apparently some dude in a Toyota pickup took exception to this, becaue as we made the left turn he tried to cut us off. What he didn't see until he was already into the turn was that there was another car coming from the left. He ended up halfway into the intersection but had to jam on the brakes to avoid running into the other car since he was planning on using the oncoming lane to go around us. Idiot stalled it in the process, and I think he had to back up to get out of the way. There was just another 1/4 mile or so before we had to make a right turn, and as loser boy drove by he gave us the stink eye. The light was red so he had to stop and we rolled up behind him. I stopped about by his rear axle. He turned around and proceeded to stare at me and I returned it, for a good 20 seconds. I figured it was going to be about even odds if he was going to get out of the truck. He ended up turning right, and I let him get into the intersection before going ahead. He made the turn very tight, so his rear wheel almost went over the curb - right in front of me.

Moron.

We rode on to the finish line where we had a barbecue waiting. We passed our bags on to one of the hams to bring back for us and unfortunately it was one of the last guys to come in so we had to hang around and wait for him to clear the course. It was nice and warm and dry inside, though, so that was OK. Once he got back I took the opportunity to get out of my soaked shoes and changed into my slippers for the drive home. My socks were black from all of the road dirt that got washed down my legs into my shoes, and when we got in I found that we were just covered from head to toe with sand and dirt. The hot shower I took when I got home felt mighty nice...

Today's numbers:
35.65 miles, 2 hours 43 minutes, 29.8 mph max, 13.1 mph avg. That means that for the two days, we rode a total of 98.65 miles. Should have rode around that extra 1.35 mile to make it an even 100....

Today's conditions:
Wet and in the high 50s - low 60s. Moderate wind at the beginning and calm near the end.

For the ride, we saw one golf ball, one tennins ball, and one baseball but did not stop to pick any of them up. I did spot a ring box on the side of the road but found that it was empty. Suprising, the lack of roadside treasures.

Here's a picture of Drew and I at the end of the ride today:


Wet, sore, tired, and filthy, but happy!

I'd like to thank each and every one of you who were able to contribute to my fundraising effort. I made it into the "Winner's Circle" - for riders that raised $700 or more. I think I'm getting a gym bag as a reward, and later on the Winner's Circle riders are invited to a celebration dinner at Jillian's in Manchester. I did very well with fundraising this year, coming in somewhere around 6th or 7th for individual funds raised, and I couldn't have done it without you guys. Both Drew and I had a great time and fully intend to do the ride again next year - probably the 56 mile route on both Saturday and Sunday this time. With any luck we will be able to recruit some more teammates and raise more money to support Breathe New Hampshire and the organization's efforts to promote lung health and clean air!

THANK YOU ALL!