I rode the Southeast Portland Bikeways 100k on Tuesday evening, keeping my P12 alive. Unexpected business travel meant no more weekends at home, soon a solo weeknight ride was the only option.
Legs were still pretty toasty from the weekend 600k, so a flat trail ride option was appreciated. Not much to be done about the sore ass except ride a different bike with different saddle. Initial rando ride for my new Trek Domane ensued.
The route is essentially three out and back segments, on the Springwater trail to it's terminus in Boring, Trolley trail to it's end at Gladstone, and Eastside esplanade to the Steel Bridge. I live on the Springwater halfway to Boring, so i started and ended there taking advantage of new perm rules allowing start/finish between controls.
It was warm and calm, with slim chance of rain, so I just brought a reflective vest and a gator. Slight risk of weather turning, but yolo.
I got a little confused in Gladstone and wasted a few minutes, and similarly wasted time in Portland dealing with the closed lower level of the Steel Bridge. Killed my sub 4 hour finish thoughts, which was just as well; pointless suffering is pointless.
Heading south out of Portland in full darkness, i was slowly closing on a normie (aka non rando cyclist). I would have stayed back but that blinkie was super bright and annoying. So a little mup mamil pseudo race ensued. Actually he was a mamil; I'm 62 thus technically old. The dude stayed 1-200 yards back, closing in and dropping back, for about a half hour as we transitioned from urban to suburban. I started wondering if he was going to follow me all the way out to Boring, about ten miles out. Eventually when I rolled through a smokey homeless camp segment of the SWT, he disappeared. That little escapade brought four hours temptingly close. The route to Boring is slightly uphill along Johnson Creek and before long I decided to shut things down and have a chill finish.
I had to ride past my finish point with 10 miles to go, for that last bit of out and back. Always emotionally challenging. An endless supply of indecisive suicidal rabbits kept me awake as my sleep deprived weekend started catching up with me. One bunny actually slammed into my front wheel. I stayed calm and rando'd on.
Finished around 11:20pm for 4:11.
https://strava.app.link/6kpJsZLoXzb