downtube42

SIR Olympia 300k completed.

Last year I rode this route - a quiet route with beautiful PNW views - in 15:42; I was hoping for better but with cold/rain/wind forecast I was prepared for a horrid and long day. We departed at 6am to dry but chilly conditions. The forecast called for 39 at the start; I didn't check but it was crisp. The lead group rolled out fairly slowly, so I stayed with them for the start. It was chatting pace, so I chatted with some rando friends I hadn't seen in a long time. Just before the first sizeable climb of the day the rain started, so I stopped to put on rain gear. They rode on, and I figured I wouldn't see them again. Surprisingly, I did many miles later. The first climb, in the Capital Forest, rose about 400 feet over 3 miles. I was pretty much alone from mile 18 to mile 95. I recall approaching a deer standing in the road staring at me - allowing me to get close enough I was getting concerned. The solo stretch included 40 miles of glorious tailwind - a debt to be paid later. The course is a figure-eight, crossing at Centrailia. The leg from 40 to 95 goes SE, and we had a strong WNW wind. As per normal, I thought I was just super strong, then I saw a flag. During this phase I passed a number of people who'd been shelled from the lead group. By mile 95 the big climbs were behind me, and I was surprised to find virtually all the remaining lead group at the staffed control. They were lollygagging a bit, so I snarfed down a sandwich and coke, and headed out with them. There were four smaller climbs of the 100-150 foot variety, and rolling terrain. I struggled a bit on the climbs, but stayed with the group. Just as we got into the headwind stretch, someone flatted and that split the group. I stayed a helped a bit, but eventually bailed when it looked like a more drawn-out affair with plenty of helpers. I figured everyone in that group was faster than me anyway. I plodded into the headwind solo for quite a while, eventually seeing a lone bike ahead. I caught up and worked with him. We'd ridden together last year on a 600k, so we caught up whilst taking turns against the wind. After a long ass time, we caught up with another two, and hung together until the town of Winlock (home of the worlds largest egg), where the two of us stopped at IGA and the others rode on. While eating in the IGA parking lot, we saw the flat-repair portion of the former lead group roll past. I should mention weather. The forecast looked like cold, rain, wind, and more cold after dark. In fact, around 2pm Friday I was considering canceling my hotel in Lacey and doing a more sane ride in Portland. (not really; the annual Ronde is 8k feet over 60 miles). It turned out to be a mostly nice day. There were a few brief showers, a brief hailstorm (tiny little PNW hailstones), plenty of sunshine, and the afore mentioned wind. As it turns out, I carried a crapton of unnecessary clothing. No complaints on that, though.. After the IGA, we re-caught the flat-repair group when they inexplicably stopped along the road and consulted their phones. Now we're 7 or 8 strong I think. I'm struggling a bit to keep in touch on the rolling climbs but hanging in there. Somewhere around mile 150 the group wanted to stop for food at a convenience store, so we pulled in. My headwind buddy and I didn't need anything since we'd stopped at IGA, so we decided to roll out and ride our own pace. We're both larger than the average rando, so our pace means slower climbs and faster descents. At this point the headwinds were mostly behind us, as were the big climbs. We rolled on, first chilling out thinking we'd wait for everyone, but eventually we were trading off riding with good effort. We passed two other riders who'd stopped for a roadside snack. Somewhere around mile 160 we caught sight of another rider who appeared to be fading. It took a few miles, but eventually we grouped up with him and we became three. Turns out he'd been solo through the whole headwind stretch. He believed he was the first rider on the road; we were not convinced. I'd been thinking a 9pm finish for 15 hours was a solid possibility, when my buddy said his smart watch gave us an estimated ETA of 8:17pm. I said we should slow down, because the last thing I wanted was to start pushing for 8:00, and suffer needlessly. We didn't slow down. At some point he said there were 28 miles to go and it was 6pm, so we just had to average 14 mph to make 8. Well ****. We pressed on at 16-18 mph. With 17 miles to go the route turns onto the Yelm-Tenino trail, and it's trail from there to the finish. We did turn down the wick a bit, at least. Those last 12 miles were interminable. For some reason, when I get under 40 miles to go it feels like I'm almost done, but somewhere around mile 15 time seems to s l o w d o w n. Ug. Finally the turnoff showed up on my GPS, and from there it was a short distance to the finish. As we rolled in, I asked the time: 7:52. Damn! It was 7:55 by the time we found a volunteer and he noted the time, but that's all good. Turns out, we were also the first in. Shocker.

Oh, with this I earned my Mondial award - 40,000 km of RUSA miles. Super cool, assuming my GPS track is accepted, of course.