Did my second 300k of the season last weekend. Weather has been quite wet the preceding week, with heavy monsoon rain throughout the weekday, so I was preparing for a wet ride. Got trolled by the weather instead! I brought a rain jacket, installed a rear mudguard/fender... both dead weight with not a single drop of rain at all. Hot and sunny the entire day!
Was surprised at the starting point to see such a huge turnout. Seems like the lure of a limited edition medal has brought in the crowd. I joked that this would be somewhat of a race - I don't remember the numbers, but I think our audax club brought in somewhere around 200-300 of these medals so if you finish late, you can only get the "ordinary" BRM300 medal.
The first ~50km was nice and flat, and thanks to the large number of participants I had a very good draft for a good distance, and then afterwards I made a stop at a petrol station at 70km for food. I figure that since my stomach often starts giving me problems later into the ride, I might as well take the opportunity to eat as long as my stomach can take in solids. After this stop, the route becomes hilly for the next ~130km, with the first checkpoint in the middle of nowhere at 98.7km. Didn't linger here, just got the brevet card stamped and headed into town around ~15km away for my next planned stop for a bit more food. Stomach still good.
Made another planned stop around ~40km away, mainly because there didn't appear to be any other stops afterwards (at least by my research on Google maps), so took the opportunity for another quick food break before turning into more rural, countryside roads. There's supposed to be a roadside "secret" checkpoint between 160-190km but I didn't find it. Later, it turns out that the checkpoint wasn't open yet, but regardless I had marked down a small community at around 187km for lunch where I stopped to grab some evidence of my arrival in lieu of the missed checkpoint. Weather was getting pretty hot by then, and I couldn't fully down my lunch.
The next stretch of road was a long and tedious 55km through a long countryside plantation/estate road with very little cover from the sun above. Felt very miserable and slowly trudging along. Found a little coffee shop along the way and took the opportunity to get a bit of rest. Little sleeping kitten at the shop:
And then with another 14km remaining to the next checkpoint, made yet another stop for a can of coke. Think the coke helped my stomach somewhat, the carbonated drink helped encourage me to burp more and get rid of some extra air from my stomach.
The third checkpoint was at a McDonalds, but I didn't stop to eat since my stomach probably couldn't take anything solid at that point. Just got my brevet card stamped, then headed over to the petrol station alongside the restaurant. They had a very nice, open area with plenty of benches and tables to rest. Got some drinks in lieu of solid foods, then took a short nap. Felt much better after the nap, by that time it was already late evening at 7pm with the sun beginning to set. Felt a lot better and could push a faster, comfortable pace and did the remaining 51km in just a touch under 2 hours, finishing before 9pm.
