Training Archive: cmorse

The first leg (20.5m) went pretty well. The first 45 miles or so were advertised as hilly but nothing really severe - I have worse hills on my commute route so it rolled along pretty good. The thing that struck me most on the first (and subsequent) stretches is how the whole route is like a party - kind of like Manchester Road Race spread out over 192 miles. People cheering you on all along the way - live music, encouragement. With your first name clearly visible on your bike tag as well as on the back of the seat a lot of people would cheer you on by name and as I only knew two other people in this massive crowd that was pretty cool. Roughly 90 minutes to the first waterstop where I spent perhaps 10 minutes (moreso as I was kind of getting my bearings trying to figure out where to refill bottles etc before finally realizing that there were people working the crowd with bottles and food in addition to the various tents. )

2nd leg to waterstop in Franklin (43.5m) was more rolling hills and just enjoying the ride and cameraderie of everyone involved. I was definitely starting to get warm though and was beginning to dread the afternoon with some doubts about being able to get to Bourne without my usual hot weather ailments. But rolling good for now.... In and out of waterstop fairly quickly as I now had an idea of how things operated. Got what I needed and moved on down the road before the day got any hotter.

Things began to get interesting on the next leg to Dighton/Rehoboth (70.3m) and lunch. About 2/3 of the way into this leg I heard the distinct ping of a snapping spoke coming from my rear wheel. Pulled over and gave it a look - sure enough a drive side spoke had gone however the wheel was still fairly true so I moved on down the road (an advantage of disk brakes is that minor wheel alignment issues are not a major problem.) Got to Dighton and rolled into the mechanical area. (Each waterstop had a number of tents where local bike mechanics volunteered their services for bike repairs - this in addition to roving mechanics out on the road). They popped the wheel off and indicated it would be a few minutes and I should go grab some lunch while they worked on it. So I did. They hadn't started it when I got back so after a little nagging I got them to get started on it - they stripped the wheel down removing the brake disk, cassette, tube/tire etc only to then announce that their fully stocked service area didn't actually have any 26" mountain bike spokes (standard size, nothing funky about them). So they pulled the spoke/nipple and reassembled the wheel without the spoke and trued it up. Got it back on the bike and then I went over to refill my bottles with cold water (it was really hot by now) and just before I got to pull out checked the tires to find the rear was now flat. Damn.... Take it off again and put the spare tube in... Finally got back on the road after a 2 hour stop and its now really, really hot out. As least at this point the cheering fans along the roads are now showering riders with hoses and handing out cold cups of water (most of which went over the head).

On toward Lakeville (84.7m) in the heat of the day - no sign of any storms (darn). My stomach now beginning to do its usual game and shutting down - water/Gatorade going in slowly and reluctantly. At one point along this stretch I pulled over in the shade and proceeded to dump the contents of one hot water bottle over my head to cool off. One of the roving mechanics (Ryan from CycleLoft) pulled over to make sure I was ok and I explained my woes and how when my stomach gets funky in hot weather the only real thing that settles it is a good cold Coca-cola. Ryan says he'll go try to find me something and I head on down the road. Not 5 minutes later Ryan pulls up and waves me over and we sit under a tree while I consume that Coke. Also held that nice cold can up to my neck to cool my blood and lower the core temp. Hated to move on, but move on I must. But before he left Ryan told me he had more Cokes on ice in the truck so if I needed another to have someone radio my location to him and he'd come to my rescue again - didn't have to, but nice to know he was out there...

On to the 101m waterstop - slowly but surely turning the cranks over. Some ice for the neck, a few cold gatorades and a few minutes in the mist tent but not too far to go so rolled back out the door fairly quickly.

Rolled into the Mass Maritime Academy at 4:54 - one big party going on... first parked my bike, grabbed my bag then headed for the shower truck (ahhhh), dropped my stuff off in a PMC supplied tent then off for the food - 8 hours of continuous, no waiting, free food of all sorts. Free Brighams ice cream (I had three), free Beer (I passed) and free deep tissue massage (ok, there was a line there and I opted for more food instead). Fully satiated, I wandered back to the tent, laid out my blanket on the grass and snoozed for a bit. Then got up and went back to the food tent and had yet another hamburger, two more slices of pizza and some salad - and a few cans of Orange Dry soda. Stopped by the medical tent on the way back to the tent to check my body weight - up 2 pounds over the start!! A good sign...

Then back to the tent again to doze off to the sound of the giant wind turbine whooshing overhead....

Tough going during the afternoon, but after showering, eating numerous times and cooling down the final consensus is that it was a very fine day indeed. We'll see how we feel in the morning....