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ride report -- GYGIG: day two 8/4/07: oak harbor to mount vernon, wa
This was a much better riding day for me! I walked my bike up a couple of early hills in order to save my knee for later on, and this turned out to be a good decision. Once again the course would be closed at five and all remaining riders would be sagged to camp.
I rode up the hills in my lowest gears and stopped worrying about speed so much. I accepted that fact that I would be slower than most (my strength has always been endurance, not speed), and that if worse came to worse and I was forcibly sagged for time at the end, well, okay. I’d already raised the money and I was here participating, and that was something. Once I stopped stressing out about the time it was easier to enjoy the ride.
High points included:
--My attitude, which remained strangely positive the whole day. No mental tricks and slips like I’d experienced on the “back-forty” segments of some of my randonneur rides.
--The walk over the bridge at Deception Pass. (It was too narrow to ride across the walkway so we walked our bikes single-file.) The fog was hanging over the tops of the hills on the distance and the water was a deep, dark blue below.
--The flatland segments of the day’s routes, which took us through the Skagit Valley farmlands and which I enjoyed for their bleak, stark beauty.
--The bald eagle a co-rider pointed out to me as we pedaled.
--Lots of cheerful encouragement from the sweep vans, including waving pom-poms, thumbs-up and an odd assortment of music blaring from speakers in the vans to cheer us up on those long climbs. (Side note: I did not hear a single tune from the Ramones all weekend. Next time, please include some Ramones, Black Flag and The Pogues. Hint: Donna Summer does NOT help at all when I am climbing a freeway overpass in a 26-18 gear combination. Please.)
--The many dialogues I had with other riders and crew who have IBD. These were some of the most meaningful exchanges of the weekend. We traded notes about treatments and experiences, and at times it felt like a rolling support group. Considering that the official support group in my town simply doesn’t work for me, I was happy to find another outlet to help me cope with the isolation of living with IBD. IBD is not a sociable disease – way too much info about bathroom functions and surgeries and stuff -- and it’s often hard to talk about with folks who don’t have it.
Mindful of the time, and feeling some pain in my knee, I voluntarily got sagged about ten miles from rest stop 2 to Lunch, and took the extra time to ice my knee again.
After perhaps 30 minutes, I hopped on the bike and kept riding, all the way to the end of the day’s route. The most surprising segment was the final one, between rest stop 5 and the end. I paired up with another rider and led most of the way through the flat lands, at a blistering pace in a crosswind: at some points I was pedaling up to 15.5 mph! Occasionally the cross wind became a tailwind and that helped, but still my speed was surprising, an unbelievable second wind that I reveled in.
Entering Mount Vernon, the only unpleasantness I encountered the whole day was the two carloads of teenage boys who yelled at me to get my ass off the road. Simply delightful. I guess bikes are allowed only on the sidewalks here. Whatever.
At the Skagit County Fairgrounds, I arrived just ahead of a group photo shoot, with no time to shower. I stood around for a few minutes until the shot was taken, then went immediately to dinner, where I iced my knee while I sat and ate. (My only menu option was the chicken and pasta with white sauce. Everything else was either leafy salad or pasta with tomato sauce. There was berry cobbler but the seeds would've been difficult so I skipped that. But the pasta dish I had was terriffic.)
There was a DJ with a Karaoke machine afterwards but I was so wiped from my efforts that I skipped the music-time. Instead I showered, hung out near the parked bikes and chatted a little with the volunteer mechanic and a couple of riders, and then went straight to bed. I slept like a rock.
Total distance ridden, Day Two: 61.9 miles.
I rode up the hills in my lowest gears and stopped worrying about speed so much. I accepted that fact that I would be slower than most (my strength has always been endurance, not speed), and that if worse came to worse and I was forcibly sagged for time at the end, well, okay. I’d already raised the money and I was here participating, and that was something. Once I stopped stressing out about the time it was easier to enjoy the ride.
High points included:
--My attitude, which remained strangely positive the whole day. No mental tricks and slips like I’d experienced on the “back-forty” segments of some of my randonneur rides.
--The walk over the bridge at Deception Pass. (It was too narrow to ride across the walkway so we walked our bikes single-file.) The fog was hanging over the tops of the hills on the distance and the water was a deep, dark blue below.
--The flatland segments of the day’s routes, which took us through the Skagit Valley farmlands and which I enjoyed for their bleak, stark beauty.
--The bald eagle a co-rider pointed out to me as we pedaled.
--Lots of cheerful encouragement from the sweep vans, including waving pom-poms, thumbs-up and an odd assortment of music blaring from speakers in the vans to cheer us up on those long climbs. (Side note: I did not hear a single tune from the Ramones all weekend. Next time, please include some Ramones, Black Flag and The Pogues. Hint: Donna Summer does NOT help at all when I am climbing a freeway overpass in a 26-18 gear combination. Please.)
--The many dialogues I had with other riders and crew who have IBD. These were some of the most meaningful exchanges of the weekend. We traded notes about treatments and experiences, and at times it felt like a rolling support group. Considering that the official support group in my town simply doesn’t work for me, I was happy to find another outlet to help me cope with the isolation of living with IBD. IBD is not a sociable disease – way too much info about bathroom functions and surgeries and stuff -- and it’s often hard to talk about with folks who don’t have it.
Mindful of the time, and feeling some pain in my knee, I voluntarily got sagged about ten miles from rest stop 2 to Lunch, and took the extra time to ice my knee again.
After perhaps 30 minutes, I hopped on the bike and kept riding, all the way to the end of the day’s route. The most surprising segment was the final one, between rest stop 5 and the end. I paired up with another rider and led most of the way through the flat lands, at a blistering pace in a crosswind: at some points I was pedaling up to 15.5 mph! Occasionally the cross wind became a tailwind and that helped, but still my speed was surprising, an unbelievable second wind that I reveled in.
Entering Mount Vernon, the only unpleasantness I encountered the whole day was the two carloads of teenage boys who yelled at me to get my ass off the road. Simply delightful. I guess bikes are allowed only on the sidewalks here. Whatever.
At the Skagit County Fairgrounds, I arrived just ahead of a group photo shoot, with no time to shower. I stood around for a few minutes until the shot was taken, then went immediately to dinner, where I iced my knee while I sat and ate. (My only menu option was the chicken and pasta with white sauce. Everything else was either leafy salad or pasta with tomato sauce. There was berry cobbler but the seeds would've been difficult so I skipped that. But the pasta dish I had was terriffic.)
There was a DJ with a Karaoke machine afterwards but I was so wiped from my efforts that I skipped the music-time. Instead I showered, hung out near the parked bikes and chatted a little with the volunteer mechanic and a couple of riders, and then went straight to bed. I slept like a rock.
Total distance ridden, Day Two: 61.9 miles.
(Anonymous)
Barbara Kilts