[For my non-biker friends, some explanation of terms. Randonneuring is a form of non-competitive long distance cycling. People who participate are called randonneurs. All around the world there are regional groups that organize long distance rides, which are called brevets (pronounced breh-vay). A rider doing a complete brevet series would do rides of 200 kilometers, 300km, 400km, and 600km (that's 125 miles, 185 miles, 250 miles, and 375 miles) in the same year. The ultimate challenge for a randonneur is to do a grand randonee, a 1200 km ride. The grandaddy of them all is Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) which is held every four years in France.
These rides are not races, the goal is just to finish within the time limit set for the ride. For example, a rider must finish a 600 km ride in 40 hours. The rider is free to stop and rest, eat, or sleep, but the clock is always running. At various points along the ride there are stops called controls. At these points the rider must either check in or obtain some proof of passage, like a receipt. There is a fine spirit of camaraderie in randonneuring- helping another rider to finish is considered more admirable than just going for your own fastest time.]
At the end of June I participated in the 4th running of the Cascade 1200, a 1240km brevet hosted by the Seattle International Randonneurs (SIR). The course travels 775 miles in Washington state, including four long climbs in the Cascades. Riders have 93 hours to complete the entire distance. This was my “big event” for this year, so all my winter and spring training was geared toward being ready. I was confident that I had prepared well, but since I had never done a 1200k before, I had no idea how my body and my enthusiasm would hold up.
The first thing I have to say is that my Karma must be very good. We had absolutely perfect weather for this ride! We had no rain, the temperatures were not too blazing hot in eastern Washington, the mountains were not too cold, the sun came out every day, and the winds were more often favorable than not. I also had no flats or mechanical issues.
Another thing that made the ride wonderful is that I rode almost every mile with Tim Sullivan. I could not imagine a better riding companion. Tim patiently put up with my lectures on the local geology (which must have been pretty lame since I am only a chemist), my bike food gas, and my numerous stops to put on or take off clothing (like Goldilocks, I like to have things just right) for 4 days. He also made me laugh. You know you have picked a good riding partner when 700 miles into the ride he can say something funny and cause you to spew Gatorade all over the handlebars.
On Saturday morning at 6:00, an excited group of about 100 riders left Monroe.
The bunch, of which 10 were women, comprised riders from 18 states in the US and 7 other countries.
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| Riders waiting to start. I'm just to the right of center, in the CA Triple Crown jersey. (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
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I enjoyed meeting and talking to many new folks as we rode in a big group for quite a while.
The sun came out in time for a terrific lunch at the Truly Scrumptious Bakery in Eatonville, complete with a stunning view of Mt. Ranier.
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| Mt. Ranier from Eatonville (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
In the late afternoon we had our first major climb, White Pass at 4500 feet.
I felt great and I zipped up the climb.
Which is not to say that I flew up the climb like Lance, but I did go faster than a typical randonneur.
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| Tim at the top of White Pass (photo courtesy of Tim Sullivan) |
It was cold at the top so I quickly put on some clothes and continued on to the control at Clear Lake, where I greatly enjoyed a hot Cup-O-Noodles (another of the normally disgusting food products that taste fabulous on a long ride).
We finished up the ride with a long descent into Naches (which is pronounced nah-cheese, I found out) for the overnight.
This was the only time I needed lights on the entire ride- you gotta love the northern latitudes near the summer solstice.
At the middle school in Naches where we were all staying, I was able to get a hot meal, a cold shower, and about 4 hours of sleep on the wrestling mats in the gym.
The second day started with a 45 mile gradual climb back up into the mountains toward Chinook Pass.
We were with a fast-moving pace line most of the way, making very good time.
It was getting colder and colder as we went up in altitude and I start fantasizing about the hot chocolate I hoped would be there at the control at the top.
Sure enough, the control not only had hot chocolate, they had bagels and peanut butter.
SIR comes through again- all my food fantasies fulfilled!
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| Naches River (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
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| Riders enjoying hot chocolate and other goodies at the Lodge Pole control (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
We dropped back down the road we had just climbed and worked our way over toward Yakima, joined by Jeff Dewey, another rider from SoCal.
The scenery became more agricultural, and I got to see hops growing for the first time.
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| Hops growing (photo courtesy of Robert Higdon) |
The afternoon was spent in the hot, dry expanses of Eastern Washington.
We went through the Rattlesnake Hills, rode by an entrance to the Hanford nuclear waste site, and crossed the Columbia river for the first time.
Some of the riders were feeling the heat (I think the air temp was in the high eighties), but as a southern Californian I never found it too uncomfortable.
That said, those icy drinks at the Mattawa control sure tasted good.
In the late afternoon we had to fight some headwinds and some steep rollers on the way to the town of George, Washington (ha ha).
Just a few more miles and we were in Quincy, our overnight stop.
We arrived at Quincy High School at 8:20, giving us plenty of time to enjoy a hot dinner, take a shower (a hot one this time!) and get about 5 hours of sleep.
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| The overnight control at Quincy High School (photo courtesy of Richard Stum) |
The third morning had an inauspicious start.
As we were making one of our first turns leaving the overnight, Tim was looking down at his route sheet at the same time I was slowing for some railroad tracks and he ran into my rear wheel.
He went down, but fortunately the only damage was a skinned knee.
We made an early stop in the town of Ephrata for restrooms and water and got to experience some of the local color- a crazy(but friendly) guy in front of the minimart who wanted to talk to us.
(Where was Renee when I needed her to deflect this conversation to?)
After leaving town the scenery became beautiful again as we passed by a chain of lakes over to Dry Falls.
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| Dry Falls (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
On the approach to the Moses Coulee we rode for a while with the Lone Star Randonneurs from Texas.
Each day they amassed a big group of riding companions who enjoyed their strong, steady riding, their friendly attitude, and all the humorous banter.
The control in Farmer was great- at the Community Hall (which seemed to be the only building around) with its two outhouses.
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| Farmer control (photo courtesy of Chris Heg) |
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| Coming out of the outhouse at Farmer control (photo courtesy of Tim Sullivan) |
In the late afternoon we headed back into the mountains, climbing Loup Loup pass(4020 ft) on our way to Mazama.
I felt pretty good on the climb, but ran out of gas on the descent.
Even a stop for calories in Twisp didn’t fully restore me and I struggled into Mazama, shamelessly sucking Tim’s wheel in the headwind.
This was the first time in the ride that I felt profoundly tired.
I guess I should be pleased that it didn’t happen until 585 miles in.
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| (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
The overnight at Mazama was very restorative.
We were staying at a rustic lodge, the Mazama Ranch House, located in a beautiful, grassy alpine valley with deer running all around.
Several helpings of SIR Rando Chili, 6 hours of rest in a real bed, and a delicious buffet breakfast did wonders for my tired body.
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| Mazama (photo courtesy of Chris Heg) |
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| Bikes, riders, and support staff at Mazama (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
And a good thing too because Tuesday’s ride started with the 17 mile climb up Washington Pass(5477 feet).
I felt pretty good on the climb, but I just didn’t have the power to go fast.
Tim did great, beating me soundly to earn double KOM points and the
Cima Coppi.
The view from the top was magnificent, but it was quite cold so we put on jackets and descended quickly.
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| At the bottom of Washington Pass- I'm pulling the line here (photo courtesy of Richard Stum) |
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| Getting there... (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
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| Finally at the top (photo courtesy of Tim Sullivan) |
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| Tim and me putting on clothes for the descent (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
The downhill seemed to go on forever. I was ravenous by the time we got to Marblemount and stopped at a minimart. This late in the ride any pretense of eating healthy was gone- I just wanted calories. I scarfed down a microwave burrito and some cookies. Later in the day I would add more cookies, some chocolate milk, a Snickers bar, a Hostess fruit pie, and a McDonald’s Happy meal. All told I figured I spent about $60 buying water and junk food at minimarts during the ride. Assuming the other riders did the same, the Cascade 1200 injected quite a little economic stimulus into the small towns along the route.
The last 60 miles to the finish were mostly flat with some rollers and small climbs.
It was lush and green, with beautiful views of snow-capped mountains around us.
It is so pretty up here in Washington that there aren’t any junk miles.
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| On the way back to Monroe (photo courtesy of Greg Courtney) |
I started to feel very happy as we neared the finish, and was elated by the time we got to the hotel.
We were greeted with cheers, pizza, and beer at the finish.
And because this is an SIR ride, it wasn’t just ordinary beer, it was a fine assortment of ales.
I discovered I am a very cheap date after riding 775 miles.
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| Tim and me at the finish, tired but happy. |
Tim and I completed the ride in 84 hours and 43 minutes. Out of that, 51 and a half hours were spent pedaling, to give us an average speed of over 15 mph on the road. I’m sure I would have been several hours slower had I ridden by myself. Tim not only helped pull me through the times I had no energy, he inspired me to ride faster when we were riding side-by side. My Polar computer says I climbed 32,400 feet and burned 25,600 calories, with an average heart rate of 113. I felt good for most of the ride, with only a couple of bad spells. In all, I am very pleased with my how well my training prepared me and how well the old body held up.
I can’t say enough about the support provided to the riders by SIR. Even though the course was not easy, they made it easy for the riders to succeed by taking care of all our needs. All we needed to do was ride. The volunteers were unfailingly cheerful, encouraging, and helpful. They were all great, but a few really stand out in my memories: Michael Huber(no relation) who picked me up at the airport; Terry Williams on the food crew who, within a few minutes of meeting me, made me feel like I was one of his dear friends; Charlie and Cathy in Mattawa who waited on us like we were VIPs, and Don Jameson who gave me a ride back to the airport (after doing the ride himself no less). To Mark Roehrig and Mark Thomas I tip my helmet- thank you for organizing such an excellent adventure. I will recommend to all my friends who want to try a 1200k that they consider the Cascade for their first one. The way it was organized with the overnight sleep controls made it seem more like a multi-day tour and nothing at all like a grueling 1200km slog.
The high that I felt at the end of the ride continued for at least 2 days after. I couldn’t stop grinning thinking about the great experience I had just had. I felt very alive- food tasted better, people seemed nicer, kissing Pat at the airport was sweeter. Doing the Cascade had a powerful affect on my brain and my soul. No wonder this long distance cycling is so addictive. My only regret is that I didn’t stop somewhere during the ride for espresso and cherry pie. Oh well, I guess this is a good reason to come back and do it again....
