By Mile 2, I was already dropped. Amy and Bob passed me at some point, as did some guys who were fixing a broken chain. I did manage to get to the first control thirty minutes before it closed. There I met Eric who had already endured two flats. He was the last biker I figured I’d see for the remaining 150 miles. I handed him one of my two spare tubes and he urged me to eat a sandwhich and head to Quilcene before calling in a DNF.
Due to my slow riding style, my pal Dave improved the Hood Canal 300K route sheet for me by detailing at each spot exactly where I’d need to be based on 10 MPH time. By the time I left the first control and picked up the phone, I knew that while I could likely finish the ride, I’d certainly miss the last ferry and be riding through the Tahuya Hills alone, in the dark and drizzle. That sounded like absolutely no fun. My desire, plainly put, was not strong enough.
With no plans on going to Paris for the Paris-Brest-Paris (Normandy has too much good food to rush through in my mind), and no plans really to ride any ride this year longer than this one, I turned back to the Hood Canal Bridge and the reasons I really like bicycling. I stopped for some sight-seeing and barbequed oysters in Port Gamble before heading to the Kingston Ferry. It was nice not to feel like I needed to rush around. At 82 miles of riding, it was still a decent and long day out for me.
That said, here’s what I feel is the deal with Rando and me. If I am going to do it again, I must get my speed up so I can ride with other folks. It is also the only way I can do the things I like to do on my bike, like taking the occasional picture and stopping for an entire cup of coffee. To get faster, I need to lose some of the 40 pounds I put on this past year of traveling and I need to actually remember to bike like I want to go fast, something to work on my Redmond-Seattle commute.
I think I’ll revisit the 200 and 300K after at the end of summer.
Pictures from a Day of Failure
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- Dave Carey, Finisher!
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- Chimacum Farm
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- BBQ Oysters
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- Argreed!
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- Tater Tots!
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- Too slow! No Spirit
11 Comments
Kudos for even trying the 300km. I’ve only done a 100km populaire so far. If you haven’t seen it, you might want to pick up the last five issues of Bicycle Quarterly: http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/vbqindex.html
Jan Heine, who was on your ride, is on part 5 of a series on randonneuring basics which I’ve picked up a ton of great info from.
Losing the rainy northwest winter insulation is on my list, too.
I’d like to increase my riding speed, but I’m not sure how. Let us know if you find any training tips.
I like your idea of failure, Knox, and I agree with your summation of randonneuring: I’ve always wanted to do it, but don’t think I will until I can keep up a faster, steadier pace. I don’t want to ride more than 15 miles in a hurry!
What’s the opposite of rando? I think I’m going to start a club where rides are all ten miles in length, and you stop every five minutes for food and peeing…
Any day that involves pints of dark, dark beer and a plate of oysters can’t really be considered a day of failure, I can’t help thinking.
There’s only one way I know of to ride faster, and that’s to ride more. I’m going through my winter weight loss program right now; no more sugary cinnamon buns in the morning = 1lb weight loss per week. Riding the road bike instead of the mountain bike = immediate 20lb weight loss. Shame it just snowed here and I’m back on the mountain bike!
Those photos do not look like failure. Oysters and stout vs. riding in the dark and wet? Hello.
I’m totally with Pam on this. If only we can always fail in style like you did!
Oh yeah, I agree with everyone: ‘failure’ was quite a liberal use of the word, if not out right arch, considering the Oysters! the Beer! the 82 miles of riding!
It was a swell day: educational certainly on what it takes to be Rando (desire!), but all good in my book of bicycling.
Scoutie, the opposite of Rando is Bicycle Rides for Ordinary People. The average ride is 20 miles, the start times are you know, after brunch!, and I think they make plenty of stops for peeing and eating. You should found a Portland Chapter.
What a great failure!
You know, a person has to try things to figure-out what what type of rider s/he really is. Good for you for checking it out!
Knox,
It was great seeing you out on the ride and I think you had more fun than some of the speedier folks. I’m not all that speedy myself but searching through my blog for “faster brevets” will turn up some of my thoughts on the subject.
We do have something similar in Portland; it’s called Slug Velo, and one of these days, I’ll get off my butt and go on a ride. One of these days…
[…] years ago, I started a 300k ride that the Seattle International Randonneurs does around the Hood Canal but did not finish. While I […]