This spring 400k was a relatively flat route starting in Bremerton and heading out to the far west coast and then looping back: “a mix of busy and less-traveled roads and the chance to see the breakers of the Pacific Ocean and the shores of Puget Sound.”
The ride itself started at 7am, dictated by when the first ferry from Seattle would arrive. I was up at 4:30 am to ride down to the ferry dock. It’s nice to be able to leave the house on the bike already in all your gear rather than packing up the car. That said it was only while I was waiting to board the ferry that I noticed the conspicuous lack of water bottles on my bike. The two bottles I’d filled the night before were still in the fridge, nicely chilled by now.
I picked up a bottle of water from the vending machine and went with that for the ride. It worked out OK but was a bit difficult to use so I probably ended up drinking a little less than I should during the course of the ride.
There were about 70 people on the ride and we all headed out shortly after 7am. I ended up riding with a core group of 5 other people for almost the entire ride, picking up a couple more for the end of the ride once it got dark. We got into a good rhythm heading west into a headwind alternating pulls every 30 seconds. It was a bit of a change for me to stick with the same group of people for the whole ride. It worked out well (though the rest stops took longer than I would normally take with this many people in the group). We worked well together and traveled at a good pace, averaging 16.2 mph for the ride with a total time of 18 hours 33 minutes (incorporating roughly 3 hours in breaks).
The first SIR manned control was on the beach out by Westport. A good surfing vibe with one surfer in dreadlocks and colorful bikini speedo cheering all riders coming in and making up songs about SIR from across the road. He was really getting into it all.
A lot of chipseal on this ride and my arms took a bit of a beating from the vibration. Towards the end of the ride my legs started cramping up a bit. Hopefully they’ll adapt now over the next 3 weeks before the 600K when I’ll need to follow up the first day’s 400k with a 200K after the overnight rest stop.
Got in to Bremerton about 1:30 am in the morning to be greeted by Eric, Maggie and Peter who were manning the final control in a hotel. A long spell for them as the finishing times for this distance can vary greatly, from 13 and a half hours to 26 hours. I tried to get a bit of rest before the first ferry back to Seattle in the morning. My body was still to reved up and my arms hurt to much to sleep but I got a bit of rest to keep me going until I got home.
All in all a good ride and good prep for the longer rides to come over the next 2 months.
