Tuesday, June 28, 2011

remove it

it ends. it ends quicker than it began, so it seems.

we packed up and hit the road thursday night around 9pm and pulled into arlington around 2:30 friday afternoon.

the nephews, niece, dad, brother & sister-in-law, and myself all went to pie-tanza for a big pasta dinner on friday evening before my brother and i rolled over to revolution cycles in clarendon to get his hubs adjusted. once back at the house we organized all of our supplies for saturday's ride. after that.... sleep.

not really. i didn't sleep very well at all. 4am came way too soon.

patrick showed up and all of our supplies and bikes and bodies were loaded up in the truck, before hitting the 7-11 for breakfast, and then continuing on (via a few u-turns and google map checks) to anacostia park in south DC.

we did our check-in with the volunteers and got ready to go. all of the participants merged into their groups and a few words were shared by the ride organizers before everyone headed off towards the capital building. the natural ebb and flow of a hundred cyclist trying to get in where they fit in was certainly present, but after about ten miles things smoothed out and a few folks proceeded to nail it. cruising at +25mph toward the first check point was not how the day needed to go, so we kicked it back a little bit and paced ourselves.

after some rolling terrain, a puncture, and some rest stops we finally rolled into the lunch stop at 107 miles. my average so far was sitting right at 19.2 or 19.3mph. not bad. it was a nice break to sit in the grass in the shade and eat a little bit of turkey and cheese. also... that was the best pepsi i think i've ever had. anyone who knows me knows i don't really drink sodas too. after lunch we saddled up and began the last half of our ride.

after the third and final check point a few of us started to put in a little more work. probably less in an attempt to go faster and more so just to hurry up and get done. in our hurry we missed a turn and had to double back through southeast dc. it only added about two miles over all so it wasn't a total screw up.

back at the finish we checked our computers to figure our stats: 204.53 miles; 18.2mph average; 8,737 feet of elevation gain; 11 hours, 11 minutes ride time; somewhere in the ballpark of 14 hours total time including lunch and all check points.

i didn't get much sleep saturday night either as my body was too exhausted to sleep. sunday came way too early, but we managed to get it together and head to the silver diner for breakfast where i proceeded to maul an order of cajun salmon and scrambled eggs. and then we packed the truck and hit the rode for home around noon on sunday to arrive back in pensacola about 3:30 monday morning.

whirlwind trip. lots of miles past, but it was totally worth it. we are already planning and talking about how we can improve for next year's edition of the total 200.

for the record, i would like to thank cyclesports and truly spokin for hooking me up - always; the volunteers and organizers of the total 200 did an amazing job with logistics and lunches and support and everything in general; my dad for taking a lot of the driving and fuel burden off of my shoulders, i think if i had gone by myself (which was initially the plan) i would be in such a state of exhaustion and utter confusion i would probably still be curled up and wimpering in a corner somewhere; my brother and his family for putting us up and feeding us end everything else; and most importantly to shea and mrok for letting me escape pensacola to participate in such ridiculous endevours and for holding the fort down at home and for allowing me enough time in advance to prepare myself for such an event.

it was awesome.

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