Yesterday, I rode the Seattle Century with E. This was my first century in about fifteen years. Years ago, I rode the STP two years in a row, on a two hundred dollar commuter bike, with almost no training... (I couldn't figure out why everyone was passing me!) Today, I am recovering from yesterday's ride. My legs are aching and I am tired, actually beat. I was debating about riding this Century, as I am going on a four day backpack trip to the Enchantments, four day later, and I wanted to have fresh legs. A week before the ride, I decided to sign-up. E. was already signed up, and I wanted to ride one Century this summer. I figured my legs should be recovered by Friday! Before deciding to do the ride, I looked at the elevation profile. The highest point was 800 ft, and the rest looked fairly low, kind of a rolling profile. After riding the Tour de Blast this year, I figured this elevation was easy. I either have trouble reading elevation maps, or the elevation for this ride was bogus! (I just found another trip report on-line. The actual vertical elevation gain was greater than 3000 feet, and the cyclist reporting, skipped one hill that we rode!). We started from Magnuson Park with a light rain. We rode the Burke-Gilman trail to Marymoor, which is a very familiar ride for us. When we got to Marymoor, our legs were covered in mud, as were our bikes. After E.'s last century, she learned to always carry baby wipes, which are dynamite for cleaning mud and grease from your calves. We started wiping down our bikes a bit as well, concentrating on the brakes and gears. I happened to glance over at another group, gathered around a hose, and I noticed they were hosing their bikes down. We quickly got in line. My shoes and socks were also wet, and a light bulb went off for me, realizing why the cyclists in the Chilly Hilly were wearing shoe coverings. They were to keep your feet dry in wet conditions! After heading out from Marymoor, we encountered some rolling hills, nothing too bad, though I did notice that early on, my quads were tired. I am training for the Danskin triathlon, and I swam a half mile in Lake Washington the day before the ride. The water was very choppy, and the swimming was strenuous. Very bad decision, the day before a hundred mile bike ride! Many times on the ride, E. and I would have deja vu, knowing that we had been on these roads on some other ride, though not knowing the area well, not sure when or which ride. One of the "highlights" early in the ride was traversing a red brick road for over a mile. Riding over bricks is brutal on your hands and wrists. For the life of us, we could not figure out how someone could have chosen this road as part of the route. For sure, they must not be a cyclist. For this ride, I tried a new drink called OS Endurance. E. swears by it. I used OS Endurance and Accelerade, so it was hard to tell, if one worked better for me. This was a difficult ride, both in length, and that it was more hilly than advertised. The weather co-operated, though we had light drizzle in the morning, the temperature was in the sixties for the rest of the day. Once in awhile we had a bit of a head wind. At one point, we were about ready to go down a very steep hill that E. took one look at and said 'Holy Shit'! One of the neighbors (who must have been a cyclist) was at the top of the hill giving advice. He told exactly what to expect from the hill, when it tapered off, and when we had to make a quick right or left. I asked E, should I go first, and she just nodded. The real steep part did not last too long, but the hill was long and keeping control of the bike was a primary concern. All through the ride we were amazed at how difficult and unusual the ride was. The signage was terrible. You had to look and watch very careful for the symbols. At one point we missed one of the turns. E. was in the lead and stopped, having had a feeling in her gut that we were not on the correct road. Another cyclist had also taken the wrong turn. The cyclist was a sweet guy (Jay) from the East Coast, who was a recent transplant. He has GPS on his phone so we try to pinpoint where we are at in relationship to the ride map. We determined that we could probably continue on, and at least meet up with the ride route. We debate this for a bit and decide to call the emergency number. We are instructed to turn around and backtrack for about 1/2 mile, to get back on track. Ah, a Century plus one, now. At the next rest stop, E., has the mechanic look at her bike, as the left shifter is very difficult and she is now having to use her right hand to move the left shifter. The mechanic tells her that it needs to be cleaned as the grease has congealed inside, and is making the shifting difficult. She feels that she will be able to continue the ride. As we head out, one of my thighs starts to ache and I am worried about cramping. E. is carrying Tums, which apparently is a home remedy for cramping and worked like a charm. One more thing to put in my bag of tricks! Jay continues on with us until he gets a flat. We see a SAG wagon, and he stops, and says he will catch up with us. We are thinking, sure thing... At one point the ride is re-routed to the shoulder of I-90. The shoulder is wide, there are cars whizzing by very fast, and there is tons of debris on the road. Talk about scary. Fortunately, we see a Dan Henry Arrow (the generic name for cycling event pavement markings) after fifteen minutes on I-90 and are dumped into a residential area. Once we cross the I-90 bridge and are within 10 miles of our goal, E., has a flat tire. We are bummed!! E. removes her front tire, takes out her cheat sheet, and honestly after 90 miles, we are just hoping someone will stop to assist. About six cyclists go by, a few ask if we have had an accident, but no one offers to assist. Three women go by with safety vests. They turn out to be our guardian angels. They ask if we need assistance when they pass, and E., says "only if you know how to change a tire". They pass us, and then, lo and behold, they turn around. They are actually part of the Seattle Century medical support crew, but one of the women is an expert tire changer. In 3 minutes flat she has the tire changed and back on the bike, even having determined and removed a small piece of metal that caused the flat. We are just about ready to jump back on our bikes, when Jay materializes out of no where. He told us he would catch up! The last ten miles are fairly uneventful and we have big grins as we coast down to Magnuson Park!
