June 23, 2007
Grand Tour Triple
http://www.lawheelmen.org/gt2007triple.htm
Summary:
19.5hrs total (15.38mph avg)
Nutrition: 1lb raisins, 1lb dried figs, ½ lb dried mango, ½ lb dried apricot, goji berries in my water bottle. Bananas, oranges, watermelon supplied at checkpoints. Lemon supplied by orchards along the route.
Highlights: Hit my 200mi mark at 12:25hrs (personal record)
-The Grand Tour Triple is the furthest ride I have done so far. I woke up at 2am, drank my power fruit smoothie, got my camelback and food together and rolled out of the garage by 3am. I rode to the start in Malibu from my home in El Segundo. My friend Alex and I were set on starting the ride by 5am. I got there at about 4:45am met up with Alex and we checked out at 5:15am. We were looking sharp in the new SWARM! (http://bikeswarm.org/) jerseys and were prepared to represent. Like any long ride I was up and down but I felt amazing for most of this ride. I rode with Alex until some speed racer came along and I couldn’t resist, so I chased him. I ended up pulling the guy for a while until my senses kicked in and I realized I still have 230mi left to go. Then I realized that the guy was doing the double. I ended up dropping him anyhow and continued on and met up with some other fellow who was just out riding along, he was on riding a Lighting complete with a bicycle bell. I rode with him for a while through Santa Paula all the way to the lunch stop. I forgot his name now but he knew about the Bicycle Kitchen (http://www.bicyclekitchen.com/) and the Bicycle Film Festival (http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2007_site/index.php). I told him about Eat!Sleep?Bikes! (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=111618101) and that it was playing there, he then took my picture and said he wanted to take a picture of a movie star, all in fun of course. But still weird!?? It was super hot so I devoured some watermelon and then headed off again. I had my IPOD on this ride so I listened to lectures by David Wolfe (http://www.davidwolfe.com/) and Peter Ragnar (http://www.roaringlionpublishing.com/Merchant2/about.php) in between the music. When I hit 200mi at 12hrs25min I realized that I had set a new personal best. I was super excited about that, and ended up finishing the ride at 12:45am in 19.5hrs. My goal was to ride home as well. So I ate a bunch of my food, stretched a bit and started my ride home along PCH. By this time I was barely able to stay awake, and found myself swerving all over the road on PCH. This was not the road to be falling asleep on especially since by now all the bars were letting out and I had already been passed several times by cars doing 50mph within an arms reach. It was a little scary, so I pulled off and tried to load up on some raisins to get a sugar rush so I could be more alert. Then I started to get cold. Being right near the water in Malibu my body decided to totally shut down. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself when I realized what was happening. So I thought, maybe I sleep a bit here at the bus stop. But then I started shivering, a lot, teeth chattering and everything, so I decided to call Jenny to come pick me up. After an hour of shaking she arrived. I loaded my bike on the racks and we were off, finally some sleep!! We make it ½ block, heard a loud thud and the car dies. Try to start the car again and the starter just spins. The engine had finally died on the old Honda and the timing chain had snapped when the engine seized. So now we call for a tow truck, I’m barely conscious by now, and so ready for sleep!! How much more could I take? I had the mindset that I was done when I called Jenny to pick me up. Finally we make it home several hours later after the tow truck driver decides to be a bro and drive us all the way home from Malibu without charging for the extra miles over our limit. That was one crazy adventure!!
