Death Warmed Over

I completed four passes.

Yesterday, I had nothing good to say about the death ride, but my memory has pleasantly faded by today. I started at 5am, slightly chilly, but really probably mid-50's. Up over Monitor pass, which is an endless, single grade climb. The worst part of a climb like that is that you can see a line of little ants about two or three miles ahead, and slowly, you become one of those ants. Coming down was significantly more fun, except for navigating the 20-MPH and the 50-MPH riders. Jeez! Just before the bottom, Rune (starting at 5:30) caught up to me. We started back up to Monitor pass, and rode together for about ten minutes. I learned that Paul and co. started at 4am, which might not have been a bad idea.

Back over Monitor, then a left turn, and up to Ebbets pass. This one is nasty. It was a freakin' long climb. Generally, say, like going from gate 2 to gate 3 on Page Mill, but doing it for two hours or something. It was quite beautiful. Just as I got to the top, my legs started to twinge. I rested and contemplated finishing three passes, but I decided that the fourth pass (down the back of Ebbets, and back up just 5 miles) wouldn't be too much. Coming back up, I was glad that I'd filled my water backback with ice -- that saved my life. It was getting quite warm, and the climb is pretty exposed. It was unfortunate that none of the other water stops seemed to have ice. My mantra had become, at this point "the worst thing that can happen is that I'll cry".

Coming down Ebbets was great -- lots of fun zooming down the hill. It really did my heart and mood good to see all those people suffering up the mountain that I was completely done with. Then I started to get massive leg cramps, so I had to stand up in the pedals and grit my teeth. Ow! One notable thing were three women at one cabin who were partying and cheering on the riders -- they added a bit of fun to the ride.

Then lunch, and a lazy roll back to Markleeville. At this point, I was on the fence about going for Kit Carson pass -- I felt wiped out. In Markleeville, the heat came up, and it was hot! I was sweating and drinking -- but not eating enough. By the time I'd climbed back to Turtle Rock park, I was totally done. I rode into the finish area, and stood there dazed. My cell phone had no signal, so I couldn't call Julia, and I was about two hours early. There was a pay phone, but I wasn't about to call for help in front of all these other bikers who'd finished the whole thing already. I took an easy roll down to Woodford's to use my phone there. I was thinking that maybe I'd keep riding, but I could barely pedal my bike across the street, so I SAG'd out (Julia -- kindly -- picked me up about 20 minutes later). 90 miles -- 8 hours pedaling time.

Ultimately, I think the heat, combined with not eating enough, killed me. Timewise, I was doing OK. I called Julia at about 2pm, and I figured the rest of the ride would take me about three hours -- I just didn't want to ride anymore, to the degree that I didn't even want to do anything that would help me feel better. I may have to do it again; I haven't decided. At any rate, I think it was a pretty good achievement, and I feel great today.

Rune had a great ride, but that's his to tell. I heard that he ran into Mike K. at the lunch stop. I saw one of the MVV guys go by me down Ebbets, but I didn't see anyone else that I know.

We stayed three nights at David Walley's resort, in Genoa. We've wanted to test it for a long time. It's a bit weird place. The people there are quite nice -- at lot of Midwesterners. The timeshare part isn't that nice though -- it seems overdeveloped relative to the size of the attraction. The spa is good, with hot mineral pools, and reasonable massages. We ate dinner at this classy French restaurant, La Ferme, in Genoa, so I had to break my temperance rule, and split a bottle of wine with Julia on Thursday night.

Our next ride is the Shasta Super Century. Since I didn't do the whole DR, I'm contemplating the long version here, but not sure about it. I hated getting up at 3:45AM!

David