RAIN Ride report - IndySteel made me do it!
IndySteel PM'd me wanting to know if I was the same Jeni that finished the ride in 9:36 as coincidentally, she and a friend did too! Yes, that was me. WAY TO GO TE GALS!
So here's the report - nothing as exciting as last year though....
A bunch of us had talked for months about doing RAIN again this year. 160 miles - one day - one way. Leaves at the Illinios / Indiana stateline and continues to Richmond IN. Although it's stated that it's not a race, it's timed and if you fail to finish it in 14 hours, you are a DNF. Also, the rules state that "in the event of a sprint finish, all riders in the group will receive the same time". To me that translates into IT'S A RACE! :D :D
Besides, last year my goal was just to finish, this year we wanted to do it as fast as we could!
As the date got closer, some of our "team" members started droppping like flies. Not trained enough, injuries, out of town, etc. Ended up being two other guys from my race team and a guy I ride with frequently with the nickname of Train. Our friend Scott SAGed. He was out due to herniated discs.
Friday - met at the bike shop and loaded up. Got to Terre Haute and checked into our rooms. Unlike last year, our room did not look like a crime scene, however, it was bathed heavily in old woman type perfume and we aired it out as well as we could. Ate dinner at Lonestar where we all grubbed out on filet mignon and good beer. :D Bedtime was around 11 ish.
The plan was to line up at the start around 6am although the ride didn't start until 7. I find myself on bikeforums.net sometimes and that group had suggested meeting up then. My team of four met up with the bikeforums people. It was neat to meet people face to face.
It was a wonderful day with temps to be in the mid 80's with a nice tailwind versus the heat of last year. I beleive they had recorded temps up to almost 100. There were a lot of DNF's out there last year. Almost 1/3rd of the participants didn't make it to the end.
It was great to hear 1000 people clip into their pedals all at the same time. I never get tired of hearing that sound. We "warmed up" with a speed of around 22 for the first 40 miles. The packs and pacelines helped our speed but again, the flatness of the ride combined with the nice tailwind helped too.
After mile 40, things got a little slower and the packs started to break up. We had some rollers and our paceline would start to desinigrate. I was surprised by the amount of people that didn't have climbing skills. My group of four trains regularly on hills here in Cincinnati - actually, the paved dead end road to my house is about a half mile long and has a max of 18% :eek:
Got the pacelines going again, and no one would rotate to the front. Sure, the four of us pass you, you hop on, and as soon as one of us peels off, you guys that got on, open up a gap so you don't have to work. Thanks, thanks a lot.
Mile 90 was the lunch stop. Train and I were feeling strong and I realized I was on my way to my first sub 5 century. The other two guys were going to slow it down a bit so Train and I left to see what we could do. His computer said we did the first 100 in 58: something while mine didn't get there until 59:41 - regardless FIRST SUB FIVE!
Mile 130ish was another rest stop. Our SAG did a marvelous job of leap frogging back and forth between Train and I and our two other riders. At this point, they were about a half an hour back.
A detour due to construction had us sucking wind. We had felt so strong and I was so happy to see my computer saying 20.1 mph for an average. As we made the right on to this chip and seal pavement, it took everything I had to do 13 mph! OMG, we're going to lose our 20 mile an hour average, I thought. Thankfully, the detour didn't last long and we were back to our sweet tailwind in no time.
I passed the point that on last year's ride, we all pulled over and revived me with Smuckers Uncrustables! I was so tired and so dead then. This year, I waved at the little piece of grass when I had laid the previous year sucking up the nutritious peanut butter and jelly.
Some more rollers as we made our way into Richmond. It was nice to see the college and the finish line.
Stats:
Average - 20.1 mph
Odo - 159.2
Saddle Time - 7:51
Actual Time - 9:36
(yikes - we spent almost 2 hours off the bikes)
Next year I really want to try for less than 8 hours total. It could have been done had we not stopped as long. I know one lady from the bikefourms board that was off her bike a total of 13 minutes.
Congrats IndySteel and Lisa on a great time too. Your turn for a write up!
http://ebbs.us/Biking/rain2007/RAIN%...s/DSC02897.JPG
Jeni
