Long Distance Girls....

[Brandy]

I didn't realize that you would be at ESDC Veronica! I hope that I get a chance to meet you!

[Veronica]

I'll be wearing my Amici Veloci jersey. Although if it's cold in the morning you won't be able to see it.

Where are you guys staying? We're at the Holiday Inn Express.

V.

[maillotpois]

I do expect a LOT of pictures! The Eastern Sierras are one of my favorite places.

~~~~~~

So I am re-visiting my plans for the year and making some changes. Below is what I set out at the beginning of the year. Notes and changes are in red:


DBC 100k Populaire (informal) Sun, Jan. 14th - Done!
Santa Rosa CC 200k Brevet Sat, Mar. 3rd - Done!
Santa Rosa Cycling Club 300k brevet Sat, Mar. 31st - Done!
Santa Rosa Cycling Club 400k brevet Sat, Apr. 28th - Sun, Apr. 29th - Did the Davis 400k instead, April 15
Added: Devil Mountain Double, April 28
Wine Country Double Metric Sat, May. 5th - Done!
Davis Double Sat, May. 19th - Done!
Santa Rosa Cycling Club 600k brevet Sat, May. 26th - Sun, May. 27th- Skipped this one....
The Death Ride Sat, Jul. 14th
Mt Tam Double Sat Aug 4
Holstein Hundred Sat Aug. 18th
Knoxville September 29
Grizzly Century - October 6
(MAYBE) Bass Lake double - Doubtful!
Solvang Fall Double Oct 20
El Tour de Tucson Nov 20

I've also committed to driving a SAG car for the TT.

[Veronica]

Knoxville's date is changed. It is now 9/29. Unless you're doing the staff ride, which I think will be 9/22.

V.

[maillotpois]

Thanks - I had the date right in the calendar, but I don't think I knew it when I did my original post which I cut and pasted. Shooting for the gold 1000 mile club this year. We'll see. After last year I almost hate to plan anything too far in advance.

[aka_kim]

Veronica - Jesse will be manning one of the rest stops, and stocking your favorite beverage. I think he said it's at mile 140 (??).

Ooh, I just looked at the web site - the ESDC jersey is beyootiful.

[Brandy]

I'll be wearing my Amici Veloci jersey. Although if it's cold in the morning you won't be able to see it.

Where are you guys staying? We're at the Holiday Inn Express.

V.

We're on the budget plan...aka...staying with friends in Mammoth! Hopefully I'll be wearing a new jersey (the same one the our riders will wear for RAAM) IF Champ-Sys gets our order to us as promised this week. It's primarily grey and orange.

[jobob]

veering just a leetle off topic ...

Hey Brandy, I was just looking at your RAAM blog - glad to see you have the crew all set. It should be an amazing experience!

[Brandy]

Thank you! It is such a relief to have that out of the way. It was the most challenging part of the planning for me (of course, I wasn't the money guy...lol) and I reached some serious moments of stress where I wondered if we would be able to pull it together! It's going to be an amazing adventure and the fact that we found 11 other people who were able/willing to join us, well...forever indebted, we will be!

Be sure to keep up with us when we're on the road. I promise, the blog will get much more exciting once pictures are being snapped and the trials and tribulations of the race begin!

[maillotpois]

Jo - I don't think RAAM is at all off topic. The title of this thread is "Long Distance" after all - and I can't imagine anything longer than RAAM!!

Brandy - very cool about the crew being set. I think crewing for something like RAAM is almost as tough an endurance event as riding it. I was intgiued to read that your team is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society sponsor. Very cool! I've been involved with TNT for the LLSA since 1999. Great cause.

I'll be eager to read your blogs and our other RAAM bound friend's as well. At this point, it'll be almost as much fun as the Tour de France. Fewer doping scandals at least.

[snapdragen]

Can I add my friend's RAAM team to the mix? Team2Cure HD

We keep this up we're liable to discover we know just about every team in RAAM.....

[Brandy]

Okay...here's my ESDC report, just copied and pasted from Bike Forums. I'll add that I did see Veronica. I had my eyes peeled for an Amici Veloci jersey all day and I saw it as I was climbing out of lunch. I yelled...did you hear me Veronica???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We got a late start out of Orange County on Friday and sat in horrendous traffic on the 91 and the 15...that totally sucked! We arrived in Bishop just after the check in ended. Luckily while I was searching for ice later that night, Deb was down there cleaning up after the volunteer meeting and offered to check us in. We woke up at 4:00 a.m., got ready (including dragging all of the luggage down to the car because we were staying in Mammoth Saturday night) and went to the start at the front of the hotel.

I kissed George goodbye and waited a few minutes to roll out when there was a break in the pack and was on my way. A few miles into the ride I look to my left and there is jpconrad...then scootcore and vmac and danteb. Nice to see some familiar faces in a sea of riders! I rode with them for awhile, then as the group started spreading out, I put on my iPod and went out on my own. As I was riding I recognized a girl that I had seen at the Breathless and Heartbreak finishes, so I decided to chat her up. We rode together and talked for awhile until I caught up to maddmike, who I rode with for awhile too. The day would go on like this...riding with Michelle and her fiancee Josh, then with Mike, then alone, then all four of us. It was nice to have the company when it was there, but I don't feel that any of us ever felt the obligation to stick together for the whole ride.

At the first rest stop a guy from OC Velo approached me and asked if I was in their club. I said that I had ridden with them before and he asked if I wanted to ride with them. I told him that I usually ride these alone, but thanks...and left. Up the road a bit they caught up to me in a paceline and he opened a gap and told me to hop in. I warned him that I'd probably jump out when the climbing really started, and not to worry or be surprised...I just prefer to climb alone. On Sherwin Grade I started talking to a couple on a tandem, which was probably the smartest thing I could have done. Tandems obviously climb much more slowly than singles and at the pace we were going, this climb was nothing and I felt great for the first 2/3 of it. Mike caught up to me just at the point that they were really slowing down so I took off with him and then enjoyed a great descent.

Before the second stop the couple Michelle and Josh passed me, so I worked to catch up to them again and we rode together into the second stop. There I introduced myself to some Bullshifters since they're manning the RAAM time station in Congress, Az. We left there and again I found myself alternating between riding partners, enjoying whomever I was with at the moment. On the Mammoth Scenic Loop I went ahead of Michelle and Josh on the descent and I see Timmer's SAG vehicle approaching. I remember thinking "oh, there's Timmer again!"...he had already passed and cheered me on several times earlier on the route and I always felt great when I saw him...I definitely felt like there was someone watching out for me out there yesterday. So I'm enjoying the descent when he pulls alongside me and as I mentioned in my previous post...I realize that George is in the car. Since he didn't appear to be sick, I knew he had crashed...yet all he said was that he would talk to me in a few minutes. That was the longest few minutes...not knowing exactly what had happened really sucked. Just before the turn onto the 395, Timmer flagged me down to pull over. On first glance George didn't look that bad and he told me right away that he was okay. He had ice on his knee which was very swollen. Michelle and Josh had rolled up at that point, she was having trouble with her shifting and Timmer fiddled with it a little. George told me to roll with them, so I took off.

From that point forward, my head just wasn't in the game and I was VERY happy to have company for most of the ride. I just couldn't concentrate, wondering how George was doing. It wasn't until after the lunch stop that Timmer flagged me down again, telling me that George was okay, though I wasn't sure I believed him...at the time I was just thinking that George would have said that so I wouldn't get off the bike. He let me know that George had planned to double back on the course to cheer me on, so I had that to look forward to. On the section before the turnoff to Benton, there were horrible cross and headwinds. I got a burst of energy once I turned on the iPod and took off, leaving a group of four or five that I had been riding with. One guy followed and we ended up trading pulls until the turnoff, thankfully! We turned onto 120 and he wanted to wait for his friend, but I just wanted to get going, so I took off. This section was the best...aside from the beautiful climbs during the first part of the ride, this was my favorite. Fast, fast, fast and fun. I was all alone and then the descent was great. Lynn and Eric passed me in his truck and she waved, I always love seeing her face! Up ahead I finally saw Josh and Michelle who I hadn't seen since I slogged out of the lunch stop. I was feeling great physically at this point, so I quickly closed the gap and started riding with them...and then...

F*ck, F*ck, F*ck were the only words Michelle and I could muster during the next section...lol. Some of the rollers were steep and starting to hurt. Oh...and for the second time during the ride, I spit on myself. This time it was a bright yellow Gatorade colored loogie that stuck to my shoe, about a minute before Eric snapped my picture. I had thought about unclipping and trying to shake it off, but figured that I'd fall over since I was climbing...wonder if it will show up in the picture?!?!? :roflmao: Just after the photo spot, Doug Patterson was pulled over with water...what a welcome sight!!! Oh...and ice too...even better!!! I have to give Planet Ultra props for having these extra water/ice stops on their rides. For me at least, they always seem to come just when I need them the most. Back on the bike, there was more cursing the damn rollers, which were really hurting...and then finally...a descent...YAY...and another fast section that we could hammer.

Next thing I knew we were at Sagehen Summit and I look up to see both lightning in the sky and George behind the table! After hugs and reassurance that he really was okay (though he was limping pretty severely at this point) he offered me a soda, some chips and filled my bottles for me. It was so nice to see his smiling face there. We rolled out of this stop in an attempt to beat or get out of this thunderstorm, but no luck. We rode right into it, so in addition to the incredibly jarring expansion joints, we were being pelted by raindrops that felt more like hail. I have no love for expansion joints, let me tell you. There were more rollers before a fun descent (where we were yelled at by a lovely man from Nevada who told us we were being "dangerous" though we were probably descending faster than he should have been driving) and then pulling up to the rest stop...just as George reached us!

At this stop I was pleased to realize that instead of 200 miles, this ride was just over 192...YAY! I just really wanted to be done. The first six or so miles went by quickly and then...motherf*cking wind. Just before it picked up I started feeling great and was thrilled to be almost done. I pulled away from Michelle and Josh and was on my own. As the winds grew stronger I slowed down more and more and more. George was leapfrogging at this point, cheering me on...something I really needed. At a point that I was totally near losing it, he told me that Michelle and Josh weren't far back and to just slow down and conserve some energy, let them catch me and ride with them. I did that and the small draft I caught behind them allowed me to recover enough to keep their pace. We all suffered in this section...Michelle was really hurting. I went to the front to pull, but she's not comfortable drafting yet, so she would fall back, we'd slow for her and then ride together. At some point George pulled alongside and told me that we had 20-something minutes to make sub-14:00. At that point, we all simply wanted to finish, the winds were awful and I was still really struggling. I had told Michelle that we would go in together and claim the same time, whatever that may be...as much as we were all hurting, we had to stick together at that point.

Finally we make it to the junction at the 395, and once we were out of the wind we kicked it into high gear, unsure of the time...but hoping, hoping, hoping we could still make sub-14:00. <~~~see...George was right, we really did care. :roflmao: We haul *** to the hotel, roll up and I ask Sean (wanderingwheel) to hold my bike as I race to the door and Sh*t!!! You can't wear cycling shoes in the hotel...ugh. Deb yells out, "I've got you Brandy" so I yell back "I came in with Michelle...she gets the same time as me!" Deb yells "what's her last name?" :roflmao: Anyway...we all claimed the same time which was...

13:59!!!

George was sitting in there waiting for me and I was just so glad to be done and back with him. He was right, though I made him bring lights for me, I'm happy to say that I didn't need them! So that's it...Triple Crown wrapped up and two weekends in a row I've met my major cycling goals for the year. Now it's on to the final prep week for RAAM!

[Brandy]

Veronica - Jesse will be manning one of the rest stops, and stocking your favorite beverage. I think he said it's at mile 140 (??).

Ooh, I just looked at the web site - the ESDC jersey is beyootiful.

Was that the Sagehern Summit stop? George was there waiting for me and helping out after he crashed.

[jobob]

Excccelent !

[crazycanuck]

Coolio Brandy!

Gee, I wish Western Australia had such nice scenery in the countryside! I'll pass on riding through the mountains though (hill weenie)

I've bookmarked your RAAM site & shall follow as best I can.

Good luck!

C