Just saw this thread today. (Haven't been on the forums much lately. Super busy here at TE!). As some of you, I caught the rando bug a few years ago, and I've got it bad. ;-) I love nothing more than heading out on my bike and riding myself silly. I love the challenge of the long rides, and sometimes marvel at the distances I manage to ride without falling over!

Jaclyn, I finished PBP in 2011, but Mortagne au Perche (the 2nd to last control, where you DNF'd) was my lowest of low points. (My brief summary of the ride is here: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...t=44397&page=7 scroll partway down the page, which is page 7 of a longer thread.) Keep 2015 in your sights!

It's good for me to go back and read that write-up now. I need to really internalize all the things that I struggled with back in 2011. I've decided to ride London-Edinburgh-London in July, which is a 1418km randonnee. 200km longer than PBP! But with another 26 hours in which to do it. I'm hoping to get a little more sleep than I did at PBP (which was ~10.5 hours worth) and to finish the ride not feeling quite as thrashed. I'll be riding with a good friend from Eugene. She and I are very compatibly paced and have ridden both 400K and 600K together, so we know we are great ride-mates.

I'd encourage pretty much anyone to give rando a try. As has been mentioned here, the rides start at 100K (62.5 miles.) 200K is a great challenge to train for if you've ridden a few centuries and felt pretty good about it. And maybe you're looking for a new challenge. If you've ever given riding a double century a thought, then a 300K (187 mile) is definitely something you could also consider.

Rando doesn't really get badass scary until the 400K distance. That's 249 miles, which is a helluva long way to cover on a bike in one go. I personally find it to be the hardest distance. You're guaranteed to ride many hours in the dark, and if you're amongst the slower in the bunch, you have a good likelihood of seeing not one but two sunrises. This has happened to me once, when it took me over 5 hours to complete a 400K up in Washington. Wow, that was a loooong nite. Distances over 400K are, for 99% of randos, multi-leg events. The typical 600K has an "overnight" stop somewhere around 350k, where most randos have enough time to catch a few hours sleep before continuing on. I've done 4 600s, and I like that distance. Hard enough to be challenging, but not so long that it seems insurmountable. Anything over 600K is a major, 3-4 day affair. Some people knock 'em out like they are nothing, but for me they are a Really Big Deal requiring months of planning.

If anyone is local to Portland, and is interested in learning more about rando, or want to try a 200K and needs some company, let me know. I ride lots of 200s and know most of the Oregon routes pretty well. I *really* want to encourage more women to give rando a try. I think women are well suited to endurance events. (we're more patient than men, and are less likely to feel like we need to jackrabbit out of the gate to keep up, meaning we don't burn ourselves out too early in a ride.) I'd love to ride with some more women! There are only a few female randos in Oregon.

I rode a lovely 200K yesterday with one of my rando buddies. I put up a few pictures here. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...5691132&type=3

Susan