Blue Water Ramble
Truths: Water is blue. Chamois cream is made by the hand of God. A ramble of 60+ miles is hard. Chili dogs are delicious.
Falses: Being passed by a giant camper at 50+ mph is enjoyable. A 11% grade is easy to climb. Michigan is ugly.
The Blue Water Ramble is a tour consisting of 4 routes: 30, 45, 55, 65, and 100 miles. Today Tom and I rode the 65 mile route. In reality, it was roughly 63 miles, but those two extra miles really don’t matter. They really don’t. Really.
We originally intended on doing the century. That was the goal since day one of 2008. My back injury stamped a big ‘ol “NO EFFING WAY” status on that idea. We decided the week of the registration deadline to pair down to 65 miles, which was very, very wise.
We started from St. Clair High School in (ooh, guess!!)… St. Clair, Michigan! The parking lot was abuzz with riders when I pulled in at 7:30 this morning. I went and registered and got to stretching. I wanted to stretch really well. My back’s healed but still gets sore, and it was pretty sore yesterday. I layed out my yoga mat behind my car and rolled around for 15 minutes until Tom got there.
After a quick bathroom break and Super Tom breaking and replacing his glasses, we were off. It was cold, but not uncomfortably so. We rolled through St. Clair toward Riverside Avenue. As the name suggests, Riverside runs along the river for a number of miles. This made for a very pleasant ride up toward Port Huron. We almost got lost after missing a turn, but luckily the guy drafting off us gave a holler and brought us back on track. I blame Tom, he was leading… and drunk.
Back on track, we rolled into Port Huron. We made a quick stop to put down some gels. I realized I probably should have brought more nutrition with me, but whatevs, too late now. We meandered through the city of Port Huron, making only one wrong turn. We quickly got back on the route and kept moving.
One of the highlights of the ride for me was riding under the bridge to Canada spanning from Port Huron to Sarnia. It’s a large bridge, very impressive to ride under. We were out in the sun which was far warmer than in the shade, and the weather was perfect. It made for a very enjoyable moment.
We made our way through Port Huron and into the first rest stop. We refueled quickly with bagels and coffee cake and joked about each other’s mothers (which occupies of 60% of our cognitive discussions). While Parking my BMC, I scratched the frame on a utility meter. This chaps my ass more than the results of Indian food. It’s bound to happen sooner or later. My tears have dried.
The next stretch was the most eventful of the ride. We rolled through some BEAUTIFUL areas of the state. The colors are starting to get interesting. Weaving our way through some back roads, we came out onto a two lane highway with a strong headwind. Our progress ground to a near stand still, grinding through the wind at 13 mph. We came up on a guy just boxing the wind like a prize fighter. We passed and I said, “feel free to hop on if you want a pull.” The three of us ended up pacing for the majority of the ride. His name is Rick from Troy. Thanks Rick from Troy!
We thought the next rest stop would be around mile 44. When we got to mile 48, I started to bonk pretty bad. I was holding out on my last gel for the last leg of the tour. I put down the gel and limped the remaining two miles to the rest stop. I must have eaten a dozen cookies at that stop. I was just completely out of energy. We sat for a bit and rested, stretched, wee’d, etc.
The final 15 miles were rough. We were both getting very tired and sore. We kept a pace of about 16 mph, rolling into the lunch area about 4.5 hours after we started. We slammed some chili dogs and cookies and sat in the sun, dreading the short ride back to the car. On the way back, Tom attacked the last hill (read: he TORE THE LID OFF THAT HILL GET OUT YOUR FUCKING CHECKBOOK). He attacked the hill because he’s stupid and wants to feel pain.
I feel great about riding 63 miles today. With the season slowing down I’m able to see the hard work I’ve put into riding come to the surface. I’m getting tired, and I’ve lost some ground with the back injury, but I feel motivated to push myself further next year. These events are tough, and they’re great training for the endurance events I want to focus on next year.