Tnr 231

What a crazy ride it’s been. What a crazy ride it was last night. So much happened. Of course there were the friends and the fountain, the riding and the music - all the usual fun.

I peeled off downtown, just to take a break and go fast for a minute, then I lost them. I was in Chinatown, which can be a tricky place to stop and look at the ride tracker.  But I did it anyway at a spot where I felt I had at least two minutes before anybody could approach me physically.  A man walked up out of nowhere.  He was wearing a sea captains hat and introduced himself as Captain Curtis.  He said I matched my bike - we were both elegant and fast-looking.  He asked politely if he could touch my handlebars and I surprised both off us when I said yes.  I did follow it up with a "but don’t mess with me". He agreed, touched the handlebars and moved on.

From there I rode up Broadway, and I do mean up. It's an uphill multi-lane road in the middle of downtown with no bike lanes. About a dozen motorcycles soon engulfed me. We rode together for a dozen blocks and it was tantalizing!  I felt I had joined a new club, a motorcycle club. Then they turned left and I continued on and re-joined my real club.

To the amazement and dismay of the group, we headed to the Burnside skate park, a swarm of us showed up in a place that is clearly not our territory. Several dudes from our group climbed up on a box truck and a lady nearby freaked out yelling at them. Another man without a shirt jumped out from behind a van and pushed over my bike, along with a few others.  Then he continued to rampage through the crowd tossing bikes here and there while I ran ahead of him yelling "Danger! Danger!". I don’t know if it helped.

We finally moved on and right after we left a skateboarder in our group flew off his skateboard, which skated on its own right in between my two wheels as I was moving. I feel lucky not to have fallen.

Soon we were at Ladd's Circle hanging around causing trouble. After a while the group took off heading north and alas I live south and had to work in the morning, so I began to peel off.  But then I saw a friend pull offer and we decided to have a peel off end party on our own and sit together on the bench and look at the moon and talk about old times.  As I was leaving, he asked if we should listen to one more song and I said yes if I can sing it!

I rolled out soon after and was almost creamed by a pizza delivery driver, who cut the corner into his driveway as I was proceeding forward on the road, with my headlight blaring and my useless right of way being disrespected.  I followed him into the pizza place, letting him know he was not getting away with it.  I asked for the boss and told him what happened.  Meanwhile, the driver jerk guy kept saying, "lady, you zipped around the corner" and "lady, I didn't see you" and "lady, you came out of nowhere" and even "lady, did you expect me to slam my brakes on?!".  I made sure he understood I did not zip anywhere, I merely rode my bike in a forward motion and that seeing me is his job as a driver, not to mention a paid driver, and that, yes, I expect him to slam his brakes on instead of hit a human. 

After that lovely exchange, I rode the few remaining miles home expecting another story at every turn but happily finding just quiet and peace. I do love my peripheral urban address. I talked myself into doing one small bonus hill in preparation for the next felony flats hill killerz ride and finally made it home to bed.

Swift Summit 200/100

I was too busy doing urban rides and out partying all summer to train, but since I'd already registered, I showed up to "race" the 100 mile Swift Summit. While the 200-mile-racers started at 5am, us 100-milers got to sleep in and start at 9am. There was a good-sized crowd milling around, checking in and attaching beautifully-crafted race numbers to their bikes, so I circulated to ask riders to share their strategies for the race with me. 

Here are the answers I got:

• Start slow, taper off
• Keep my cadence consistent
• Pedal and finish
• Ride a light bike and just fucking do it 
• Just keep pedaling
• Have fun
• Go from the gun
• Pedaling, more pedaling, followed by more pedaling
• Cry on the hill to focus on emotional pain over physical
• Have fun, fun, fun
• Keep working the legs
• Stretch the hamstrings
• One foot in front of the other
• Finish
• Start
• Hope my tires hold pressure because I had too many beers last night
• Ride my ride
• Ride with piglet (while brandishing tiny pink plush toy)
• Pedal as hard and fast as possible at all times (this one's mine!)

We had gorgeous weather for riding - cool temps and a bit of mist, which is always preferable over hot hot heat. The route was absolutely stunning. The "controls" were perfect - small and stocked with my favorite things: potato chips and PBJs.

The finish line party at Conversion Brewing was a blast. One advantage of choosing to race the shorter distance is more time to hang around, drink beer, listen to live music and watch others finish. Our race director treated us to a recited poem at the start, an anonymous pen pal exchange prior to the event, a can of IPA with the Swift Summit logo and a cap for finishers (top cap for 100 milers, hat for 200 milers).

It took me 8 hours, which I feel pretty good about considering somehow I got to August without riding a century yet this year. I lost 12 minutes to a flat tire and another 15 to getting lost on the way to the finish line. Otherwise it was a perfect day!