LeBow 2009

What a great ride. To be sure, all the LeBow rides I've been on have been great; but this year's was truly exceptional - both as a charity ride and for personal and social reasons.

Let me just get the social reasons out of the way quickly because I'm a bit sick of talking about it but still feel the need. This week saw the third fatal collision between a bicycle and a car in the valley in as many weeks. I'm angry about it beyond words, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. I considered not riding this weekend because of my anger, but I realized on my way to the start of LeBow that that would have been the worst possible decision. A good ride with some friends was exactly what I needed and likely exactly what the Treasure Valley's cycling community needed.

This was to be my first century ride (that's 100 miles for the uninitiated; and a metric century is 100 km - ~62 miles). I've made the LeBow ride my venue for new distance thresholds a couple years in a row now, and this was no exception. For this ride, I tagged along with some friends of mine - Bruce & Ken (the Wiley brothers) and their friends. They're all strong riders but not particularly interested in speed, so they were perfect to force me to pace myself so I wouldn't bonk at mile 50. We did the whole thing at an average of about 15 MPH. And it just occured to me that I didn't do much pulling. I suppose I did some, but our friend John probably did more than his share. Anyway, that easy pace allowed me to keep enough in my tank for my usual butt-busting homeward hammerfest at 20+. Like usual, this wasn't planned, but I suppose as John said of others earlier in the ride, I "could smell the barn." :)

But before I talk about that, I'll review the first 90 miles. They were all special. The ride down Pump Road was exhilarating, and I will have to make that a climb I do a few times in the coming weeks & months. I finally stopped to see Map Rock after three or four rides going right past it! The course was beautiful, most of the roads were acceptable, and all of the rest stops were excellent. Great food for refueling and great people to chat up.

The weather up to my aforementioned solo homeward effort had been near perfect - a few sprinkles got us a bit damp but everything for the most part was dry, the temperature was in the 60s, and the wind was minimal. After breaking away from John though, I found myself in a torrential downpour of rain and wind and hail. And shortly thereafter I saw a gold Pontiac Aztec driving out of the maelstrom. I saw that and thought, "Oh I know who that is!" Sure enough, a hand came off the steering wheel & pointed at me. Yep - Mike again coming out to check on me. :) And this time his son Gatlin was with him. They teamed up to take some interesting pictures including the ones shown here. The first is in the heart of the storm - it doesn't capture the wildness, but you can see I'm soaked. The second is my favorite - a couple miles after the first, charging up the hill on Midway Rd from Roosevelt to Lake Lowell Ave.

Thanks to so many people for helping me on my first century: Ken & Bruce for letting me tag along with them, everyone at TRHS for organizing the ride, all the volunteers, Rhiannon for holding it all together, and of course Mike and Gat for (again) cheering me on and taking pictures. And speaking of Mike & Gat, they kicked some butt on the 35-miler - both have made marked progress in just a few weeks. Great job, guys.