Sep 13 - NYC200 ... check

It was a long day, starting at 2:15 a.m. when I got up; 3:30 when I left Reading for Fort Lee NJ at the base of the George Washington Bridge into NYC. I got to Hudson Terrace around 6am, looking for the parking lot that I'd heard about, then saw some cyclists parked in metered spots along the road unloading bicycles. No money was necessary in the meters on Sundays and Holidays ... great ! There's a pedestrian / cyclist path across the bridge at that point, completely rideable (no stairs) so it worked out well. Thank goodness because I crossed the bridge 4 times -- once from the car to the start at the bus terminal at the other side of the bridge, back across the bridge at the beginning of the ride, across at the end of the ride and back again to my car.

The day was shorter than I expected, however. I'd mentally prepared myself for a 12 hour 200k and finished in 9:47. That's a new record for me ... not bad considering that includes slow spots -- bridge, traffic lights, traffic, stops at Controls, checking out the view on Bear Mountain etc. It also includes 8212 feet of climbing. That's the good news. It also included letting myself get dehydrated (heard this story before ?) and 25-30 miles from the end having cramps kind of rotate around my body -- leg, foot, stomach -- I was on the edge and reminded of Geoff's adventure at the end of the Granite Anvil. There was no need to be dehydrated because the Controls were nicely spaced, staffed by volunteers, water available, but only once did I have an empty water bottle, let alone two.

I rode by myself, other than the last 30 miles or so with a guy from Texas tagging along, letting me do the pace setting and navigation. He has a GPS, I think the same one as me, but did not have the route programmed and was finding the cue sheet somewhat confusing. He said that he's used to 200k's where there are 10 turns in TX ... not so here where the cue sheet took about 5 pages. The route covered some of the same territory that I'd seen before, parallel to the Pallisades Parkway where the MS ride went that Aaron, David and Jeffrey had joined me on. To get in that climbing and the extra distance, it went up Bear Mountain and through Harriman Park. It was a very pretty ride and the day was glorious. Naturally I had my rain jacket in my pack just for extra ballast and insurance ... why else ? As usual I could have dropped a few pounds had I not carried along the kitchen sink .... I could have dropped pounds just not carrying that extra, unused, water bottle !

There were 30+ riders, a far cry from the half-dozen who had signed up early and were on the email distribution. Most were from the NJ Randonneurs, a couple from much further eg. me from FL and Mark from TX. As usual I was at the back of the pack coming into the first Control but maintained the same pace most of the day, ending up in the front third or quarter. I wasn't noticeably much faster on the hills, however, I was the only one that I saw with full rack, generator and full lighting. Most just had small seat wedgies for tools and spare tubes, a battery tail-light and small battery headlight -- to be legal for RUSA (Randonneurs USA). There was no bike check, although if you pushed the time limit for the ride you'd be in the dark on reasonably busy roads. When I signed in, Leroy Varga -- the RBA with whom I'd corresponded with via email before the ride -- asked me if I'd ridden brevets before ... hmmm ... yes. He knew that I was from FL and wanted to ensure that I knew the drill.

Since I was so early finishing, that got me onto the Turnpike and back home to Jeffrey's in good time. In fact, I got here before Emma had gone to bed -- a bonus -- and another bonus was that Sara had waited dinner for me. Meat loaf, scalloped potatoes and corn on the cob made a perfect second dinner. The first dinner was a Burger King tendergrill chicken sandwich (no mayo), french fries and huge diet coke with lots of ice from the Vince Lombardi Service Center on the NJ Turnpike.

Traffic was lighter than I expected going south on the Turnpike. Going north was another story, but moving smartly. I'm not sure how long that lasted, however, because I witnessed a high-speed chase going on with two police cars racing up the shoulder chasing a motorcycle that must have been doing 120+ mph weaving in and out of traffic. I saw lots of brake lights lighting up in my rear view mirror ... that's a chase that they should have definitely given up for safety reasons. Hopefully it didn't have a sad ending.

So ... my formal bike riding schedule for the year is over. I have no more brevets on the docket. I'll ride a couple / few Permanents in the next weeks and in November / December, but those are fair weather, adhoc rides. In terms of brevets I did 4x200, 3x300, 3x400, 3x600, 1x1000, 2x1200. Perhaps I overdid it ... but then again most of them were quite convenient in terms of access, the two that kind of stretched things, in my mind, were the 200k out of Ontario NY and this 200k out of NYC, which required additional travel and overnights. I'll have to think about what I want to do next year.

Today ... Sandy's up; I've had breakfast etc.; she's about to have a shower; Jeffrey, Sara and Emma will be up shortly; we're all due out of the house by 8:30. We are overnighting in Lumberton, which is about half-way to NSB ... we'll continue tomorrow and barring any problems, will be home (south) by dinner tomorrow.

Onward ...