400 k Rando - May 28, 2011 - Kamloops to Princeton & back

In the Randonneur World, everyone I�ve talked to says the 400 k is one of the toughest. To me that implies the 600 should be easier, but I fail to see how that could be so. As it happened, yes, the 400 was the toughest, but that makes sense considering I�ve only done the 200 and the 300 before.

The ride took place on Saturday, May 28 and provided two start times to accommodate anyone who was planning to do the COBRA Century Ride in Armstrong the next day. Right up until about three quarters of the way through the race, that was our plan, so we woke up at 3 am and opted for the 5 am start at the Gateway Shell in Dallas, east of Kamloops.

We rode up Columbia Street, up Summit Drive and up Highway 5A (the Old Merritt Highway) to Knutsford, the operative word being �UP.� Adding rain and 2 degrees sums up the beginning of the ride. I found myself overwhelmed. It reminded me of having a baby and thinking the phase of never getting any sleep will go on for the rest of your life and thinking, �I can�t keep this up forever.� As we completed the big descent toward Shumway Lake, my hands were so cold I had trouble shifting and braking. My mind said, �I can�t do this for another fifteen hours,� and I started to feel panicky.

Chris talked me down. He told me it wouldn�t last and we�d see how it was in Merritt. Don�t tell him, but he was right. We stopped in Merritt to replenish fuels and fluids and have our route cards signed before heading up the Coquihalla Connector. Chris dropped me a bit on the climb, but I kept him in sight. At the top, we turned off toward Princeton and that section was beautiful. The rain had stopped. The temperature was perfect and the small lakes all along the valley provided stunning views.

At the turnaround in Princeton, we refilled again. So far both transitions had been about 12 minutes each. On the way back toward Merritt, the rain came and went a few times. I learned that the plastic rain jacket keeps the rain out when it�s pouring, but becomes a condensation trap when it stops. Chris started to suffer from a strained gluteus maximus muscle that had started bugging him within a few hours of the start. By this time, he was working hard to stay in contact with my wheel and getting dropped on the uphills, unable to put any pressure on the pedals or stand up for more than four pedal strokes. You know it�s bad when I can drop Chris on the hills. Match him... sure... drop him... never.

When we were almost back to the Coquihalla Connector, we met the last two people still heading for Princeton and had a quick chat. The descent into Merritt was a blast. The rain held off and the temperature was mild. We stopped again to refill our bento boxes and bottles.

Then, we started the character building portion of the ride. Chris was fully into his purgatory by this point and I kept telling him to let me know if I was setting the pace too high, then, he would quietly slide off the back and I�d look back to find him gone. He suggested I go ahead without him. He�d suggested that between Princeton and Merritt, but honestly, I had no desire to leave him on his own. I think it�s like adventure racing. If you have a team plan on the start line, you�d better stick to it throughout the race. If the plan said, if you�re stronger, you should go, then fine, but the plan said, we�ll start together and finish together. So we stuck to the plan. Chris felt bad because he couldn�t help me pull and I felt bad because there wasn�t anything I could do to make him feel better. I tried giving him some of my chocolate covered coffee beans, but that didn�t seem to help him as much as it helped me. At one point, I think he wanted to take them away from me altogether.

After the bug storm along Stump Lake, we were back at the bottom of Kardu Hill, the two kilometres of 11 per cent grade that would take us back to Knutsford and within the city limits. Then, at least it was down 5A, down Summit, down Columbia... into darkness and the last 20-minute push along the highway back to Dallas. This is where I was happy to sit on Chris�s wheel and zombie my way to the finish line.

Overall time: 16:53. Ride time: 15:53. 11,220 vertical feet of climbing. Average Pace: 25.8 km/hr. Food: Chocolate covered coffee beans (the best), Power Bar Harvest, Snickers, Eatmore, Landjaeger sausage, hickory smoked almonds, rice crispie squares, Eload Fly (and a Big Mac at 11 pm that tasted like Heaven). The seat that saved my life: Selle SMP (and clip on aerobars). Heart rate: 50 seconds above BP, 5 hours between BP & BP-20, the rest below -20. Second thoughts: 600 k? Oh, and no Armstrong ride... just couldn�t bring ourselves to get up at 5 am, even though I was hoping to ride the 57 k with Ethan. Funnily enough, Andrew said if I�d shown up, he would have taken the air out of my tires and removed my seat so I couldn�t ride, so it was a good decision to sleep in after all.