Another 115

October 3, 2009. San Francisco to Point Reyes and back. This is what we looked like at the end of that ride.

This is what we looked like at the end of this ride.

This is what we looked like while we were riding.

There were hills. We rode up them. There was heat. We drank water. There were trees. We appreciated them. When beer:30 caught up with us in Fairfax, we answered the call. This is what we looked like.

I wonder if they have a Cucuy dark.

Beer needs appropriate music. Good thing there is always a jukebox when you need one.

The latest in ride fashion is Flashdance style. What a feelin', keep believin'...

Some of us had better hair than others. I think he goes to a special barber who makes sure the wind always hits him at exactly the correct angle.

Thus endeth the ride report. Ride on!

Make that 75 miles...

Pandastiques

If you told me last year that I'd be finishing this year a 75 mile ride, I would think you were talking about a bus trip to Santa Cruz to camp out with my trippy hippy brother. I could ride 75 minutes, sure. As long as we stop about 5 times for coffee.

Okay, so to be honest we had plan "A", not even "B" because we had painted a pretty easy-breeze image, that after stopping in that diner (both Adrienne & I are familiar with, across the street from Cowgirl Creamery) we would 'drop out' and go home. Well that didn't happened.

Honestly, when I looked at the map, you know I was mapping my coffee spots.
Good coffee in Marin is not a problem, the issue was not wanting to go to every single one of them...
Anyhow, the morning started slow. Very slow for me. Perhaps it was because, I admit it, it was the first time I ever felt like not-riding the Frenchie...
The Wednesday before the Randonneur ride, my smurfette, Torpado road bike, encountered a somewhat unexpected accident :(

one torpado down

Anyhow, when I came to realize that I was to ride my beloved mixte that has survived the Marin headlands, and the San Francisco 7hills, I said - what the hell. Let's do this.
And Somehow we were on the other side of the bridge. I was still trying to get my caffeinated blood going. Seriously.

Good morning sunshines.

"meli you sure you had enough coffee?" James is always on top of things.

I was very impressed our first major break stop was in Point Reyes, not counting the multiple quick ones along the road. Adrienne with her crazy multiple former injuries seriously rocked the hills, she walked some of them and that is cool. We were not in a race. We rode to have fun and we sure did. I am all for walking them up, but really I probably am more efficient going turtle speed on the bicycle, than walking up a hill.

Okay, this is the Pt.Reyes rest stop. I was happy to get my coffee at Bovine Bakery. I love that place.

My language is spoken here.

moooooo.

I HAD to get coffee. Stretching that ex-jock knee of mine felt good.

Midway Coffee.

And as you can see, we ride hard, we chill out hard.

The tree is not only for yoga poses.

After having some naked juice, pizza, caprese salad and coffee, we stopped at Cowgirl Creamery. They have Mr. espresso beans, so I got an Americano for the road ;)

Preparing espresso for me.

I am not your stereotypical caffeinated hyper friend. I guess you would have to be around me to believe I do drink that much coffee. I don't realize, as it really is second nature to me. I am a rather mellow person that is not 'jittery' or talks a gazillion words per minute, like some might think I do. I am a complete monster if I don't have my coffee by 7am. Luckily very, very few have experimented that. At any rate.

Here we are approaching the Nicasio Reservoir. Beautiful. And intense. Wind was starting to kick in.

behind me.

Ade kicking butt.
Reservoir. Just beautiful.

Somehow I felt my ankle had been hit by a nail. It was a bee doing pirouettes spot on my ankle. Had I been on my road bike, I would have probably gone down. However, the frenchie and I, have this bond. Something about old bikes, I could do some crazy maneuvers, juggle, and still ride, that is how comfortable I feel on it. So goes my right hand down and SWAT - the bee went.
I hadn't been stung since pre-school which I don't recall. I am pretty sure the bee experienced an overdose of caffeinated blood exposure.

Today is Tuesday and the bee sting only hurt on Sunday for a little bit. So not bad at all.

Over the bridge.
Adrienne takin pictures and the guys. That seem to be a popular stop ;)

A few minutes before this, there was this beautiful downhill. A visual milestone.
James and Sean made it look so painless and easy!

Happy trees.

I think we (Ade and I) were pretty swept by one of the hills we encountered before dropping back down to Forest Knolls. Good thing that road was pretty shady and there was no sign of gutsy winds, just yet.

By the time we got back to Fairfax we were pretty tired, in a good way. My butt was not hurting and I had already surpassed the amount of miles I had ever ridden in one day on the frenchie. I tend to say that saddle has had it, but it does a great job of proving me wrong.
And yes, I did get one last (single) shot Americano for the road. Sharing is caring, you never know if your friends will need some coffee too later down the road!!! :D

Fairfax love machine.

These below, are images of the home stretch. The group we were with was great, and this will be an experience that will linger in my memories as a first. I will never look at those roads the same way, even if later in life they become easier to ride. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I am fortunate to have hooked up with my peeps. I have also gone riding with the woolly cool guys (retro ride) and Eric, who started as our flickr friend, and has become one of our favorite ragazzi.
Good humor, good energy and even a new riding buddy (Sean!) thanks guys for sticking around with us the photohog, coffee lovers, first timers, Adrienne and I.
And to the Randonneur guys, thanks for emailing us for a follow up, we heard from phone calls you were checking on our group and glad you heard we made it!!!!!

HELLSYES /xo♥m

East Larkspur/Millvalley see it large

Panda y Eric

Panda y Ade y James

Trooper machines.

bike. walk. ride. we made it.

Don't ask me why or how I found some energies out of me to go out on a city ride on Sunday. Surprisingly I wasn't sored, my arms didnt hurt and my legs didn't feel like spaghetti. The frenchie rocks and my peeps kept me going - love you all ♥!!!

The Long And Winding Road

I am a city cyclist. I ride an upright, city bike. I wear city clothes.

Me in my normal habitat.

City streets are my paths and I share them with city drivers. Recreational riding is not a part of my regular life and until this week, I have not, since college, owned a bike you could easily put on a car rack. My usual ride? Café to grocery shopping to preschool to dry cleaner.... So when my husband told me about the San Francisco Randonneurs' Fall Populaire ride, I was initially disinterested. Riding all day just to see how far I can go does not appeal to my taste, nor does riding for 24 hours in a row! When he said it was a shorter ride than they usually do, just 71 miles, and not going over Mt. Tam, I found myself listening. There were enough parts and a great Raleigh frame in the garage to make me a sturdy touring bike for the ride and James and I are always looking for things to do together.

In three days, Hubbie the Bike Man put together a touring bike for me with an early 80's Raleigh Pursuit steel frame as its base (and may I say, it ROCKS!).

The Hasselhoff knows where to wait.

The fact that I was going to be riding on drops was a bit frightening for me. I have many physical injuries that make riding problematic- Spinal injuries (at C3 & 7, T4, L4-5), partial paralysis in both my arms, damaged sternocostal joints, recent wrist surgery and 4 surgeries on my right knee that have left my right quads visibly smaller and weaker than my left. It has taken years to regain the strength and co-ordination necessary to ride on the level that I do everyday, and the key has been riding upright, not on drops. Amazingly, by the end of the ride, my only pain was in my neck and I know that at least half of that was caused by my helmet. I was so surprised.

The day of the ride came (the key to getting me to do it? Don't give me time to think about it too much) and James and I met up with Meli and our friends Eric and Sean at the Golden Gate Bridge with the rest of the brevet riders (it was the last time we saw them : )

Instructions. Way too early for instructions.

Our first challenge was getting to the top of the hill just north of Fairfax. When I drive up that mountain, I always look at the cyclists puffing up to the top and find myself greatfull that I am not one of them. Not today! The guys all scooted up to the top. Meli and me? We were less speedy, and I know for certain that I was less graceful! There were several stops made on the way up, but we didn't have to push (a claim I can not make on other hills) and Eric had grapes waiting for us at the top.

Top o' the hill (#1)

We took the Cross Marin Trail through Samuel P. Taylor park. 3 road touring bikes and a 40 year old mixte on gravel- no wipeouts, no flats!

Cross Marin conversations.

We glided into Point Reyes around 1:30 PM and fell to finding lunch immediately. I'll let Meli tell you where she headed first (although you can probably guess : ). A little food and a few minutes out of the saddle and we were all good to go (after a bathroom stop).

We are a happy crew!

From Point Reyes we headed toward Nicasio to ride around the reservoir (there is still water in it!). Yet another climb, but this was right after lunch so we were good. I was talking to Eric as we rode along, and didn't notice we had lost Meli. I decided to stop and wait for her because I did not see her behind us, which meant she was pretty far back. When she caught up a few minutes later it turned out she had been stung by a bee!

Meli gets stung and I take pictures!

The bike gods must love us because this was our only disaster of the day. No flats, no injuries, no bad moods- just a great ride! The ride back toward San Francisco was challenging because we were getting tired and we were way behind the rest of the riders. By the time we hit the Golden Gate Bridge, the wind was literally howling through the girders and all of us got thrown off our bikes or completely stopped in our tracks by the wind coming around the towers!!

OMG! Windy!

We did not make a single check point on time and arrived back in San Francisco 3 hours after everyone else! We were the definition of DFL!! We could not have been more pleased!

Team DFL? Team Caboose? We need a name!

We may be slow, we may come in last, we may be the "lanterne rouge" but we ROCK! I have always thought that a ride that long was beyond me, that I could never make the hills. Bicycling has shown me two things- I am way stronger, physically, than I knew and that the best people out there are on bicycles! Because of this, I was smiling at the beginning,

8:30 AM & I am wearing a helmet!

and I was still smiling 74 miles and 10 hours later!

6:30 PM Still smiling, still wearing the damn helmet : )

Don't think you could do this? Try! You have nothing to lose! Meli's version of the ride coming soon!