M: 152.1
T: 9:30 (on the button)
TT: 15:15 (approximately)
AV: 16.01
E: 4,701' (of mostly rollers)
RUSA Permanent #84 - South Hood Canal; with Mark Thomas, Jon Muellner and Steve Davis. Total Time for the official distance of 133.5 miles was 9:56 for Mark and I, the other guys were about 20 minutes or so behind us. Rode to the start and back home, even though Mark offered me a ride home in a nice warm car and the offer was mighty tempting.
This ride started with a 4:15 alarm, followed by almost burning the house down (trying to see if I could duplicate Pansy's stupid kitchen tricks)by turning the wrong burner on. After a nice breakfast of oatmeal, loaded Katrina and out the door at about 05:20 for a sprint to the ferry. Mark met me and we met the other two at Starbucks on the Bremerton side and took off at 07:30, riding out of Bremerton, picking up the Old Belfair Hiway then thru Union, Potlatch and stopping for coffee and pastries at Hoodsport Coffee Company (a must stop if you go).
Mark told me they had really good ice cream, but I had to earn it first, which meant riding the rolling hills to Brinnon and back. GREAT IMPROVEMNTS on this stretch as DOT has just laid new asphalt and widened the shoulders a little bit. Quick stop in Brinnon to refill water bottles, have a quick fueling up and I noticed we were at 66.6 miles (the exact distance, I noted, of Pansy's "big" ride the other day - and we were only halfway there). It had started to rain by this time, and we were getting pretty well drenched, but at least it was warm. Mark and I started to really pull away from Steve and Jon and arrived back in Hoodsport about 15 minutes ahead of them, me being strongly motivated by Mark mentioning how good a warmed up apple danish topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream would be right about now - 10 miles out - my pace increased by a good 2 mph!!! Gotta say, it was scrumptious, along with the mocha. The rain let up for a little bit, but continued off and on into Belair again, and then as we were climbing the last hill by Gorst, it really started to pour, and what a lovely deluge. I'd kept telling Mark I thought the sky was starting to blue up a bit and he called me delusional. By the time we hit Hwy 16 coming into Bremerton, we were nearly drowned. I got a great second wind and was hitting 24 - 26 mph coming down the stretch, til I realized I was dropping my partner, and slowed down. Turning the corner onto Burwell, we just had that one last hill - 10% for about 3 blocks, then a coast to the finish.
After coffee and a donut, the other guys showed up and we stopped for sausages and fries, then hit the 6:40 ferry, arriving back in Seattle right at 7:45 and home by 8:35. A fantastic day playing in the rain with the guys.
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