My first 50 mile ride, Complete. Ride the Coast..

My goal was to complete a 50-mile ride by the end of 2015.  With a little help and encouragement from my fellow riders I decided on the “Bike the Coast” ride, which ran from Oceanside down past Del Mar and back.   Looked like a great route for me, the max elevation change was listed as 217 feet which would be great for me knowing how lousy I am at hill climbing.    I drove down the night before and bunked with some friends (Thanks again Erni and Hiro!) as we had an early start.   That night we went to McDonalds and bought a bunch of Sausage McMuffin’s and Egg McMuffins that we could warm in the microwave as we would be on our way before we could get breakfast elsewhere…

Four of us left the hotel at 6AM (Erni, Hiro, Jackie and I) before the sun even came up, and met up with James at the starting area.   Knowing it was going to be HOT out there, they started launching the 50-mile riders about 20 minutes early.    The early part of the ride was uneventful, and we were pushing the pace a bit.   At the eight mile mark it happened again… I got another leg cramp!   I stretched it out a bit and was able to make it to the first of three SAG stations.  These areas were crucial to us, especially with the heat already rising.   The organizers of the ride did a FANTASTIC job with them, plenty of water and electrolyte drink, oranges, bananas, snacks…  I refilled my bottles, ate a banana and a few pretzels to gain salt.   Jackie gave me a couple of pills called “Sport Legs”, and they seem to take care of my cramping problem for the rest of the ride.   Thanks Jackie, you saved my ride!!

When we took off again we were told constantly that the police were out in force, and to be careful to stop at ALL stop signs.    Despite the warnings we saw several of our fellow cyclist receiving tickets.  I’ve seen countless times where cyclists will just blow through stop signs, thankfully my club doesn’t ride that way!

The outbound route had us riding along the coast most of the way.  Was very scenic and I wish I had stopped to take a picture or two.   I had never ridden this course before and was really enjoying it, even though the temperature was rising.  The Santa Ana winds were from the east, no relief from the ocean next to us as would be the norm.    At one point I looked over and saw the Del Mar racetrack, seen it a thousand times from the freeway but this was the first time I saw it from the other side and it looked so majestic.   It was also a sign that we would be leaving the coastline and turning inland soon.  When we did there wasn’t much to look at, just a bumpy path that lead inland.   Finally we hit the main road, and SAG #2 was in sight.   We were supposed to go up another .8 miles and turn around before stopping, but James blew a tire literally across the street from the SAG (which just happened to be a Performance Bike store), so we stopped there first.  Just like the first one this was fully loaded, so we relaxed a bit as James’ tire was fixed.    Then it was on our way again.  As we hit the turn-around we saw a rider down, with a crowd of folks attending to him.  Our assumption was that it was heat related, it was over 90 and wasn’t even 10am yet.   It was sign that the return trip wasn’t going to be as easy at the outbound…

THE WAY BACK: DEATH BY 100 HILLS…
Remember when I said the elevation change for the ride was listed at 200-something feet?   They lied.  About a mile in we were looking up a really nice, long hill.   This was a hill that would do Palos Verdes proud!   I had to walk up the last 1/3 of it.  Turns out there were many more to follow, just not as long or steep as this one.   One by one we got through them, sometimes the rest of the pack would pull over and wait for us slower riders.    Know the best part of going uphill – yup, going DOWN hill on the other side.   Twice my Garmin had me going over 30mph, something I rarely do because one little bump at that speed and you are in trouble.    Slower speeds too, I’ll describe that later.    We were riding along Via de la Valle and passing Del Mar Racetrack on the left, when we saw the ocean again, and rejoined our outbound path along the ocean.  A few miles later we were back at SAG #1, only 14 miles to go!

SURVIVING MY FIRST CRASH:
We were on an uneventful stretch.  Three riders were about 300 yards ahead of Erni and I as we were cruising at about 17mph along a nice straightaway.   Then all of a sudden my front wheel hit a section of uneven pavement, I yelled out something and in the blink of an eye my bike and I were sliding along the pavement.   As I went down I saw my front tire clip Erni’s front tire, and she went down too!  A few seconds later I came to my senses and heard Erni asking if I was ok.   Thankfully she was no worse for the wear, although she had a cut on her knee and the palms of her cycling gloves where torn.    

Commander Riker once said “Fate protects fools, little children and ships named Enterprise”.   Well, if that is true you can call my bike “Enterprise” because a crash at that speed should have left me with some serious hurts.  I started taking inventory: feet, and ankles ok, knees… one sore and bleeding.   Worked my way up and everything was good.   I know my helmet hit the ground, but there wasn’t even a scratch on it!   Only issue was knee, not even a scratch on my jersey, shoulder or elbow!   All I had was a 3-inch wide area on the outside of my shin that was scraped up pretty good and a big cut under my kneecap.    Erni called Hiro to let him know what happened and they circled back.   By the time they got to us Erni and I were already back on the bikes and had resumed the ride.   At the next stoplight Jackie gave me some wipes to clean up a bit with – thankfully it looked a lot worse than it felt.   We caught up to James a while later, he had stopped with cramps in both legs.   We only had 3 miles left, so we gave him some liquids and the rest of the Sport Legs pills that Jackie gave me earlier, and were soon on our way.   Not long after we crossed the finish line together.   The doctor at the first aid center had me cleaned up in no time.  :)

TOTAL STATS:
52.2 miles in 4:20
Average speed: 12.0 mph
Elevation change: 1,745 feet  (their estimate of 200-something was just a bit off, eh?)|

THE NEXT DAY…
I was up early the next morning as always.   But there was a problem… I couldn’t put much weight on my left leg right away, the knee I scraped up was really hurting and it wasn’t because of the bandages.   Eventually I got going an after a couple of steps it loosened up a little but was still sore.   It is like that every time I get up from a sitting or standing position…

Right now it looks like it is just sprained, I’ll be on crutches for a few days to give it a chance to rest and heel.  If needed we’ll re-evaluate after that, but thankfully it doesn’t look like anything serious..

Would I do it again: You bet; it is already on my calendar for November 2016!   And I’ll be keeping an eye out for that little pavement bump on mile 44…