ConstantRider

Nice write-up, Princess Zippy, and that's a great pic of the bridge. That's actually kind of how all the hills felt to me from Tomales to Marshall, and then Nicasio to the Bridge -- every climb seemed much steeper than it actually was!

I was feeling pretty good until after Valley Ford. The last roller before you hit Tomales really took it out of me and I should have stopped there for a minute or two of rest and some gels, but instead I pressed on, knowing that the next control -- aka the Marshall Store -- was only eight miles away and that none of the rollers between it and where I was were particularly long. It was a bad decision; I got very bonky on some of those rollers, and was going like 3MPH and barely able to keep my bike upright. When I got to the Store, I was feeling wobbly as I waited in line to place my order.

Half a sandwich, a Coke, and some gels later, I felt much better, and set off for the last 45 miles with three riders that I had been riding with for much of the day. Unfortunately, my renewed energy only lasted to Nicasio. There were still 25 miles and 4 climbs left. They were short ones, but any vertical rise at that point felt like a wall to me.

Anything that required more than minimal effort was making me feel nauseous, and that in turn affected my ability to keep eating and drinking. The only food that was easily accessible were some Odwalla bars that were in my top tube bag, and I was just not that enthusiastic about them anymore. I had gels in my backpack but I didn't want to stop to dig them out because I knew we had a chance to break the 12-hour mark and didn't want to slow the others down.

At the beginning of the Sausalito bike path, though, I decided I had to stop or I wouldn't be able to make the last climb. I told the others to go on ahead, but they stayed and waited. As I was digging into my pack -- my motor skills not very good at this point -- Levi Leipheimer apparently rode past us with some other racer types. I didn't even notice him.

I actually had hoped the other guys would leave me behind when I suggested they do that, because then I could just finish at a nice leisurely semi-comatose pace instead of not trying to slow them down too much. They stayed, though, so I tried to keep up as much possible. By the time we rolled into the final checkpoint at the Bridge, I was really spent, as I'm sure Joanne, who was there checking people in, can attest. Basically, I sat on a bench and shivered for about ten minutes, then, after drinking a couple bottles of water and eating the other half of my sandwich from the Marshall Store, I felt a lot better. Eventually, I finally felt good enough to bike the last four miles from the bridge to my apartment.

Our finishing time was 12:04 -- not as cool as it would have been to break 12 hours, but still faster than I was hoping for. And if the Marshall Store hadn't been so busy with tourists, we would've broken the 12-hour mark even with me slowing things down at the end. So, ultimately, I'm blaming our final time on the deliciousness of the Marshall Store's clam chowder, rather than my collapse.

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed about 150 miles of the ride, and only 35 or so were really awful. That's about the exact opposite of last year's ride, when with it raining almost the entire time, 35 miles were fun and the rest were pure misery...

Thanks again, Joanne and Lee, for volunteering!

Also, Princess Zippy, what's your website address? Doesn't seem to be a link in the post.