Bikes, Trains and Automobiles

With three more weeks left to AIDS/LifeCycle, Sam and I headed down to Orange County for one of our last training rides.  Team OC, the local riding group, was hosting their annual special ride: the Solana Beach Ride.  The plan was to ride from Irvine down to Solana Beach and then take the Amtrak train back to Irvine.  Sounds like fun!  However, being that we live in Los Angeles, we had to leave the house at 5 am – that’s right, 5 am!!! – in order to get toIrvineby 6 am.  That’s so freaking early!!!

The organizers had prepared two route options for riders to select.  One was a 75-mile ride and the other was a 91-mile ride that included some extra hills and climbing.  We decided to go with the “shorter” 75-mile option since I really wanted to take it easy on my right knee given the problem it’s been having.  Besides, we had already done other longer rides and plenty of hills and climbing, so we were fine with the shorter option.  The organizers also gave riders the option to start anytime between 6:30 am to 7:30 am.  Since all riders must arrive at Solana Beach by 3 pm sharp, slower riders were encouraged to start earlier in order to finish the ride on time.  We opted for the earliest start time at 6:30 am.

Most riders that took off at 6:30 am chose the longer option, so there were only a few of us doing the 75-mile route at that time.  Fortunately, we met a new friend, Mark, who knew the route pretty well since he lives in Orange County.  It was great to ride with someone more familiar with the lay of the land.  It turned out he knew of Sam from his training blog.  Sam’s famous.  Hee hee!

Right off the start, we hit some pretty unwelcomed rolling hills.  And here I thought the shorter route was pretty flat.  Oops!  The rolling hills and climbs didn’t help my knee, which was already starting to hurt earlier on in the day.  I had visited I.Martin earlier in the week and Jaime, the awesome store manager, got me a new and more comfortable seat (i.e. more padding).  But the seat needed to be pushed back a little bit for more comfortable riding, so that didn’t help my knee.  This was on top of the knee problem I’ve been having (which my doctor later said was probably due to an injury to the meniscus).  So I was having a pretty rough ride.

We were the first group of riders to roll into the first couple of pit stops, which was very odd.  We’ve never ever been in the front of the pack, so this was very unusual for us.  We didn’t see the pit crew (with snacks and water for riders) until the third pit stop at San Onofre State Beach.  It was also at the third pit stop that we met the first 91-mile rider.  We had been riding for about 4 hours and we were at about 42 miles.  This 91-mile rider took off that morning at 7:30 am, so he had only been riding for 3 hours and was already at 58 miles.  When I found that out, I felt so slow.  I mean, seriously, he was riding at an average of 20 miles per hour.  WOW!!!  But he was not alone.  A few more 91-mile riders passed us soon after that.  These were some intense elite riders, for sure.

After the third pit stop, we rode into Camp Pendleton, which is the major base for the U.S. Marine Corps on the West Coast.  I found out that they don’t always allow outside commuters in, but we were allowed entry on this particular day.  This stretch was about 7 miles long and it ended up being the windiest part of the day.  It was nothing like the wind we faced going toSanta Barbara, but it was still windy nonetheless.  I was looking forward to riding through Camp Pendleton, but I hated this stretch because of the wind.  Also, it was a little boring since there were no recruits out and about doing training exercises.

The last 6 miles was really boring too.  And I was really tired by then, so I was riding even slower, especially on an injured knee.  We eventually got in at 2 pm and I was so happy to be done.  Total miles ridden were 75.31.  We realized that at our pace, there was no way we could have done the 91-mile option and be finished by 3 pm.  I’m glad we chose the shorter option.  The finish point was at Pizza Port, which is apparently a very popular pizza joint in town.  The organizers had pre-ordered our pizzas ahead of time, so our pizzas were ready for us when we arrived.  It was a good thing too, since I was really hungry.  After pizza, we walked across the street to the Solana Beach station and took an Amtrak train back to Irvine.  The train ride was about an hour long and was pretty fun.  It was a double-decker and we sat on the top level.  The organizers had rented a truck to transport all our bikes back toIrvine, so they were already waiting for us when we got back to theIrvinestation.  But we were not done yet.  We still had to sit in traffic on Interstate 5 for another hour before getting back home to Los Angeles.  It was a really long day!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Anonymous; Cathy D.; Clara C.; Edward L.; Kalika Y.; Rebecca Y.; and William T.