The ride started out great, went sour when the sun came out, and managed to end on an up note. The good news is that I finished the ride with about 5 hours to spare.

Last year, I got to the start line of the Palomar 300k about 15 minutes before the ride started, thinking that I'd have enough time. Who knew that it would take me 30 minutes to get ready? And last year, we just bought a new car, and I was about 5 miles into the ride before I realized I hadn't locked it. So this year, I made sure I showed up with plenty of time to get ready and a mental note to lock the car.

The ride started out nice enough. I decided not to start out fast, and just warm up. In the 200K, I rode 10 miles to the start and was able to start the 200K at a fairly good tempo. So for this ride I decided to sort of soft pedal it to Fashion Valley and not burn myself up before the road turned upward. It was about as cold as I though it was going to be, but the fog was thicker than I liked. It's a slow soaking process. Because I live near the coast, in the days before the ride I would go outside in the morning and evening to see what the weather/temperature was like, and the night before, I could walk around outside in just a t-shirt, so I packed a thermal vest, some arm warmers, but no knee warmers and no base layer. I would pay for that choice for about the last 8 hours of the ride.

We were climbing out of Santee to Alpine when the fog broke and I took off the vest and arm warmers. At first, it felt nice, up until we got to the first check point. From there, the climb up to Mt Laguna was horrible. For the first 8 miles or so, there's no shade and only a little wind. My bike frame is big enough to have three cages on it, and I filled two 24 oz bottles of water and one 20oz bottle of sustained energy. This was all for a 10 mile climb to Mt Laguna market. One of my big bottles was dedicated to pouring on my head, quads and arms. It was so hot that my SE got warm fast, which makes it horrible to drink. So, by mile 79, we had gone from sea level to 6000ft of elevation.

When we were at the market in Mt Laguna, I was stretching and stood up too fast, whereupon I got lightheaded and started to wobble. I remembered the Eastern Sierra last year, and how that was at elevation and in the heat, and how much I did not like that ride. And here I was at elevation and in the heat with 170 miles left to ride. That's when it started to get a little depressing for me.

We left the market and headed to Julian. Normally, when I ride to Julian, I head back to San Diego via Lake Cuyamaca, and have never ridden from the lake to Julian. It was an interesting difference getting into Julian from that direction. I had hoped to get to Julian by 3:00 and got there at 2:50 or so. I was really starting to get tired of and from the heat, so I bought 3 liters of water, sat down in the patio and started dribbling it over my head, face, arms, quads, hands, knees, and so on.

I left Julian fairly refreshed, made it down to Santa Ysabel, and realized there was 38 mile leg and then a 16 mile leg coming up, and I had no idea if there was any water along the way. I stopped in Santa Ysabel market, and topped off all my bottles and put two 16 oz bottles in my jersey pockets. The road was nice enough out of Santa Ysabel, but after you pass the junction to 78 it's just bleak lunar landscape to Warner Springs 15 miles away. It was so hot that I used a lot of my water by Warner Springs and filled up again. I also did somehting I don't normally do and I got a Red Bull. It never tasted so good.

Right after turning north on Sage Road, the sun started to go down. I put my arm warmers on, and I was comfortable for about 10 minutes, then all the heat left the area and it got very cold. Right about this time, one of my 2 headlights went out. I pulled over to replace them and started back on the road, only to have my GPS give me a low-power warning. Lesson learned is to bring a spare set of batteries for every device and not 'some' batteries. I pulled over at a Fire Station. These places are vastly underrated as a resource. They're open 24 hours, have trained medical staff, tons of tools and equipment, and have very friendly people hanging around. I went in to get out of the cold, put my thermal vest on, and ask if I could get some batteries. They cheerily supplied me with 4 AA batteries, asked me about my ride, offered me water and wished me luck.

The road from the fire station to Cactus Valley was the worst part of the ride, for me. It was up and down, and twisty. Although I had good lights, the headlights of the oncoming cars made it difficult to see the road markers, and so I had to ride my brakes most of the way. This didn't please the cars behind who were trying to pass. After I go to Cactus Valley, it got completely flat and a lot faster. I remember Mike saying that if you have to DNF, do it in Hemet where there are lots of hotels. On Sage Road, I spent a lot of time considering a DNF, but by the time I got to the Shell control, I decided to press on with only 80 miles to go.

Right after I left Hemet, I got onto some parkway and started to bonk. I was cursing my self for not DNF'ing earlier, but quickly thought that this was a problem I could solve with an infusion of Gel and SE. The bonk went away, and things started to get a little better, but it kept getting colder. I think I was in Murrietta when I pulled over to a coffee shop and got a big cup of hot tea. I sat there for about 15 minutes warming my hands and insides. When I left I felt a little warmer, but knew it wasn't going to last. When I got to Temecula, I thought I needed to be a bit more assertive about this. I pulled over at a Rodeway Inn, and asked them for an old newspaper, which promptly went up the front of my vest. A little later, I went to an AM/PM mini mart and asked them for some plastic grocery bag to cover my forearms and be covered by my (thin) arm warmers. These worked well enough and I was in relatively good comfort.

Heading down Rainbow Road, I over shifted and my chain came off; it fell below the dog fang I have and wrapped itself around my bottom bracket. I spend about 15 minutes wrestling with it under a street light. I got grease everywhere. On my hand, first, of course, but then my clothes, frame, seat, shoes, handle bars. Everywhere. I pulled into the last road control happy to still be in the ride. I pretty much knew all the turns to get to the finish, so it was just a matter of pressing on. My arms had sweat a lot under the plastic grocery bags, so Matthew O'Neill helped my wrap my forearms in paper towels, after which I put on my arm warmers. The paper would insulate and absorb sweat, so it was a perfect solution, if I may say so.

The ride to Cardiff was slow but uneventful. I spent it wondering why on earth I would ride a 600K. Given the condition I was in, could I really imagine sleeping for 3 hours and then rideing another 200K to Huntington Beach? I knew I was feeling down, so I chose not to answer that particular question. The 400K represented 2 new personal bests: I've never ridden more than 200 miles in a day, and I just rode 250; and I've never climbed more than 10,000ft in a day, and in the 400K I climbed 14,000ft.

I suppose I'll wait until the aches and pains are gone before I turn my attention to the 600K. I have to go to NY in 10 days, will be getting back early April. I'll have about 2 weeks of training to get ready for a ride that will be 50% longer than my 1-day old PR and have 30% more climbing. Not sure that's a sensible idea, but riding brevets isn't sensible to start with.