Before going on you need to understand that every single day of my bike tour was fantastic, every single one. But today was just one step above the rest. It was long and hard and absolutely fantastic!
For a good part of yesterday, being a rest day, I spent it looking at maps, calculating miles, seeing what campgrounds were around – that sort of thing. I determined that if I did a century a day (that’s 100 miles a day) for the next 13 days, I’d actually be able to make it to the Mexican border. My original plan had been to do a border-to-border (Canada to Mexico) ride so I got quite excited at the thought that I might actually be able to pull that off.
Riding 100 miles in a day is simple, but not necessarily easy. I rode several century rides last year and by the end of the season I was doing pretty well. When I say I was doing pretty well I don’t mean that I was coming in first, or even very early. So far I’m not known as the fastest cyclist around. What I mean by “pretty well” is that I was better at pacing. I hooked up with some teams that were really flying for a few miles until I couldn’t hang on anymore, but then I was able to settle back into a good pace without having wiped myself out. I only briefly stopped at the food stations and yet I finished strong. There were even a few periods in the last 10-20 miles where I was almost sprinting and yet I finished strong. Still, it’s a lot of effort.
But this isn’t about the century rides from last year, all of which included at least a week of relative ease before them and a week of rest afterward. This is about doing 13 of them in a row, back to back, no rest days, no failures.
That would mean I might have to sacrifice the camping. I am *really* enjoying the camping – the air, the quiet, the sounds. I’m not very keen on missing all of that and spending nights in cheap hotel rooms. But I’m going to give it a shot. Bragging rights for 13 back-to-back centuries would be pretty cool 
I talked through it with Heidi and her husband, who joked that even if I made my first goal, Newport, at 99 miles I was already behind!
I woke up pretty late, got my stuff together, slammed down some oatmeal and was on the road about 9ish.
I didn’t see the sun today. Rain, rain, rain. It was actually pretty nice – I love the rain!
After I’d been on the road for 20-30 miles a car pulled in front of me on the shoulder and stopped. I thought that was kind of rude, they could have stopped behind me instead of making me go around them. But the traffic was light and I was moving at a good pace so I passed them quickly and continued without missing a beat. Then the same car pulled in front of me again shortly and stopped, only this time the driver was waving something, clearly a message to me. I thought I’d lost something on the road and this person was letting me know. Nice! As I coasted to a stop at the car I looked around on the bike to see what I’d failed to properly secure, what might have fallen off. I was a bit confused because everything looked proper.
I got to the car and stopped and Heidi got out. Surprise! Apparently I had left my camping dry-bag, the one I used for hanging food, back at the beach house. That would have been a nasty surprise next time I set up camp for the night. It’s nice having friends who will do something like that for you and I appreciated it.
Quite a few miles later I came upon a lady who was pushing at least 6 wheels worth of cart down the road. I stopped to see what was up and if she needed help. Over and over she told me that her name was Debra McKay, Special Olympics Athlete. Well, I worked with the Special Olympics for a time so I knew what that meant. One of her sets of wheels was a furniture dolly with 2 or 3 5-gallon buckets on it. She’d push that for a few feet, then go back to her other cart, one with 4 wheels and a footprint of maybe 4 or 5 feet by 3 or 4 feet and piled high.
She didn’t want to shake hands (germs) but was pleasant enough. “Just heading to the next hiker-biker site” she told me. After a minute or two it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to help her, so I said goodbye and headed off. I’m pretty sure any sheriff who sees that will stop and be in a better position to find her appropriate services if necessary.
In Lincoln City I decided it was time to eat – I was hungry! I didn’t want to spend much time in a restaurant and just wanted to move quickly so I picked the quickest thing I could see – a McDonald’s. The line was still too long but soon enough I had a big salad and a couple of apple pies.
Another bike tourist was there and as soon as he saw me he moved his stuff over to join me. His name was Sebastian. He was doing much the same tour route as me but at a different pace. He was also visiting friends along the way. For example, tomorrow he’ll meet some friends, they’ll drive him to Eugene for a few days of visiting and then bring him back to continue his ride. He’s from Montreal and has never spent any time alone, at least that’s what he’s telling me. He was so happy to find another cyclist and immediate asked if we could ride together for a bit. “I’m getting tired of being alone and singing to myself all day”. He’s a musician contemplating some life changes. He had also seen Debra McKay and we talked about that.
I warned him that I’m not the fastest guy on a bike. He was half my age, his bike lighter and, since he wasn’t doing any camping, had far less weight that he was pushing around. But we rode the next 20 or 30 miles together anyway. It was nice that we did. He didn’t have a light (or if he did it wasn’t very bright) and so my bright pedal-powered light came in handy when it got dark (just before getting to the hotel). The wind and the rain seemed to have picked up quite a bit so it was nice to trade off the lead position, giving the other person a chance to draft and rest up a bit. I tried to trade off with him every mile or two but I think he got frustrated with my lack of speed and took the front spot more times than me. But there were times when I could see him obviously struggling so I’d hop back up front. It seemed to work pretty well for two people who don’t really know each other. At times the rain and wind were hard enough to sting the face. The last 10 or 15 miles were quite a slog, but we finally got into town (not raining at all by then) and found a cheap hotel. While we were paying for our rooms I checked my bike computer and realized that I didn’t have 100 miles for the day yet. So after getting my room key I hopped back on the bike to ride another 3 miles before going to my room.
Sebastian thought I was crazy. He’d done just 75 miles that day but was wiped out. He told me he couldn’t believe that I was going to ride another 3 miles just so I could say I’d hit 100. But my goal was 13 back-to-back centuries, so a today: a hundred miles or bust!
I rode out into the night, with a working light of course, and headed out for 1.5 miles. Then I turned around and rode back to the hotel. I had to do a few laps in the parking lot before the computer registered 100 miles but the moment it did I headed to my room.
I showered, met Sebastian for dinner across the street, visited the Fred Meyer for food supplies for the next day, made it back to my hotel room and collapsed on my bed. As I would do each night I used my phone to take notes for the day. I could barely keep my eyes open. It was a good thing I’d called Alex earlier in the day, because I wasn’t in a position to hold up my end of a conversation now.
So I made my century for the day and finished strong. I was tired but I’ve been recovering pretty well each day. A hundred miles! Think I can do it again tomorrow?
Not many photos today – to wet to pull the camera out very often.
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