It is now official

Although I am the Slow Randonneur, I actually was not an official randonneur until this past Saturday, when I rode in my first brevet.  My friend Chuck and I rode in a 107K brevet, part of the Boston Brevet series put on by the New England Randonneurs.  The weather was in the low 40s and rainy, but it was quite an enjoyable ride.  Sorry, no pictures, as it was too much of a PITA to get the camera out of the Ziploc baggy.

The ride started at Hanscomb Air Force base in Concord, proceeded west to Sterling which was where the control was located, and then headed back east to Concord.

It was quite hilly

But, the scenery was beautiful.

We met several nice people, including a couple on a tandem who were riding along at pretty much the same pace as us.  Tandems amaze me.  They insisted that it wasn’t hard to ride.  Standing while climbing wasn’t yet in their skill set yet, but they were working on it.  I have seen tandems climb hills where both the captain and stoker are out of the saddle, rocking the bike back and forth, totally in sync, charging up a hill.  It is really quite cool.  I don’t think my wife Jane and I will ever do the tandem thing – we can hardly pilot a canoe together without starting divorce proceedings.

Overall, it was a great ride.  The rain was not such a big deal, and cold generally doesn’t bother me too much. We finished well within the 7 hour time limit.

Lessons learned:

1. Ride more hills.  107K is not that long of a ride.  However, add in those hills and it is a much different experience.  This is how brevets are going to be, though.  I need to ride more hills (and maybe learn to enjoy them?).
2. Get a helmet with a visor to help keep raindrops off my glasses.  It wasn’t such a big deal on this ride – I could see fine, but nighttime in the rain might be a different story.
3. Pay attention to what I am eating.  I tend to not eat as much as I should while riding.  This is just pure laziness.  I was fairly tired at the halfway point of the ride, but did much better toward the end because I was eating more.  On the Randon Google group, someone posted the following regarding nutrition in response to a question on preparing for a 1200K – “nutrition - eat, eat, eat!  not hungry? EAT!  feeling like garbage?  EAT!!  would rather curl up and sleep? EAT!!!  food doesn't taste good?  EAT!!!!!  got to dry out? EAT!!!!!!

Next up, the 200K on May 1 -- 125 miles in 13.5 hours.

Look out Paris, I’m on my way!