I had it as a word file attachment. Here goes!
Up at 5am and I head to Lumberton. There are like 18 to 20 riders including one dude that is from Alaska. Its 26 degrees as we're layering up. I have a Smart Wool base layer, another Smart Wool base layer, an oversized wool Jersey, a jacket and a vest. Plus a rain coat packed away to make me feel better about having more. We start out at 7:30 heading northeast into a stiff northeast wind for 31 miles. Wind chill is off the charts. From there we head south towards Sunset Beach. 9 riders including John o. doing a 200K, 7 of us doing the 300K, and 4 doing the 400K. I had signed up for the 400K but being the cold blooded creature that I am thought better of it. Maybe I should have thought harder still. We're now rolling along at 20+ mph with the tailwind. Where is the sun we were promised. Wait a minute, is that snow? Dang it's snowing. WT.. It's more like snow pellets as it's bouncing off the pavement. Like do we have to pay extra for this? Our next control is in Shallotte at mile 100. I'm riding with Bryan from Raleigh and we are joined there by Mary and LeeAnn from Lumberton. These women rock! The 4 of us head over to Wendy's for lunch and I have chili and a baked potato. We're making really good time as we had 30 miles of headwind and 70 miles of tailwind averaging 18 mph. As we're leaving the other 3 riders have gotten into town but we're anxious to put more miles behind us before the sun goes down so we head on. The bank sign reads 33 degrees but we're skeptical as our water bottles consist of an icy slush. We slide over to Sunset Beach across the new bridge looking sadly over to where the old bridge once stood. SB is a ghost town. Tony the organizer has ridden up to Surf City and showed us pictures where the beaches are completely covered in snow. Luckily we missed the worst of it as the low appears to be north of us now and the sun is now glowing over the dark clouds. As we're leaving the SB area the next bank sign reads 34 degrees but my water is still frozen. Plenty of sunshine now but we are facing 15 mph headwinds. I guess you can never have it all. The next control is at mile 137 and we're hoping to get there before sunset but its slow going. There we rig up our lights and I'm throwing old chemical warmers away and insert new ones. We chill there for a while knowing the last 50 miles is really gonna hurt. 6 of us leave there and stay together to another store 15 miles away. With the headwind it takes an hour to get there. While there the wind finally dies, 35 miles to finish and there are no other stores on the route that will be open. It's hard now to stay warm. The best way is to get the heart pumping so I set a brisk pace. I'm not going to leave the ladies but the others will have to fend for themselves. Bryan, Mary, LeeAnn and I work well together the last 35 miles. Temp is like 27 degrees and dropping. LeeAnn and I both need to stop to thaw some toes but we both rather just keep riding. We still have 18 miles to go, one more hour at this pace. Water bottle is frozen solid, and now the fingers are going south. 8 miles to go and I drop out of the pace line and start doing some stand up sprints. Finally we roll into the parking lot at 10:30pm (189 miles later). We pack up quickly as it's now 24 degrees and we head over to Waffle House for several cups of coffee and an all star breakfast. Tony joins us showing the snow pictures from the beach. 4 cups of coffee later I say goodbye and start the long drive home. I stop once just to walk around a bit and that was an instant wake up as it was now 18 degrees. 1:30 I climb into my down sleeping bag for de-thaw! I wake up with a throbbing toe and sure enough I have frostbite! At least it's just one toe this time but it'll still be 6 weeks of pain. Oh well, you only live once. No use sitting on the sidelines! ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 5:28 PM Subject: Re: [COWs] Sunset Beach/Snow/Frostbite 300K Ride Report!!!!! Did I miss the ride report? Kp Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: "Tim & Susan" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:26:19 -0500 To: <[email protected]> ReplyTo: [email protected] Subject: Re: [COWs] Sunset Beach/Snow/Frostbite 300K Ride Report!!!!! Congrats to you as well. Riding 125 miles through those conditions is awesome. I like your idea on finding some NASA boots. I was good on short runs of a couple hours or so but on the longer runs the cold always found it's way through all the layers. Two weeks and we do it again! tim ----- Original Message ----- From: John Olmstead To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 11:35 AM Subject: Re: [COWs] Sunset Beach/Snow/Frostbite 300K Ride Report!!!!! Congrats! 200K was all I could take and I'm glad I took the shortest ride! I wound up wearing every extra bit of socks and gloves I brought along and still wanted more! --- On Sun, 1/23/11, Tim & Susan <[email protected]> wrote: From: Tim & Susan <[email protected]> Subject: [COWs] Sunset Beach/Snow/Frostbite 300K Ride Report!!!!! To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, January 23, 2011, 10:47 AM Ouch!!!! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en.
