MS “Coast The Coast” Ride, 5/16/09 Report (Part 2)
Part 1 can be found here.
So after lunch, things were different. I said goodbye to Mom & Rich, took a musette bag from them with a change of clothes for the bus ride back, and headed off with Al and Dave. There were maybe a hundred riders or more still eating lunch when we left at about 1 pm, and there was no real rush by anyone to get moving, so it was obvious that the ride was going to be a lot quieter than it had been in the morning. The afternoon was through southern Ocean County pine barrens — not a bad thing but not exciting, either. We went through the residential roads of Forked River for a few miles, but eventually we found ourselves on Route 9 South, which is a terrible road for biking.
Then came the wind.
The wind was relentless, directly out of the south, probably about 15 mph. The sun had come out, and that stretch of road is just open field with no tree cover and no protection from the elements. The ride from the southern tip of Forked River past the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant and in to Waretown was just awful. I led most of the way and struggled with every stroke of the pedals. Lunch didn’t really help either, as it gave my body a chance to tense up. When we turned on to Wells Mill Road and toward the next rest stop, both of my thighs were throbbing. There were many low-rolling hills, nothing massive but just enough to make me work. The Vo-Tech School stop at the 63 mile mark was necessary to stretch and re-group, and also take an Advil for my aching thighs. The weirdest thing was that there was nobody other than the volunteers at this stop — it was like a Route 66 desert outpost. I knew it would be quieter on the roads after lunch but it was so quiet and so out of the way that for a brief delusional second I wondered if I was still on the right course. As Al and I were getting ready to leave, Dave arrived and said he needed a longer break, and we’d just meet him at Pinelands.
The last 22 miles of the ride were also due south, straight into the wind. Al and I stuck together most of the time, but with more rolling hills and the wind in our face the entire time, my breezy 20 mph pace along the shore had gone down under 15, and at a couple of points I was close to 12 mph. At 12 mph I would not make the 4 pm bus. We got through it, and even passed a couple of people who were also struggling, though when we got to Barnegat (mile 70.5) the American flags outside of Lucille’s Country Cooking were flapping hard in the exact opposite direction of where we were going.
They had one thing at Lucille’s that I most wanted to see: salt! Lucille’s had actual potato chips, not the crime against humanity that are the cinnamon-and-sugar pita chip bags that every other rest stop had. I was craving salt as my body was sweating for hours, and there was nothing at lunch or any of the other rest stops that was satisfying me (though I really, really liked these things, which are probably terrible for me but tasted great). So I downed a bag of chips, and Al and I were off for the final 15 miles. There was one other random guy at the rest stop who I invited to join us for the last leg of the journey, and he was happy to have a couple of teammates for what was sure to be the hardest leg. It was seven miles on one road through the pine barrens, straight south over hills, followed by about six miles on a few different roads in the woods, to the finish. The time was 2:40 pm. I had asked the Lucille’s volunteer when the first cyclists arrived, and she said that someone went flying by at about ten minutes past 11. That’s 70.5 miles over 3 hours 10 minutes, or a 22.5 mph pace from Long Branch to Barnegat, assuming no rest stops (unlikely), and including several stop signs and traffic lights. That’s just evil.
Here’s where my moral dilemma began: I’m not a fan of unannounced bike drafting, because I think it’s unsafe and a leeching move. But I was also feeling very tired after fighting the wind non-stop for the past 90 minutes, so… Al led out of the rest stop for maybe a mile, then I took over for about two miles, but we caught up with a group of three riders who had formed a mini-paceline and I just latched right on. I should have yelled out that I was there, and I absolutely should have volunteered my services to lead the group, but I didn’t and neither did the two guys with me. We rode at the back of the group into the wind for at least four miles, and when we got to the next intersection one of them turned around said, “we’re pulling an entire wagon train here!” I felt guilty, Al did not. Next time I’ll take my turn pulling, I swear. Meanwhile, the guy who latched on to us at the rest stop said nothing, just disappeared, so that’s there as well. To each his own, perhaps.
From there it was not especially hard as the trees blocked the wind, though I still had some pain in my thighs and general fatigue from being out on the bike for seven hours. A dozen or so people were on the front lawn of the high school, and they aplauded when I rode past, maybe 10 seconds behind Al, who clearly had more in the tank than I did at that point — so much for blowing out my teammates on the straightaways in Lavallette. It was 3:35 pm, and I was going to make the 4 pm bus (hooray!). I changed out of my dirty, soaked bike clothes and into the loose-fitting running clothes in the musette bag that I was carrying since Cedar Creek. I tried in vain to find a decent bite to eat, took two water bottles, and headed back out to find the bus. I saw in the gym that they had a big setup for the overnighters — lots of cots and blankets and whatnot. They were also running a regular school bus shuttle to Tuckerton Seaport for dinner, and several dozen bikes were lined up inside the school even though very few riders mulled about. ‘Cause if you know anything about Tuckerton, it’s a great place to spend a Saturday night. ;-)
Al wanted to ride an extra 15 miles to log his first-ever century (which was an MS-sponsored addition to the 85-mile ride with a clearly-marked path), but I needed to get back to NYC so I told him that I was done. I went to use the bathroom inside the high school and when I came out he was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed he went off to ride. As I walked my bike to the Academy bus to go back, he ran up behind me and said that he skipped out on the extra 15. Then out of seemingly nowhere, Dave arrived as well with maybe 5 minutes to spare — he had done the last 15 miles totally solo, which must have been brutal. For a guy who was riding on an older bike without clips, that effort to make it in for the early bus was abolutely amazing. There were maybe 20 other people on the bus total. I was back in NYC by 6:45, well in time for the concert. (Note to Missy: the concert was good if not my favorite genre, a bit long given that I was tired, sorry for not commenting on it earlier, Merry Christmas!)
All in all, I’d say it was a very good day. No injuries, no flats, no mechanical problems, and a new PR on single-day bike distance. I was left with a pair of sunburned forearms, a t-shirt, a deep and lasting love for KIND almond and apricot bars (by far the best food at any of the rest stops), and a deep hatred of the Route 9 stretch that runs past Oyster Creek (which is something I had already). And we raised over $1,000 to fight MS, which is probably better than anything else that happened all day. I took today off from any serious exercise but I’ll be back at it by Tuesday, weather permitting.
Thanks all for reading this far, and again, sincerest thanks to everyone who gave money to me, Al, and Dave so that we could do this!
2 years ago