Shenandoah 2009 - Part I - June 11th, 2009

Shenandoah 2009 - June 11 - 14, 2009 Ride Report – Part I
Day 1 – Thursday, June 11th, 2009

The alarms and wake-up calls were all set for 3:00AM but at 2:45AM, both Mark and I could no longer sleep so we woke up to prepare for the 4:00AM start, following our usual regimen. Mark got the shower first while I used this time to awaken from my groggy stupor. When I’m in the shower, Mark begins the breakfast preparations, in this case, the “usual” large can of Dinty Moor beef stew. Mark prefers his on a couple of micro-waved potatoes, while for this ride I had “snagged” a couple of bagels from home and for a change, chose to substitute them for the usual potatoes.

When I stepped out to check on what the rest of the riders were doing and to fill my camelback with ice, I noticed that at 3:15AM, it appeared that most of the riders had been up for quite some time and were finished eating and were in the process of completing their final preparations. I took this as a note to “shake a leg” and get myself going or I’d be leaving after everyone one had departed. The time flew by and after eating breakfast, completing the last minute packing, dropping off my two drop bags, and taking everything not required for the ride to the car, in returning to the room found that my watch read 3:57AM. Mark was already out of the room, and hopefully at the starting point in front of the hotel, so I stuffed everything in my jersey pockets, put on my wind/rain jacket – unzipped but at least it was on as it was sprinkling out when I had been out to the car to drop off the things, slipped my camelback onto my shoulders – who worries about the chest strap at times such as these, put my unbuckled helmet on my head, grabbed my gloves, and quickly made a bee-line down the stairs to the start. I missed Matt’s pre-ride send-off speech but at least the riders hadn’t all left yet so I managed to zip up my windbreaker, snap the chest strap on the camelback, and the chinstrap on my helmets before everyone left. The pace at the start was slow enough that I was able to place my gloves on while slowly starting out with the group. Whew, I thought it would have been the “usual” way that Mark and I start out randonnees, a couple minutes after everyone has all left.

It was great to ride with the group at the start, for some reason, the pace appeared to be a little more relaxed that the previous year so I was able to ride with Branson, Andy, and the others. No one chose to make a mad break, which I was glad to see as I didn’t want to see Juan feel a need to set a course record this early in the ride.

As an aside, Juan, who had ridden his first brevet in November with the PA group, was a little nervous as to what to expect on a 1200K, and planning a ride strategy. He forwarded me a copy of his “conservative” and “not-so-conservative” ride plans and asked me for my opinion as to each and if I had any recommendations on how to improve these two plans. Needless to say, his “conservative” plan was something that I could only anticipate riding “in my WILDEST dreams” and his “not-so-conservative plan would have had him RAAM qualified on this event. My suggestion was for him to work on refining the conservative plan to ensure that he was able to get sufficient sleep at the controles, especially on the first and second days, and that there wasn’t anything wrong in riding THIS 1200K with all of it’s climbing in a little over 80 hours. I myself, personally would be looking to “best” my last year’s time of 87: hours (and by that I mean shoot for a finish time EVEN closer, without being too close to the allowable 90 hours.) This is the beauty of randonneuring, we can all ride it our own separate ways and still have a great time doing so.

As we rode together I made a note to see what others had chosen to wear in the warm, but rainy/misty/foggy conditions. In comparison with the others, it appeared that I'd made the right choice to forego socks and legwarmers – I'd keep them "in reserve" dry in a plastic bag in my back jersey pocket in case it got really cold later that night climbing into Harrisonburg – but it appeared that I was one of the few that were wearing anything over my jersey, and I could tell that, with the humid conditions, it might have been a conservative choice as I was getting a little warm as the rain stopped and the mist cleared.

I thought of Matt's comment regarding last year's ride conditions: "Unfortunately we were betrayed by Mother Nature, a challenging, rolling course was turned into a brutal slog by record heat, high humidity and headwinds that sapped the riders strength, but more importantly destroyed their desire as they traveled up the valley. It was not the severity of the course but the weather conditions that caused the unusually high DNF rate."

So far we didn't have the heat or the headwinds, but the humidity and temperatures were remarkably similar to what we had at the start of last year's ride.

I enjoyed the route out of town and recognized a lot of it from last year, including where the trees and powerlines were down and we needed to walk through. It was different this year, although for some reason I had no trouble keeping with the group. However, as I rounded the curve coming through a small village on Milltown Road, I recalled the long, but not too steep grade ahead, and mentioned something to another rider that here comes the hills – it was at this point where the group pulled ahead on the climb, and I lost contact …exactly the same point as last year – so I shifted to "plan B" and began riding my own pace. It didn't take long until I saw some lights in my mirror, and found that, as I recovered from the previous faster pace, Dick and Carey were catching up to me. I rode along with them, and shortly after on Lovettsville Road, Paul caught up … again EXACTLY at the same point he did last year, as well.

It was gradually getting light and by the time I reached Spruce Run Road, I was pretty much riding by myself. The terrain was quite scenic, and Spruce Run enhances the view with a fairly steep section of climbing. I remembered it from last year as on one of the steeper slopes, I lost traction on the wet pavement. The pavement was a little dryer this rime around and I looked forward to the flat section that would follow the climb.

How soon one forgets! It turns out that what I remembered as being a fairly gradual climb was actually a 3 mile climb to the top of Catoctin Mountain, the easternmost mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which runs northeast/southwest for about 50 miles from Leesburg to Emmitsburg, Maryland, forming the eastern rampart of the Loudoun and Middletown valleys. We had been gradually climbing all the way from Leesburg – no wonder I was so tired, but in reaching Highway 77, I knew that I'd be at near its highest elevation of 1,900 feet with the cue sheet indicating a 5.7 mile down hill run into Thurmont, to pass Cunningham Falls State Park.

By this point I wasn't being passed by any other riders, and even managed to pass a couple as they put their rain gear on at the top of the pass. It was a steady drizzle at the higher elevations, but most likely it was the result of the cloud level being so low that we were riding in the moisture of the clouds – sure was smart of me to have worn that wind/rain jacket today!

At Thurmont, I realized that I was doing well enough that I stopped off at a local bakery for a roll – I recommend the cherry cream Danish. I knew that Mark was ahead of me and assumed that he wouldn't worry about me and would probably continue to ride with group until Harrisonburg where he'd take in a couple of extra hours of sleep before riding with me the next morning.

The ride from Thurmont to the PA border was on US15, a 4-lane divide highway. Last year it was starting to get hot but fortunately this year was overcast, and with the road being recently resurface, the shoulder wasn't all that bad to ride on – the road debris had yet to build-up. In crossing over into PA, it was a straight shot to the Gettysburg Controle. Mark was there waiting for me and having been there for an hour, was about to give up on me and go on ahead when I arrived shortly before 9:00AM. My stop in Thurmont allowed me to get going fairly quickly so Mark and I continued on together from here.

I've included the update that Tom posted on the NJ Rando website below:

Update #1by Tom Rosenbauer » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:36 am
According the S1200k live update ...

Riders have started at 4AM, Thursday

Juan and Andy are in the first group, arriving at the 1st controle stop in Gettysburg at 8AM -- they are really flying, covering the first 68 miles at 17.0 MPH. Bill Olsen is towards the back of the field, getting in at 9AM with an average of 13.6 MPH. Surprisingly, Bill's brother Mark is up with the first group -- I suspect that he'll eventually drop back to join Bill.

Looks like they had plenty of fog and high humidity at the start ... they probably missed the overnight rain, but there are warnings for severe storms and flooding for today and tonight -- hope they have their foul weather gear!

He really called that one correctly.

The ride to the next controle in Sharpsburg was on roads that I've ridden with the DC Randonneurs. We made the green light on the covered bride before Jacks Mountain and the ascent up Jacks Mountain was as steep as I remembered, but then so was the descent. Mark agreed that the ride up to this point was definitely a PLUS, and a "worthy showplace" of the local scenery … and we hadn't even gotten to through Maryland!

The routing through the Antietam Battlefield was a great follow-up to the previous ride down Confederate Avenue and Wheatfield Road in Gettysburg.

A 12" tuna sub sandwich at the Battlefield Market Control, really hit the spot, although I was a little slow starting out with a full stomach. We rolled on at a good pace and as I prepared Mark to be on the look-out for the unmarked turn onto Box Factory Road, I found that my worries were for naught as they had replaced the missing sign from last year. I particularly remembered the next section as being quite miserable last year, due to the heat, but it was quite pleasant this time around. I still had some problems with hydration but managed to get a couple of Enduralytes down and we made our way on to the Harrisonburg control a couple of hours ahead of where I was last year.

While on Cedar Creek Grade, I thought we had come upon a secret controle but realized it wasn't but must have been the home of someone who knew Matt, as they had a cooler by the side of their driveway filled with a couple of bags. The sign said "For the Shenandoah 1200K Riders." Whoever this was who left it, THANKS!!! At this point we were riding "hopscotch" with Dave Rudy from Kentucky so we decided to pretty much ride together for awhile.

Shortly after we took the right hand turn onto Back Road, a familiar routing from here onto Harrisonburg from last year's ROMA brevet series. We still had close to 40 miles to ride but I knew it like the back of my hand and the miles would pass by quickly as we passed familiar ground. I pointed out Matt's house as we rode by. As we rode along Back Road, we discussed how it might have gotten its name. I had always figured it was because it was the "back way" from Strasburg to Harrisonburg, but in thinking about it, we realized that the road follows a small ridge between the two main ridges, and perhaps this ridge might be considered a back of the main valley. I'll need to follow-up on this one.

While many riders chose to stop at the small store on Back Road, I offered that there was a better stop if we proceeded down the road a piece to Columbia Furnace, a controle for some of the other ROMA brevets. This was a good spot to don our reflective gear before proceeding in the 28 miles into Harrisonburg, via VA42. At this point we met up with Dave Goodwin who had ridden the Shenandoah last year, as well so we continued on with the four of us. While I needed to stop several times along this stretch last year it was nice to have Mark to ride with on this section. The rollers, and subsequent climbs after the nice downhill runs eventually got to me, so for the last couple of miles into Harrisonburg, Mark rode in with me while the two Daves pressed on ahead.

Most of the early riders had gone onto the Deerfield controle, and those that had "overnighted" at Harrisonburg where just still sleeping or just getting up when we arrived. Mark and I planned our departure to coincide with the 4:16AM controle closing time which allowed us an hour to eat and shower, and 4 hours to sleep. We informed the others of our plans, but most thought they'd best cut back on their sleep to allow more cushion for the next day's climbing on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

End of Part I (June 11th)Part II (June 12th) to follow