A few reports

In late June I repeated two events from last year: the DC Triathlon and the Garrett County Gran Fondo. In the triathlon my sole goal was to ride the bike fast. And, vis-a-vis last year, the sole part of the race in which I did not improve was the bike. Overall an improvement year over year and competitive enough to be invited to the 5150 series "age group championship" race in Des Moines. I'm not going.

The following week was the Gran Fondo. Kyle Jost is a mid-Atlantic region hard-man who puts on a series of events yearly in the Deep Creek Lake region of Western Maryland. For this biking event he finds the hardest possible hills in the area and traces routes of 25 miles, 100 km, 100 miles and 200 km over them. The roads are in good shape; cars are few; and volunteer support is tremendous. Last year I failed to finish the long ride, and this year I finished. Lessons: slow start, steady calorie intake, and hold off on the stimulants (caffeine) until the second half.

And now just back from Seattle. I joined my brother S__ for a planned three-day ride from Bremerton, WA to Klamath Falls, OR, mostly following the coast highway and then turning inland at Reedsport. We didn't make it. We got behind schedule on day one, not making it to our reserved hotel, and slept a few hours outside of Tillamook wrapped in space blankets (more or less the things they hand out after a marathon) shivering until the sun started coming up. The latter half of the ride planned for day two was over the mountains, and being behind we faced possibly repeating our camp-out at altitude. And curse of curses, S__'s home was a relatively comfortable 60-mile jaunt inland from Tillamook. We chose that option instead. Below is a photo from the ride, crossing the Columbia River from Washington to Astoria, Oregon, on Highway 101.