My qualifying ride, March 29-30, was also the first chance to get our prospective team together. I wasn’t really in shape, and vague memories of riding the STP in 2005 were not going to help, but I wanted to register by the end of March so this was my last chance. Joe Meyers (already qualified) drove down from Bellingham and rode with me. We’d planned out a ride that would let us meet up with Tom Blackwood (already qualified) in Carnation so we could all ride together.

Joe and I started at my house in Woodinville, northwest of Cottage Lake. We started with a gradual descent as we rode down Avondale Rd. Then we turned onto Novelty Hill Rd, Tom’s suggested route to Carnation. The name of the road should have been a clue. It was a hill. Not the steepest or longest hill I’d ridden, but pretty respectable considering my poor training. That hill took my legs from strong and fast to weak and slow, and we were only twelve km into the ride. We went from Novelty Hill to Union Hill, and then down into the valley on the other side. The peak elevation difference was about 200 m, with lots of rolling hills along the way.

The weather started out cool and dry. Somewhere up on top of Union Hill the weather started to get weird. Light rain, then sun, then hail, then light rain, then hail and sun simultaneously, then hard rain. With the exception of the hard rain (my wheel’s rooster tail started soaking my legs and I put on my waterproof pants) it was actually fairly pleasant, and I kept reminding myself of the rain multiplier.

After about 34 km we met Tom at a Starbucks in Carnation. We had a restorative coffee and headed off. I had a UPD on some mud near a guard rail, but no damage was done. There was a bit of a head wind, which was enough to remind my legs that they were still annoyed at the hill earlier in the day.

Tom asked if we wanted to take the long route or the short route back to his house. I wimped out and requested the short route as I knew I was fading and we had to climb the almost 200 m back up to Tom’s house. This is a fairly mean hill which goes up in one long straight shot and has one short steep section that I couldn’t quite manage. But, otherwise I made it. A few more rolling hills and we were at Tom’s house with 54 km under our belts.

Unfortunately, even with some rain, hill, and hail bonuses, 54 km was not going to cut it. But I was beat and riding a bunch more was unwise. So Tom drove us home (always the plan, we were quite far away at this point) and Joe and I decided that 5 km of night riding would suffice. We had tickets to a play that night so from 7 pm to 11:30 pm we were driving to the play, seeing the play, and then driving home. When we returned there was two inches of wet snow on the ground and I was not sure that our simple little finishing ride was even safe. But we suited up and decided to try it. With flashlights in hand we headed out into the damp snow, with more snow still falling. It could have been miserable, wet, tired, cold, and scary, but it was actually magical and fun. There was virtually no traffic and traction was plenty good enough so it felt like a vaguely silly but worthwhile adventure. The falling snow was both charming and a guarantee that our estimates on the amount of precipitation were reasonable.

We neglected to get pictures during the ride, but we have some on our return to my house. And we have GPS data galore.

Distance: 59 km
Ascend: 600 m
Light Rain: 20 km
Night Riding: 5 km
Final Rating: 136
Objective Rating: 102
Subjective Rating: 33