- Ride from home to Peet's Coffee in Redmond.
- Join the Seattle Randonneur crowd for their July Populaire ride.
- After finishing the populaire, ride to The Redmond Athletic Club for the promise of free food.
- Cruise over to downtown Redmond for the Derby Days celebration.
- Seek out the Derby Days beer garden.
- Ride home.
I managed to follow the plan quite closely, but there were a few snags along the way.
I stupidly injured myself while preparing for the ride at home. As I walked out of our bedroom, I accidentally kicked the bedroom door with the smallest toe on my right foot. Kasia claims I kicked it hard enough to shake the entire house and cause our cats to freak out.
I have a long and storied history of breaking toes this way -- 4 times in the past 13 years. My preference to be barefoot at home plus my general klutziness & lack of grace is a recipe for broken toes. I've broken toes on door jambs, furniture, luggage, and now an actual door.
Back to the story. After my "toe meets door" incident, I didn't realize the toe was broken. It was a little painful, and turning red, but I thought it was just angry, so I continued with the ride plans.
With myself & my bike prepared, I headed out of the house a little before 7:00am. I wanted to get to Peet's in time to have a cup of coffee before our scheduled 8:00am start time.
 |
| SIR July Populaire, starting at Peet's Coffee in Redmond |
We headed out of the parking lot at 8:05am. Over the next few miles, the riders naturally split into (at least) two groups: a faster group and a slower group. I foolishly tried to hang with the faster group. I managed to more-or-less stick with them until we got to Snohomish, about 20 miles away. This took a little over an hour, and was way above my usual average speed.
After a quick control stop at the Snohomish Bakery, (I skipped their coffee and excellent pastries and pressed on) we rode southeast to Monroe, then south along the Snoqualmie River valley. At this point I was riding alone, so I was setting my own (more relaxed) pace.
 |
| Traffic in farm country |
The route for this ride usually heads south along West Snoqualmie Valley Road to NE 100th Street, then heads east to Carnation. Unfortunately, the valley road is closed for much needed repairs south of Novelty Hill Road, so a detour was in order. We all headed east on NE 124th Street, then joined the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. I've ridden this trail many times on my mountain bike, but never before on my road bike with 25mm tires. It worked surprisingly well! It definitely took additional effort to keep my speed around 16-17 mph, but it was a blast.
After additional riding in the river valley, and a short bit on SR 202, we headed up Duthie Hill Road. As you may suspect by any road with "hill" in its name, there is a climb involved: about 1 mile, with about 8% grade. It definitely gets your attention.
After crossing the plateau, we blasted down Inglewood Hill to East Lake Sammamish Road.
 |
| What's wrong with this photo? |
Once there, it was only a few miles back to the start/finish line at Peet's.
 |
| Cooling off with an iced mocha at Peet's |
Next phase of the plan: Ride to The RAC (my gym). This ride happened to coincide with The RAC's Member Appreciation Day. I hung out with my trainer Stacie and other friends, and more importantly, I ate some real food.
 |
| I can haz cheeseburger! |
While at The RAC I began to notice that walking was becoming increasingly painful in my right foot. Pedaling didn't seem to hurt, but walking definitely did. Hmm...
After visiting with everyone and inhaling a burger, I headed over to downtown Redmond for their annual Derby Days celebration, complete with criterium racing and a beer garden.
 |
| Redmond Derby Days criterium racing |
At the beer garden I sampled an excellent Black Raven Hochzeit Pilsner, the perfect beer for a long hot summer day.
 |
| Black Raven Hochzeit Pilsner at the Derby Days beer garden |
After departing Redmond, as I headed north along the Sammamish River Trail, I checked my mileage and did a little math. If I rode directly home, I'd be there with about 92 miles on the clock. Being so close to a full century was unacceptable, so I rode a little further on the trail to stretch the mileage out a bit.
 |
| Woodinville fish sculpture |
Finally home, 102.5 miles later, I discovered a broken toe.
 |
| Yep, it's broken |
Oddly, this is not the first time I've ridden 100+ miles with a broken toe. When Kasia & I rode the Seattle to Portland ride back in 2007, I did so with a stress fracture in the 2nd toe on my left foot. At the time of the ride I didn't know it was fractured, I just thought I had "hot foot" under my shoe cleat. A few days after STP I saw a doctor, had an X-ray, and received the diagnosis.
Let's hope this is a trend that doesn't continue.
Statistics:
Brewvet #12 -- More local beer, 102.5 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment