BMB. Wow!! I can't believe that after more than a year of
planning,
the time had come to ride BMB. The nervousness and anxiousness was
overwhelming. Many hours of riding, mental preparation, and
logistically planning have all come to a point and it is now time for
game day.
Wednesday 8/18 Arrival and Bike Inspection:
I arrived in Boston around 11:30am. Ken Davis had driven up on Sunday
with our bikes, so all I had to do was fly up and take the train to
Newton. I was so thankful that Ken drove up because it made traveling
so much easier not having to deal with my bike on the airplane. I
arrive in Newton around 12:30, and I began my walk to the Holiday Inn
in Newton. The hotel location was not obvious. As I exited the
station, I ended up taking a wrong turn and walking about a half mile
out of my way. At this point, I hoped that this was the only wrong
turn I would make all weekend. On his way back from the grocery store,
Ken ended up pulling up next to me and giving me a ride, whic h I
was very grateful for. Ken and I arrived at the hotel and began to get
our bikes ready for the inspection that afternoon.
I didn't know what to expect for the inspection, but overall, it
went
very well. They just wanted to confirm that my lights worked, make
sure I had backups, and wanted to see my reflective gear.
I was very amazed at the inspection. Some of the bikes that cyclists
had brought were flat out amazing and interesting, especially the one
from England that was completely made and welded with tube aluminum by
the rider himself.
Seeing people I knew began to get my adrenaline pumped up, and I was
getting even more anxious to get rolling on the bike. Ken said that we
needed to call Mike DeLong and let everyone say hello. It was nice to
talk to him as he gave me a few last minute tips and reminders about
the ride. As always, Mike also gave me an update on the weather
report and it was looking pretty good for the start little did I
know what was ahead of us.
After the pre-event pasta dinner, Ken and I headed to our room to get
some sleep. I was in bed by 7:45pm. I woke up several times and had a
tough time sleeping. I understand now why it is so important to bank
hours of sleep before the start.
Thursday 8/19 - Newton to New Salem 75 Miles:
Ken and I woke up around 2:30am and began getting ready for the ride.
We went downstairs to the start around 3:30am. After the group picture
was taken, we rolled out exactly at 4am. Ken and I let the masses go
before us so we wouldn't get trampled merging into the driveway
out of
the Holiday Inn.
The ride began very smoothly, and I had to keep telling myself to hold
back. I have a habit of starting rides and races too fast and I
definitely did not want to burn out too quickly on this ride. A BMB
vehicle guided us out of town for the first 10 miles. I finally saw
Melinda Dura around mile 5 or so. She told me that Scott had forgotten
his gloves and went back to get them right before the start. He was
going to catch up with her soon, she hoped. I also heard from a rider
that Joe Fritz had gotten sick on the drive up from Florida to Boston,
and ended up having to go back home. Ken and I had not seen him on
Wednesday and were beginning to wonder what had happened to Joe. I
arrived in New Salem at 8:30am. I immediately began my duties at the
control point. This included getting my control card signed, eating,
refilling water, logging my stats to this point, and inspecting my
bike. I wanted to get out of the control point as soon as possible.
Ken had arrived at 9am, and I asked if he wanted me to wait, but he
told me to continue on. I departed around 9:05am.
Thursday 8/19 - New Salem to Brattleboro 107 Miles:
Up to this point, the climbing did not seem bad. It was mostly rolling
hills, but the roads seemed to have a lot of cracks and ruts in them
that could be dangerous. I assume these roads get this way from the
winters in the northeast. I called Christy (my wife) about half way to
Brattleboro. My cell phone was running out of power, so I was going to
have to come up with another plan to update her. I arrived in
Brattleboro around 11:30am. I saw Melinda Dura who was still waiting
for Scott and she was beginning to get a little nervous because he
hadn't caught up with her yet. Ken Davis arrived about 30 minutes
behind me, and again he told me not to wait. I was beginning to feel a
little guilty for not waiting for him because we had somewhat planned
to ride together. Ken was adamant that he wanted me to continue on
because I was feeling good and he wanted me to post a good time if I
could. Up to this point the weather had been mostly overcast with some
wind, but it was great riding weather and I had no complaints. I was
feeling very good and strong and just wanted to keep on pedaling.
Thursday 8/19 - Brattleboro to Ludlow 163 Miles:
I arrived in Ludlow around 4:30pm. There was quite a bit of climbing
in this leg, but I was still feeling strong. I wanted to get out of
Ludlow as soon as possible as I wanted to try to descend Middlebury
Gap before dark. Ken had not arrived before I left. Melinda and I
decided to ride together with Glen, who I thought was from New York
but found out after the ride that he is really from Massachusetts.
Melinda introduced me to Glen and we headed out for Middlebury.
Thursday 8/19 - Ludlow to Middlebury 228 Miles:
It rained off and on before we ascended Middlebury. The rain actually
felt good and refreshing. The only bad thing is that it was beginning
to get old riding in wet clothes. I knew I was definitely going to
change and shower at Middlebury, and this was my motivation to keep
pedaling. It was dark by the time we were ascending Middlebury.
This was good for me in the sense that I could not see the gradient of
the road in front of me. Sometimes I do better if I don't know
what is
coming and I can tackle the climb better. I did know when we hit the
15%. It was obvious because my cadence slowed to about 10 rpm. It was
tough, but it wasn't as hard as Brasstown Bald, so I knew it was
doable. I knew that we were almost at the top when I saw the
"Begin
KOM" written on the road. I knew at this point that I had less
than
1km to go. I am not sure what the KOM marking was for, but I knew the
end of the climb was in sight. Melinda, Glen, and I rode our own pace
to the top, so I waited there for us all to regroup for the descent.
The descent was brutal, not because it was raining, but because it was
dark, cold, and windy. I had to pump my brakes the whole way down.
This is kind of disheartening because I like to use the descents as
time to reenergize and gain distance. On top of it being dark, the
ruts in the road were pretty bad. I knew now why I had been warned not
to descend Middlebury alone. The cracks and ruts made us go even lower
on the descent. I was beginning to worry about my brake pads. I
figured I was going to have to replace them at some point on this
ride. It was really getting cold at this point for me. I was beginning
to look forward to the showers at Middlebury.
We arrived in Middlebury around 10:15pm. We decided to get a good
meal, take a shower, and get some rest before heading out to Rouses
Point. We decided we would leave around Midnight.
The food was unbelievable. Realistically, I was expecting food like we
had on all the brevets, but I was completely wrong and very pleasantly
surprised. I began to look forward to the food at the next control as
a motivation tool to keep pedaling.
Friday 8/20 - Middlebury to Rouses Point 316 Miles:
Melinda, Glen, and I departed Middlebury around 11:50pm. It felt so
good to have had a shower and dry, clean clothes on. We were kind of
dragging about an hour into the ride, so we decided to stop at a
school about 20 miles out of Middlebury and take a quick nap. We
rested for about 15 minutes. I forgot how cold you could get not
moving. I was freezing when we got back on the bike and it took about
10 minutes to get the blood flowing in my legs again. At this point, I
was begging for a climb so that I could generate some heat in my body.
We rode throughout the night. We started riding around Lake Champlain
around dawn. The dawn time was the hardest for me to stay awake.
Seeing the sun appear must make my body think that I should be asleep
and waking up. We decided to stop again for a quick nap. We pulled
into a Volunteer Fire Station, and laid down right in front of the
truck doors. I guess we weren't really thinking clearly, but I am
glad
that an alarm didn't sound. I was so tired I did not even realize
that
my camelback was leaking out all over my head while I was sleeping. We
were back on the road in about 20 minutes. We arrived in Rouses Point
about 8:30am.
Friday 8/20 - Rouses Point to Huntingdon 372 Miles:
We left Rouses Point about 9:30am or so. The sun was up and the
weather seemed perfect. As soon as we crossed the border into Canada,
I felt a headwind. I hate headwinds and this was beginning to irritate
me. About 15 miles from Rouses Point, Doyce Johnson passed me, and I
wish at that point I was in his position. The reason is that I would
be out of the headwinds. After about 25 miles of pushing the
headwinds, I was beginning to get mad. At this point, I picked up the
pace because I wanted to get to Huntingdon and get some of the benefit
of the tailwind. Knowing my luck, the winds would shift and I would be
in a headwind again all the way back to Rouses Point. I arrived at
Huntingdon around 1:30pm. Melinda and Glen arrived about 10 minutes
after me. I told them that I would wait for them at Rouses Point
because I wanted to get some of the benefit of the tailwind before it
switched again.
Friday 8/20 - Huntingdon to Rouses Point 428 Miles:
I took off from Rouses Point around 1:45pm. The tailwinds were great
and I had some great descents on the hills. I passed Barb Bergin and
Kevin Kaiser on the way back to Rouses Point. They were over half way
to Huntingdon. I was feeling good at this point, but I was beginning
to get a little goofy due to lack of sleep.
I reached the border around 4:45pm. Now, I have to give a little
history before I tell what happened at the border. After reading many
accounts of long distance events, I had learned of a pretty neat idea
from Margaret Graff. On her trek from Atlanta to Austin, she had said
that condoms had saved her computer. I thought I would try this on
the BMB because I had several issues on the Georgia 600 brevet where
my computer would not register speed or distance when it got wet. So,
kudos to Margaret for the great idea of covering your computer with
condoms. Back to the border . As I was fumbling for my wallet in
my
Camelback, my roll of condoms I was carrying went flying out and
landed right at the border officer's feet. As he slowly reached
over
and carefully picked them up with two fingers, he said, "Are these
yours?" I replied, "Yes, but they are not what you think they
are
for." He stated that is okay because condoms are legal in the US.
I
was too tired to do any further explaining, so I just said thanks and
continued to roll on with a smile. I reached Rouses Point about
5:15pm. I decided to take a shower and clean up while waiting for
Melinda and Glen to arrive.
Friday 8/20 - Rouses Point to Middlebury 513 Miles:
I left Rouses Point around 6:15pm. I told Melinda and Glen that I
would pedal slowly to let them catch up. I was beginning to tighten up
and getting more tired. I just wanted to be making progress toward the
end, no matter how fast I was going. A rider by the name of Earl
caught up with me. I suppose he was in his fifties. Earl was a much
stronger rider than me. We pulled each other off and on for about 10
miles or so. Melinda and Glen still had not caught up with me, so I
told Earl to go on. I wanted to wait for Melinda and Glen since it was
getting dark. Melinda and Glen along with a couple other riders caught
up with me around 8pm. They were riding a fast paceline. I hung in for
a little while, but this was wearing me out. Little did I know how
difficult the second straight night of riding was going to be for me.
On top of being so tired, I wasn't thrilled about drafting at a
fast
pace in the dark with cars and trucks flying past us. Glen and I
finally pulled off and began to go at our own pace. Melinda had waited
for us at a gas station and we decided we needed to take a break. We
found some tennis courts off a neighborhood where we decided to take a
quick nap. We settled down. In about 15 minutes, we were woken up to
sprinkles on our face. I knew that is was suppose to rain that night
based on a weather report that Mike Delong had communicated to my
wife. I just didn't know it was going to last all night. From this
point on, it rained on us until we reached Middlebury around 5:20am.
This night was the worse night of my BMB experience. On top of being
tired, I was weaving on the bike, and I don't think I had eaten
properly for the past 4 or 5 hours. Melinda and Glen were waiting on
me over and over, but I definitely appreciated it. I didn't want
to be
out there alone that tired. I ate several times. The rain was cold and
the wind was pretty strong. I learned that I definitely need to pack a
rain suit. Arm and leg warmers are not waterproof as I learned on this
leg. Also, I learned that my LED lights were not really the best for
riding when you are very tired.
We were going so slowly with about 35-40 miles to go. The pace was
dragging due to my exhaustion, and I felt like the miles were taking
hours to go by. I thought about Jeff Bauer's Rocky Mountain ride
report, and I began humming "King of the Road." This helped
pass the
time, but the miles felt like they were taking hours to pass. I
kept thinking that I could run faster than I am riding. Throughout the
night, I kept seeing cyclists next to me riding. I thought I was crazy
at first until I explained to Melinda what was going on, and she said
that it is normal. She told me that she was seeing people on
the side of the road talking to her.
As we got about 20 miles from Middlebury, I couldn't wait to
arrive. I
was chanting to myself "Eat-Shower-Sleep-Middlebury-Go". It
was almost
like a cheer for myself to get me to Middlebury. This was what I was
going to do as soon as I arrived. It got me there. Melinda, Glen, and
I arrived at Middlebury around 5:15am. I couldn't believe that it
took
almost 11 hours to go about 100 miles, but I guess that is what sleep
deprivation and bad weather will do to you. As I arrived, I saw Scott
Ohwhiler leaving.
Saturday 8/21 - Middlebury to Ludlow 579 Miles:
I was so ready to take a hot shower and warm up in Middlebury. I
realized that I had used my only set of clothes in my drop bag on the
way out. I ended up borrowing a pair of shorts out of Ken Davis'
drop
bag. I was hoping that he would not mind, but I knew that he had
several pairs in his bag. Sleeping in Middlebury was tough. The
blankets had a peculiar body smell to them. Another lesson learned is
to put small blankets in my drop bags to use at the control points. I
tried to not use a blanket, but the mosquitoes were so bad that I had
to cover up with something.
I had slept through the 8am wake up request. At 8:30am, Melinda was
tapping my shoulder trying to get me to wake up. Melinda and Glen
ended up waiting for about 30 minutes while I tried to get up and
going to hit the road again. I would pay for this the rest of the ride
with Melinda giving me a hard time about over sleeping, but as my wife
will attest, I do not wake up very easily.
I felt very energized and ready to go even though it was raining
pretty steady as we left around 9:30am. I felt very good and the
climbs went very well up Middlebury Gap. Outside of the wind and cold
rain, everything else was going great. We had to descend Middlebury
Gap slowly again due to the rain. I met up with Kevin Kaiser again
who was having troubles with his derailleur. He couldn't get his
bike
to stay in gear and it was starting to get him tired.
After we came down Middlebury Gap, we stopped at a General Store for
the best cup of hot chocolate and peanut M&M's I had ever had. We
ended up spending about 20 minutes there warming back up. After we
left the General Store, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. I had been
having problems keeping my head warm, so I had the idea of putting
one of my spare shower caps over my helmet to keep the wind from
blowing in and to keep the heat in my helmet. I had been using the
shower caps to protect my saddle in the rain. Yeah, this looked goofy,
but at this point in the ride, I didn't care at all about
appearances.
Descending down Killington Mountain, I was hitting speeds of 45-50mph.
My shower cap got caught by the wind and blew off. There was no way
that I was going to stop and climb back up to get it. I figured that
this great descent was not worth losing for a $1 shower cap, so I just
let it go. The descent down Killington was probably the best we had
because the rain had stopped and the road surfaces were in great
condition.
We arrived at Ludlow around 3:20pm.
Saturday 8/21 - Ludlow to Brattleboro 633 Miles:
We decided to take a break at Ludlow and the planned departure time
was around 5pm. I changed jerseys and socks. I took the time to let my
feet breath and air out. I couldn't get over how wrinkled my feet
were
from being wet for so long. I think in the future, I will place extra
insoles for my shoes in my drop bags so that I can somewhat keep my
shoes dry. Again, the food was great and very refreshing at Ludlow.
We left Ludlow around 5pm, and Kevin Kaiser decided to join us at this
point. I was feeling good even though as soon as you turn out of the
Ludlow control you have a 6-7 mile climb. The climb was going so well
that I challenged Kevin at the top for a KOM event. He accepted and we
sprinted a few hundred yards to the peak. That was a good burn of
energy, but I probably won't do that again. It was risky to do at
this
point in the ride, but very fun at that. We both enjoyed it and took a
quick breather at the top of Mt. Terrible. We met up with a couple of
other riders from California at the top and we rode with for about the
next 10-15 miles.
Later on into the evening, we tried to take a quick break in a
driveway right off of the road. As soon as we got settled down,
Melinda yells "Car, Car". We all jump up as the car whips
into the
driveway. It was the owners of the house who said that it was fine
for us to take a break there. After quickly jumping up, my adrenaline
was pumping way too high to get any rest. Shortly after this incident,
we hear another car coming to almost a screeching halt. It was the
mechanic for BMB. He was just checking on us because it scared him to
death to come over the hill and see these bikes lying off to the side
of the road. The rest of the route to Brattleboro was dry and nice. We
made good time and arrived at Brattleboro around 10:30pm.
We arrived in Brattleboro to cheers and clapping from Anne and Ken
Davis. It was good to see them. They helped us get our BMB business
taken care of and chatted with us for about 30 minutes. Anne was
questioning me and checking me out because she had strict orders from
my wife to call and give a real update of how I was doing. I guess me
saying that I was all right wasn't acceptable to my wife. She
wanted
an outside opinion.
We all cleaned up and took a rest in a room that Glen had reserved. We
were up and on the road again around midnight.
Sunday 8/22 - Brattleboro to New Salem 670 Miles:
It was kind of a slow start. At this point, the muscles were getting
worn out and taking 10 to 15 minutes to get the blood flowing again. I
had put on my jacket on top of my arm warmers at the control. After
about 20 minutes of riding and a couple of climbs, I knew this
wasn't
going to work because I was getting too hot. I pulled over to take my
jacket off and told the group to move on, as I would catch up.
As Friday night was a very difficult night for me, I think this was
the night that Melinda and Glen were going to have a hard time. After
about 3 hours of riding, we had to pull over, and Glen suggested that
we pull into this bank parking lot. Again, we were all tired and not
thinking straight. I didn't sleep much because I was just waiting
for
a police officer to whip in there. I am sure that it looks pretty
strange with 5 people laying in the parking lot right in front of the
bank.
Again, my lights were really fading at this point. I ended up riding
next to Kevin the whole night so that I could see the road from his
lights.
As we began to see the sun come up, we were getting close to New
Salem. I was beginning to smell the coffee a very tiny bit. This was
getting me pumped up as I was starting to feel that I am really going
to complete BMB. We arrived in New Salem around 5:20am. We decided to
sleep for a while and requested an 8am wake up. The cots in New Salem
were great with padding. I could of stayed there for hours.
Sunday 8/22 - New Salem to Newton 750 Miles:
We woke up around 7:45am and started rustling around to get ready to
hit the road for the last time. I was so glad to have only one more
stop. I was beginning to get excited. I called my wife to check in
with her and let her know where we were around 8am. She read me a
message that Mike had sent her. It was a very uplifting note and it
really motivated me to get going.
We pulled out of Bullard Farms around 8:15am. I had a mission to
accomplish and was pedaling fast from the start. About 5 miles into
the leg, Kevin asked me if I was going to be able to hold this pace
for the rest of the trip. I responded with "I don't know, but
I am
going to take it while I can." It was one of those mornings where
it
was cool, but the sun was hitting just right to keep you warm. It was
the best weather day we had seen the whole trip. I felt bad for
leaving Glen and Melinda back, but I wanted to keep going while I
could. I figured they were riding together and Kevin and I were riding
together, so nobody was left alone to ride.
Just like Mike had warned me, I had a smile on my face as soon as my
odometer hit 58 miles. At that point I thought I just had 20 miles to
go. This smile got so big that I could of knocked somebody down when I
realized the leg was 71 miles and not 78 miles. That meant that
instead of 20 miles remaining, I only had 14 miles or so left. Kevin
had made the same mistake, which I think allowed us to kick it up even
another notch. I am not sure if I really flew in as fast as I thought,
but being the end of BMB, I was on cloud nine and floating in with the
biggest sense of accomplishment that I had ever had. We arrived in
Newton around 1:25pm to a crowd of supporters ringing bells, cheering
and clapping. It was an unbelievable feeling that I had to even wipe a
few tears out of my eyes. The emotion that came over me was
overwhelming. I couldn't believe that I had done it. As Doyce
Johnson
handed me my Sam Adams, I couldn't help but remember that Mike
told me
to really enjoy this because they will never taste as good as they do
after crossing the finish line at BMB.
Summary
It was September last year during the MS 150 ride that I challenged
Ken Davis to attempt to do BMB this year with me. Although I made the
statement in a joking manner, it somehow turned into a reality.
Would I do it again? You betcha. I am already trying to figure out how
I can schedule it next year.
The randaneurring experience got started off to a rough start in 2004.
I wanted to ride all of the Florida brevets in order to qualify on the
flats and do the Georgia brevets as practice for BMB. This placed an
extreme hardship on my family, and it did not leave a good taste of
this type of cycling in Christy's mind. Every time I went to
Florida
was at least a two-day experience. I would be so tired when I got home
that I was not very much help around the house and with the kids.
Christy managed to put up with it. I applaud her for all of her
support that she gave me this year. I ended up riding the Florida
brevets and the Georgia 600.
Even though Christy didn't get to come to Boston, she was there
the
whole time in spirit. The updates I was providing her and that she was
providing Mike allowed her to be in touch with the entire ride. I
think she got about as much sleep between Thursday and Sunday as I
did. It was a very therapeutic experience for her, and I definitely
owe her for being so involved. She is a trooper along with my kids. I
know my kids are too young to understand, but I hope they see the
importance of cycling to me.