One "Fun" 600k (Laura Kennedy, Apr 05)  

So, here is my weekend, in a nut shell. 

Shawn seems to think that the 600K was fun. I tend to disagree. I am very happy that we finished, and very proud of us for getting through it, but my opinion would be not fun.

The weekend started off well enough - we drove up to Mineral Wells on Friday afternoon, got to the hotel, had time to organize all of our stuff, then head off to dinner with about 40 other lunatics. There is a little Italian restaurant right next to the hotel - I think they were a little overwhelmed by us. Aside from everyone ordering their dinners, about half of the people ordered a second "to-go" entree....to be consumed in the wee hours of the morning after finishing the first 227 mile loop. All went well, and we got to sleep around 10 pm.

Saturday morning started off well enough - Shawn and I were even ready to roll right at the start time! We headed out, and everything was fine....for a few miles. About five miles into the ride I started feeling a little odd....I couldn't quite place what was wrong, but things were definitely off. Over the next thirty miles things only got worse. I was dizzy, had a very strange head-ache (my entire head felt numb and painful at the same time) my entire body felt like it was vibrating, and I could barely pedal the bike. At one point I had to stop by the side of the road - I was pretty sure that our 600K was finished essentially before it started. I absolutely hate to quit, but it was looking like the only option. I knew that if I decided to quit, things would be bad enough that I would have to sit by the side of the road and wait for Shawn to ride back to the hotel to get the truck. After making a few changes in my clothes that I thought might help, we rolled on down the road - at about 11 mph with a tailwind. 

About five miles down the road we came to a convenience store. I drank down a large coffee, and just sat down and tried to figure out what was going on for about fifteen minutes. I decided that I should at least try to make it to the first control, and then take stock again. We stopped for another fifteen minutes there, and I was starting to feel better. I'm not sure if the coffee actually made me feel better, or if being a little strung up on caffeine just distracted me, but it was working. After that - the 40 mile point - I started feeling better and better. At the second control, 78 miles, I was feeling back to normal, and we caught and passed the three guys ahead of us. The rest of the first day went well - even though we took some pretty long stops at the controls, we still made it back to the hotel by 2:15 am. We would have been back by 1:15 am if it weren't for my mystery illness. Once back at the hotel we both took quick showers, scarfed down our to-go meals, and got to bed as quickly as possible. We had agreed to sleep for two hours, and then get ready to leave again. I managed to eek out 2h15m instead....So, at 5:15 we got up and started getting ready to go. We had been warned by the more experienced randonneurs that our stomachs wouldn't be in the best shape after we woke up, and mine certainly wasn't. I ate a poptart, but that's all I could manage.

So starts the second day - a relatively short 150 mile loop.....First of all, I discovered that the sleep I had gotten at the hotel wasn't adequate, as I started to have trouble staying awake on the bike. Many people would wonder how in the world you could fall asleep on a bicycle....I'm here to tell you that it's not that hard. I fell asleep, but woke up just in time to catch myself before I crashed. Luckily Shawn was ahead of me at that point, so he didn't have to witness me jerking like a fish in the bottom of a boat....I very nearly went down, but I didn't...Shortly after that, Shawn got a flat. He had been trying to avoid some glass in the road, and managed to evade most of it, and point it out to me, but there were a few shards that went further than the main pile. We fixed the flat quickly, though he was concerned about the fact that there was a small gash in his new tire. It looked like it was going to hold though. We started up again, and I was still feeling very sleepy. Rather than crash, I decided to once again try sleeping at the side of the road - this time there was a nice wide shoulder. The funny thing is, most people in Texas won't drive by two prone cyclists on the side of the road. Deciding that we weren't going to get any sleep that way, we headed off to the first control - a convenience store that was not open on Sunday mornings. Cathy, the sag (support and gear) driver, had left us food and water. After getting something to eat, I laid down on the mat in front of the coke machine, and took a fifteen minute nap. We left that control with just a 45 minute time cushion - remember this is a time-limited event. We were pretty low for the next 52 miles. 

I was absolutely spent, and didn't know if I was going to be able to finish. I had nothing left to give. Shawn was a little better off, but not much. That changed about five miles before one of the controls, when the small gash in Shawn's tire became a rather large one. The tire had given way and burned right through the tube. Luckily, Shawn carries a folding tire in his giant junk-a-trunk. However, that did make for a twenty minute tire change. Because we were only five miles from the control, and Shawn is a faster rider than I am, he sent me ahead to get out food ready at the control. He rode awfully hard to make up some of the time that we lost from that flat. Luckily, Cathy was at that control as well, and was able to make us sandwiches, along with the ever-present and ride-saving Ensure. Lets just say that I wouldn't have been really comfortable eating at the "diner" at that control. It was a run-down mobile home, with a dining area in the front, a scary kitchen in the middle, and the public restroom (even scarier, Shawn nearly slipped off the 20 degree angle seat) and the too scary to even look at living quarters of the woman who ran the place. I guarantee you the health department knows nothing of the Eliasville Diner. Nor the IRS for that matter. 

We pressed on after that control, dealing with some strong winds and really tired bodies. The next control was just 22 miles, but it seemed to take forever - we were just beat. After eating some lunchables and sitting on the floor of a convenience store in Graham, TX we really started to pick up. There was some momentary concern when it started to rain, but as it turned out we didn't get soaked. At that point we had about 57 miles to go, and seven hours to do it. Barring disaster, we were going to make it. Things really went quite well from there, and we finished strong, with two hours to spare - not bad for the trouble that we had on the course! While I still won't say that it was FUN, I am very glad we did it, and I am really proud of us for sticking it out. In January of this year, our longest rides were 106 and 107 miles. I think we've made an awful lot of progress in five short months! This particular brevet was really good for us as a team - we overcame a lot of adversity, and really worked well together. I know that I couldn't do this without Shawn's support - and he would say the same about me.

Everyone in the Lone Star Randonneurs is really supportive and the ride administrator, Dan Driscoll, was really happy to see us come in. One of the first things Dan said is "HEY! You're super-randonneurs!!" Meaning that we had completed a full series (2,3,4, and 600Ks) in one season. Not to blow our own horns, but it's pretty damn impressive for a couple of rookies to do that. I'm really proud of how hard we've worked this year - and I really want to thank everyone who supported us. Most of all, I want to thank Shawn for being such a great partner....who knew how great it could be???

See you on the road!

Laura