Last week I had an appointment with my hand doctor. They took out my stitches and put my hand in a much smaller, removable splint. I can now actually use my right hand. Okay, it's not 100% yet. They gave me a list of exercises to do so that I can get my full range of motion back.
Then today, I saw my spine doctor. He said that I didn't need to see him again and that I didn't need to wear the brace anymore. That was great news. The brace really didn't limit my activities very much, but it was a pain to put on and take off, and it was uncomfortable in certain situations.
I called my hip doctor to see if I can get clearance to go back to work next week. I left a message and I am waiting on a call back. Work wants me to have a note before I come back.
Speaking of work, I am so glad to work where I do right now. Not only do I have good health insurance which is paying the undoubtedly enormous medical bills, but I have enough sick time that I don't have to worry about rushing back. If it was medically necessary, I could take a few months more off and still not miss a paycheck.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
My stint in rehab
As soon as I got to rehab, I was determined to escape. And not just because St. Mary's didn't have cable TV. I wanted to do everything I could to prove that I would be able to take of myself. I would have to do this in order to be able to go home.
When I first got there, I couldn't get out of bed on my own. I had to have someone lift my left leg and lower off the bed. After a few days I was able to do this by myself. I had physical therapy and occupational therapy each day, a total of three hours worth.
They had me practice using a walker. The walker has a platform to rest my right forearm since I am not allowed to put any weight on my right hand. Using the walker was easy because my right leg is more than strong enough to lift my body on its on.
I also learned how to use a sock aid to put on socks without bending over. They also gave me a reacher (to grab things with), and a long handled bath sponge. I learned to use crutches for going up and down stairs.
I celebrated my birthday while I was in rehab. Helen and the kids brought me cup cakes. Helen also brought me a book. This was good because I was starting to feel well enough to get bored.
By the next week I was able to get out of bed in the morning, give myself a sponge bath, and get dressed without any help. Many of the nurses commented that I was a very easy patient. I told them that I was going to be nice for a week, but if that didn't work I was going to be mean so that they would be anxious to get rid of me. Fortunately for them, I got to leave after 8 days--on Valentine's Day.
When I first got there, I couldn't get out of bed on my own. I had to have someone lift my left leg and lower off the bed. After a few days I was able to do this by myself. I had physical therapy and occupational therapy each day, a total of three hours worth.
They had me practice using a walker. The walker has a platform to rest my right forearm since I am not allowed to put any weight on my right hand. Using the walker was easy because my right leg is more than strong enough to lift my body on its on.
I also learned how to use a sock aid to put on socks without bending over. They also gave me a reacher (to grab things with), and a long handled bath sponge. I learned to use crutches for going up and down stairs.
I celebrated my birthday while I was in rehab. Helen and the kids brought me cup cakes. Helen also brought me a book. This was good because I was starting to feel well enough to get bored.
By the next week I was able to get out of bed in the morning, give myself a sponge bath, and get dressed without any help. Many of the nurses commented that I was a very easy patient. I told them that I was going to be nice for a week, but if that didn't work I was going to be mean so that they would be anxious to get rid of me. Fortunately for them, I got to leave after 8 days--on Valentine's Day.
Friday, February 22, 2008
The days after
Eventually, I got a list of my injuries:
I have been calling the hip fracture a "broken hip" but this is not technically correct. A broken hip usually refers to breaking the ball at the top of the femur. I broke the cup that the ball fits into. Apparently this was a poor choice because what I did takes longer to heal.
During my stay in the hospital, I was confined to bed. My right hand was wrapped up from the middle of my arm and only the ends of my fingers and thumbs were sticking out. I was fitted for a brace that would protect my back once I was able to get out of bed.
I was very surprised that I kept a good attitude throughout my hospitalization. Heck, I was in pretty good spirits in the ambulance and the emergency room. I guess I kept thinking that things could be worse. Warning: If someone is in a bad mood, telling them that things could be worse is unlikely to cheer them up.
The hip surgery went well. It seemed to take forever for the anesthesia to wear off. I did not like the confused feeling that I had during that time. I was in a lot of pain the night after the surgery, but I was able to quit using morphine the day after that. I found out that I would have to go to rehab to learn how to do activities of daily living with the restrictions that I had.
Eventually I got to talk to my hand doctor, Dr. Boyer. Hand surgery was scheduled for Wednesday the 6th. I had the surgery and was transferred to rehab at St. Mary's the same day.
- Dislocated left hip and fracture of the acetabulum (hip socket)
- Broken bone in right hand
- Dislocated bone in right hand
- Compression fracture of T12 vertebrae
I have been calling the hip fracture a "broken hip" but this is not technically correct. A broken hip usually refers to breaking the ball at the top of the femur. I broke the cup that the ball fits into. Apparently this was a poor choice because what I did takes longer to heal.
During my stay in the hospital, I was confined to bed. My right hand was wrapped up from the middle of my arm and only the ends of my fingers and thumbs were sticking out. I was fitted for a brace that would protect my back once I was able to get out of bed.
I was very surprised that I kept a good attitude throughout my hospitalization. Heck, I was in pretty good spirits in the ambulance and the emergency room. I guess I kept thinking that things could be worse. Warning: If someone is in a bad mood, telling them that things could be worse is unlikely to cheer them up.
The hip surgery went well. It seemed to take forever for the anesthesia to wear off. I did not like the confused feeling that I had during that time. I was in a lot of pain the night after the surgery, but I was able to quit using morphine the day after that. I found out that I would have to go to rehab to learn how to do activities of daily living with the restrictions that I had.
Eventually I got to talk to my hand doctor, Dr. Boyer. Hand surgery was scheduled for Wednesday the 6th. I had the surgery and was transferred to rehab at St. Mary's the same day.
Not so happy anniversary
On January 29th I was headed home from work around six o'clock. It was my anniversary and Helen had made a special meal. At the intersection of Big Bend and Shrewsbury, a car headed in the opposite direction made a left turn directly in front of me. I yelled when I saw what he was about to do, but it was a cold night and his windows were closed so he couldn't hear me.
My bike struck the right side of his car, around the front wheel. My left side must have then hit the car. I was wearing a helmet but I don't think my head hit anything. I was lying on the ground and I heard the other driver get out of his car and walk around the car. "Shit," I heard him say. Maybe I was just in a bad mood, but it sounded to me like he was more concerned about the inconvenience to him than the injuries to me.
"Call an ambulance, call an ambulance!" was my response. He or someone else said than an ambulance was on the way. I knew that I was hurt and I suspected that my left leg was broken because it hurt a lot and I could not straighten it. I just lay on the cold pavement on my right side with my head resting on my arm.
The police arrived very soon after that. I heard the officer talk to a witness and the other driver. The other driver claimed that he had a green arrow, a fact that I disputed. At some point a woman asked if I wanted her coat. I said, "No, because then you would be cold." I did not actually see any of these people because I wasn't facing them and I wasn't about to try and move.
After a few more minutes, an ambulance arrived. The paramedics strapped me on a back board and loaded me onto a stretcher. I asked if they could please bring my yellow bags (my panniers with their rain covers), and the did. The police officer asked if he could call anyone for me and I asked him to call Helen.
The paramedics asked what hospital I wanted to go to and I said St Mary's. That is the closest hospital to my house. That ER was on diversion so they started checking around to find one that was accepting people. I ended up going to Barnes-Jewish. In the ambulance, the paramedic asked me if I wanted morphine for the pain. I told him no. I thought about it for a second and then said, "Yes. Who am I trying to impress?" He gave me some morphine but I don't know that it helped much.
Once we got to Barnes-Jewish, they unloaded me from the ambulance. We seemed to spend a long time (probably only a few minutes) in what looked like a parking garage. I eventually ended up in an ER "cubical" (I don't know what the proper name is). People asked me the usual questions and they did their usual medical stuff. They gave me more morphine and took some X-rays.
One of the nurses said that they were going to try to get my clothes off without cutting them. I told them to feel free to cut the tights because I thought it would be too painful to get them off. She said that they would try, but if it hurt too much, they would cut them. Actually the tights turned out to be pretty easy to remove and they didn't have to cut any of my clothes.
I was able to call Helen at some point, I'm not sure of the timeline. I expected her to be freaked out but she was actually very calm. She couldn't come to the hospital because she was at home with the kids. I told her that even if she came she would just be sitting in a waiting room.
Eventually a doctor told me that I had a dislocated hip. At first I thought that this was good news. Then he explained that for hips, dislocated pretty much means dislocated and broken. The gave me some other drug and I fell asleep while they put my hip back in place. Eventually I got to my hospital room about 3:00 am.
My bike struck the right side of his car, around the front wheel. My left side must have then hit the car. I was wearing a helmet but I don't think my head hit anything. I was lying on the ground and I heard the other driver get out of his car and walk around the car. "Shit," I heard him say. Maybe I was just in a bad mood, but it sounded to me like he was more concerned about the inconvenience to him than the injuries to me.
"Call an ambulance, call an ambulance!" was my response. He or someone else said than an ambulance was on the way. I knew that I was hurt and I suspected that my left leg was broken because it hurt a lot and I could not straighten it. I just lay on the cold pavement on my right side with my head resting on my arm.
The police arrived very soon after that. I heard the officer talk to a witness and the other driver. The other driver claimed that he had a green arrow, a fact that I disputed. At some point a woman asked if I wanted her coat. I said, "No, because then you would be cold." I did not actually see any of these people because I wasn't facing them and I wasn't about to try and move.
After a few more minutes, an ambulance arrived. The paramedics strapped me on a back board and loaded me onto a stretcher. I asked if they could please bring my yellow bags (my panniers with their rain covers), and the did. The police officer asked if he could call anyone for me and I asked him to call Helen.
The paramedics asked what hospital I wanted to go to and I said St Mary's. That is the closest hospital to my house. That ER was on diversion so they started checking around to find one that was accepting people. I ended up going to Barnes-Jewish. In the ambulance, the paramedic asked me if I wanted morphine for the pain. I told him no. I thought about it for a second and then said, "Yes. Who am I trying to impress?" He gave me some morphine but I don't know that it helped much.
Once we got to Barnes-Jewish, they unloaded me from the ambulance. We seemed to spend a long time (probably only a few minutes) in what looked like a parking garage. I eventually ended up in an ER "cubical" (I don't know what the proper name is). People asked me the usual questions and they did their usual medical stuff. They gave me more morphine and took some X-rays.
One of the nurses said that they were going to try to get my clothes off without cutting them. I told them to feel free to cut the tights because I thought it would be too painful to get them off. She said that they would try, but if it hurt too much, they would cut them. Actually the tights turned out to be pretty easy to remove and they didn't have to cut any of my clothes.
I was able to call Helen at some point, I'm not sure of the timeline. I expected her to be freaked out but she was actually very calm. She couldn't come to the hospital because she was at home with the kids. I told her that even if she came she would just be sitting in a waiting room.
Eventually a doctor told me that I had a dislocated hip. At first I thought that this was good news. Then he explained that for hips, dislocated pretty much means dislocated and broken. The gave me some other drug and I fell asleep while they put my hip back in place. Eventually I got to my hospital room about 3:00 am.
2007 MS-150 Recap
I was originally planning to make 4 longer posts--one for each day of my trip. I kept putting it off because writing it all up was going to be so much work. As Voltaire said "The perfect is the enemy of the good." So I am posting a short message to clear the deck for my next posts.
Day 1
I weighed my bike before I left. The bike plus all the gear I was taking (tent, sleeping bag, clothes, etc.) was 55 pounds. I was surprised by the number of pre-dawn joggers that I saw on the Katy trail. I got rained on a couple of times during the day. In the afternoon I met a couple of riders from the Monsanto MS-150 team. We ended up riding the last few hours together. The last few miles had the big hills that I remembered from the 2nd day of the MS-150 last year. I was hoping to get done around 5:00 but got to the campsite about 7:30.
Stats: 162.8 miles, 15:30 clock time.
Day 2
This was the first day of the MS-150 which was the same route as the second day last year. This was the hillier of the two routes. While I was riding, I told someone else on the Michelob Ultra team what I was doing. He later announced it in front of the entire team when we did our group picture. This made me feel like I had to finish.
Since there were so many hills, I rode by myself most of the time. I climb hills differently than most of the people that I ride with so it is hard to stay with a group. I like to get a running start at the hill and get to the top before I have a chance to get tired.
Stats: 105.92 miles, 8:07 clock time
Day 3
This was flatter than the previous day. The middle section was especially flat and boring. I fell in with a really good group of guys. I was actually glad to get to some of the hills later in the ride. The group broke up before we got to the end.
After I finished, I packed up my gear and started riding home. I made it to North Jefferson and got a shuttle to a hotel.
Stats (MS-150): 98.82 miles, 7:45 clock time
Stats (trip home): 36.50 miles, 3:07 clock time
Day 4
This day was tough. I knew that I had about 120 miles to go. I was also tired and sore. After averaging less than 10 mph in the morning, I started to think about places that Helen could pick me up. When there were 75 miles left I told myself, "75 miles? You can do that! Even if it takes all night."
It was an effort to keep my speed above 12 mph. Then, when I got to Dutzow, my speed started to increase, I was maintaining around 16 mph for long stretched. The only reason I can think of for this is psychological. I had ridden from Dutzow to home before so I knew I could do it.
I had been told that long distance riding was mostly mental. Now I believed it.
I made it home and accomplished my goal.
Stats: 125.57 miles, 12:10 clock time
Day 1
I weighed my bike before I left. The bike plus all the gear I was taking (tent, sleeping bag, clothes, etc.) was 55 pounds. I was surprised by the number of pre-dawn joggers that I saw on the Katy trail. I got rained on a couple of times during the day. In the afternoon I met a couple of riders from the Monsanto MS-150 team. We ended up riding the last few hours together. The last few miles had the big hills that I remembered from the 2nd day of the MS-150 last year. I was hoping to get done around 5:00 but got to the campsite about 7:30.
Stats: 162.8 miles, 15:30 clock time.
Day 2
This was the first day of the MS-150 which was the same route as the second day last year. This was the hillier of the two routes. While I was riding, I told someone else on the Michelob Ultra team what I was doing. He later announced it in front of the entire team when we did our group picture. This made me feel like I had to finish.
Since there were so many hills, I rode by myself most of the time. I climb hills differently than most of the people that I ride with so it is hard to stay with a group. I like to get a running start at the hill and get to the top before I have a chance to get tired.
Stats: 105.92 miles, 8:07 clock time
Day 3
This was flatter than the previous day. The middle section was especially flat and boring. I fell in with a really good group of guys. I was actually glad to get to some of the hills later in the ride. The group broke up before we got to the end.
After I finished, I packed up my gear and started riding home. I made it to North Jefferson and got a shuttle to a hotel.
Stats (MS-150): 98.82 miles, 7:45 clock time
Stats (trip home): 36.50 miles, 3:07 clock time
Day 4
This day was tough. I knew that I had about 120 miles to go. I was also tired and sore. After averaging less than 10 mph in the morning, I started to think about places that Helen could pick me up. When there were 75 miles left I told myself, "75 miles? You can do that! Even if it takes all night."
It was an effort to keep my speed above 12 mph. Then, when I got to Dutzow, my speed started to increase, I was maintaining around 16 mph for long stretched. The only reason I can think of for this is psychological. I had ridden from Dutzow to home before so I knew I could do it.
I had been told that long distance riding was mostly mental. Now I believed it.
I made it home and accomplished my goal.
Stats: 125.57 miles, 12:10 clock time
Thursday, September 6, 2007
My plans for the MS-150
The MS-150 is this weekend in Columbia MO and I am planning on riding in it. Last year I did the century route both days. This year I decided to up the ante a bit. I am taking Friday and Monday off so that I can ride to and from the event.
My plan is:
Friday: Ride to Columbia (160 miles)
Saturday: Ride the century route (100 miles)
Sunday: Ride the century route and part of the way home (130 miles)
Monday: Ride the rest of the way home (130 miles)
I will be camping in Columbia so I will be bringing my tent, sleeping bag, and clothes with me on the bike.
The toughest part of the ride is going to be Friday. The weather is expected to include a nasty headwind and 60% chance of rain. It is also the longest day and I don't really have a good bail-out plan. On Saturday and Sunday I will have SAG support. On Monday, I can always call my wife to bring me the rest of the way home.
Of course, this will give me extra motivation to finish. I am going to try and leave by 4 am on Friday and get to Columbia around 6 pm. Even getting there by 8 wouldn't be too bad.
Wish me luck.
My plan is:
Friday: Ride to Columbia (160 miles)
Saturday: Ride the century route (100 miles)
Sunday: Ride the century route and part of the way home (130 miles)
Monday: Ride the rest of the way home (130 miles)
I will be camping in Columbia so I will be bringing my tent, sleeping bag, and clothes with me on the bike.
The toughest part of the ride is going to be Friday. The weather is expected to include a nasty headwind and 60% chance of rain. It is also the longest day and I don't really have a good bail-out plan. On Saturday and Sunday I will have SAG support. On Monday, I can always call my wife to bring me the rest of the way home.
Of course, this will give me extra motivation to finish. I am going to try and leave by 4 am on Friday and get to Columbia around 6 pm. Even getting there by 8 wouldn't be too bad.
Wish me luck.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
600K
The 600K was two weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to writing it up. The 600K brevet is 600 kilometers (about 375 miles) and there is a time of 40 hours. The clock is always running. The brevet started at 5 am on Saturday and I had to finish by 9 pm on Sunday. In addition to finishing by the cutoff time, there are cutoff times for each of the checkpoints during the ride. I like to imagine that a bear leaves the start at the same time that I do. The bear travels at 15 kph (9 mph) and if he catches me, I'm done. Now it may seem that staying ahead of a bear that is only going 9 mph would be easy, but remember that the bear never stops. Whenever I stop for food, water, or sleep, the bear is catching up.
The route is available at http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Saint-Louis-Area-600K.
The weather report was a little dicey. Scattered thunderstorms were predicted for both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday the winds were out of the SW at 5-10. Sunday, they were out of the W at 15-20. Highs in the upper eighties and lows in the mid sixties. I had been meaning to put fenders on my road bike for a while now and the weather report convinced me to do it for this ride.
The ride started without incident. I stuck to my game plan of starting out slow. I let the fast group disappear into the distance in front of me. The ride starts out heading east towards Pocahontas. For this part, we had a slight tailwind. The fast group never stops in Pocahontas, but I decided to stop to get a snack and use the restroom. I left Pocahontas (24.5 miles) at 6:50. This put about 45 minutes ahead of the bear.
I then headed southeast towards the first checkpoint in Breese. At about mile 40 I caught up to Scott. I had ridden with Scott for part of the 400K (and I had misremembered his name as Chris). We rode the rest of the way into Breese (mile 52) together. As I was about to leave the checkpoint, I remembered that I needed to put more sunblock on. Scott was leaving, but he said that he would ride slowly so that I could catch up. I left Breese at 8:52 (1:40 ahead of the bear).
After I left I passed Jim and Renate. They are an older (than me) husband and wife that were riding together. We formed a mini-paceline and eventually saw Scott ahead of us. Unfortunately when I caught up to Scott, I dropped Jim and Renate.
The second checkpoint was in Okawville at mile 78. After this Scott and I headed east for about 50 miles. This was nice because we had a slight tailwind again. This made up for the time we had been heading south with a slight headwind. We stopped in Irvington, Dix, and Bluford on our way to the next checkpoint in Belle Rive. It rained on us a little bit between Bluford and Belle Rive.
The checkpoint in Belle Rive was at Wilkey's Cafe (mile 140). This is just the type of restaurant that you would expect in a town with a population of 371. The employees there were just so nice to us. "Would you like to sit near the air conditioner, or would than make you too cold?" "Would you like some water?" "Is there anything else that I can get you?" The cliche seems to be true: people in small towns are very friendly. As we were leaving Wilkey's at 4:04, a few other rides were arriving. It also started to drizzle again.
After we stopped at Thompsonville (6:10 pm, mile 167) we could see the dark clouds ahead of us. I told Scott that I thought that the storm would continue to move to the east and we would miss it. I was partially correct. We missed the main portion of the storm but still caught some of the rain as we rode through the trailing edge. Still the rain wasn't too bad.
When we reached Creal Springs (8:04 pm, 190 miles), it was raining a little harder. Several people warned us that it was pretty bad out there. After eating a getting more water. We put on our rain gear and rode east towards the storm. As we rode, we could see huge bolts of lightning crossing the sky in front of us. It was still raining but it certainly wasn't a downpour. I was still hoping that we would not catch up to the storm so that we would stay relatively dry.
Like most of the riders, I had reserved a hotel room in Vienna to spend the night. This was at the 210 mile mark. That would allow me to do 210 miles the first day, sleep a few hours, and do 165 miles the second day. The only downside was that to stay ahead of the bear, I would have to leave the hotel be about 3:30 am.
After riding about 5 miles from Creal Springs we had a choice of routes to get to Vienna. We could either ride along US 45 or we could ride on a bike trail. The organizer strongly recommended the bike trail if we would be riding after dark, so our choice was easy. I had been looking forward to the bike trail as a psychological milestone in the ride.
The trail was crushed limestone, which is better to ride on than gravel but obviously not as good as asphalt. The rain had stopped but we were riding through as wooded area so the trail was a little foggy. The gray fog, combined with the gray trail, made it a little hard to see. With our lights we didn't have trouble seeing the path, it was just hard to see anything else. We tried riding side by side, but the trail was a little too narrow to do that comfortably in the dark. We just took turns leading.
One thing I don't like about riding in the dark is that I can't see my odometer. I did not to see it for navigation because we just had to ride the trail until it ended, but sometimes I like to have some reassurance that I am actually making progress.
The trail must have passed some ponds because at time the croaking of the frogs was incredibly loud. There were also tiny frogs or toads sitting on the path that would hop out of our way as we passed.
As we neared the end, I saw something in the path ahead. With the foggy path and my foggy brain I could not immediately tell what it was. It looked like a rock wall directly across the path. As I got closer I could tell that it was the branches of an enormous tree that had fallen directly across the bike path. I called back to Scott to make sure that he stopped.
The tree looked like it had fallen recently, probably in the storm that had just passed. Neither of us had packed a chainsaw so we considered our options. It was not possible to go around it because the branched extend for quite a ways in both directions. There were also lots of bushes, trees, and mud blocking that option. We eventually decided to go through it. This involved climbing over, under, and through the branches while carrying a bicycle. This was not easy and took us about 20 minutes.
After making our way through the tree, we only had about a quarter mile to go to reach the end of the bike path. That meant it was only a mile or so to the hotel. On the way, we stopped to buy some food at a convenience store. I bought a coke, some chips, and a sandwich to eat once I got to the hotel. We reached the hotel (213 miles) at 10:19 pm. This was later than I had hoped for but I would at least be able to get a little sleep. Scott noticed that his rear wheel was out of true. Something had probably happened to it when he climbed through the tree. He loosened the rear brake so that it wouldn't rub.
We later found out that the fast riders made it though before the tree fell. The riders behind us decided that it was impossible to go through the tree so they backtracked a couple of miles and walked up an embankment to get on US 45. We also found out that the riders ahead of us and behind us both got totally soaked at some point during their rides. We were lucky enough to thread the needle between the storms.
The front desk told us that they would have a continental breakfast set up for us at 2:30 am. I though this was very accommodating of them. When I got to my room I realized that I had left my sandwich sitting on a ledge outside of the convenience store. I had neglected to put it in my bag. Oh well, I had the chips as well as some other food that I had packed in my drop back. I took a shower, ate my food, and went to bed. I got about three hours of sleep from 11:30pm - 2:30am.
In the morning, I had some cheerios and Scott and I were back on the road by about 3:18. The bear kept going the whole time we were sleeping so we were only a few minutes ahead of the bear at this point. This is why we had to build up a lead yesterday.
The first leg this morning was heading east but it was early enough that there wasn't any wind. It was still foggy which made things a little disconcerting. There were times when the road looked flat to me but I was going at least 15 mph without pedaling so I was obviously headed down hill. There weren't any turns for the first twenty miles so we didn't need to worry about navigation.
In Anna we stopped for second breakfast (5:00 am, 235 miles, an hour ahead of the bear). Scott was a bad role model and had a microwave sausage biscuit. I followed his example and that wasn't a good idea for me. The biscuit just sat in my stomach for the next hour or so.
After that we were in the hilly part of Illinois. Yes, there are hills in Illinois--they keep them in the south. A little bit after Anna we turned north towards Alto Pass. Now in Colorado, a name like Alto Pass would involve several thousand feet of climbing. This wasn't that high but it was still a long stretch of climbing. Once we reached the top it was quite beautiful. The sun has just come up and we were riding past some orchards. I sung a few lines of "Oh what a beautiful morning".
We reached Murphsboro (mile 261) and stopped at Hardee's for another breakfast. When we left Scott's back tire was flat. Scott suggested that I go ahead but I stayed to see if I could help. I was hoping it was just a slow leak but while replacing the tube we saw that the rear wheel was damaged. Scott again suggested that I go ahead, so I did. There wasn't much I could do but I was afraid that Scott was just getting rid of me so that he could quit with nobody watching.
I later found out that he got it fixed enough to ride to Pinckneyville where his wife met him with another bike of his. According to the rules, you can only receive support at designated checkpoints so he had to make it the 24 miles to Pinckneyville.
I left Murphsboro at 8:00--less than an hour ahead of the bear. As I rode north towards Pinckneyville the wind started to pick up. I was coming out of the west so it was a crosswind, but I knew that I would be headed into it soon enough. I stopped Pinckneyville (285 miles) for about half an hour. I left at 10:00am, an hour and twenty minutes ahead of the bear. Now I was headed directly into the wind. It was very difficult-in some parts it was a struggle just to go 10 mph. Eventually I reached Eden for a brief rest (303 miles, 11:37).
I stopped in Coulterville for more water and then continued towards Okawville. In once section I got to ride east for a few miles. After I turned, I wondered where the tailwind was because I didn't feel it. Then I realized that I was riding at 15 mph in still air. The wind was directly behind so I didn't feel anything. In this section, someone was driving the route checking on the riders. I said I was doing fine and asked if anyone was still on the route behind me. This is when I found out what had happened with Scott. I also found out that Jim and Renate and a couple of other riders were behind me. At this point I realized that I had more respect for the riders who were behind me that the ones who finished ahead of me. It might be easy for the fast riders (or not), but I know the people behind me were working harder than I was.
I reached Okawville (mile 329, 1:46 pm), which is my favorite convenience store in the world. I felt like I was only 50 miles from the finish. This meant that I should be done in 4 or 5 hours. Okay, 4 or 5 hours doesn't sound good so don't think about it. I should reach New Baden in an hour or so. You should never think about how far it is to the end, just how far it is until the next stop. I left Okawville at 2:28, an hour and 40 minutes ahead of the bear. This section was heading into the wind again.
As I neared New Baden, I saw some riders from the "flat as a pancake" century. The odd thing is that I rode that ride last year for my first century (100-mile ride) ever. In one year I had gone from riding 100 miles to riding 375. I stopped at New Baden and Scott caught up to me. A friend of his was riding that last section of the ride with him. We headed out for the rest of the ride together.
By this point I was pretty tired and my hands, butt, and back were hurting. In the hilly sections earlier I was in the drops going down the hills which puts more pressure on my back. On the bright side, it takes some pressure off my hands. The ride was taking its toll on me but I knew I could keep going.
We made one last stop in St. Jacob (358 miles, 1:50 ahead of the bear) and the headed for the finish. We had talked about stopping in Marine but we decided to just keep going. When we got to Fruit Rd we were headed into the wind again but being so close to the end kept our spirits up.
We finished at 6:50 pm. Our time was 37:50, so we finished with two hours and ten minutes to spare. I didn't really think about it until after the ride was over, but it would have been possible for me to fail at this ride. I also know that I would need to be in better shape to do a 1200K. I'm not going to Paris so I don't need to worry about it this year. If I ever want to do a 1200K I am going to have to do some training.
4 other riders (including Jim and Rebate) finished behind us. I was glad when I found out that they finished. I don't know how many riders started (15-20?), but 12 riders finished.
The route is available at http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Saint-Louis-Area-600K.
The weather report was a little dicey. Scattered thunderstorms were predicted for both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday the winds were out of the SW at 5-10. Sunday, they were out of the W at 15-20. Highs in the upper eighties and lows in the mid sixties. I had been meaning to put fenders on my road bike for a while now and the weather report convinced me to do it for this ride.
The ride started without incident. I stuck to my game plan of starting out slow. I let the fast group disappear into the distance in front of me. The ride starts out heading east towards Pocahontas. For this part, we had a slight tailwind. The fast group never stops in Pocahontas, but I decided to stop to get a snack and use the restroom. I left Pocahontas (24.5 miles) at 6:50. This put about 45 minutes ahead of the bear.
I then headed southeast towards the first checkpoint in Breese. At about mile 40 I caught up to Scott. I had ridden with Scott for part of the 400K (and I had misremembered his name as Chris). We rode the rest of the way into Breese (mile 52) together. As I was about to leave the checkpoint, I remembered that I needed to put more sunblock on. Scott was leaving, but he said that he would ride slowly so that I could catch up. I left Breese at 8:52 (1:40 ahead of the bear).
After I left I passed Jim and Renate. They are an older (than me) husband and wife that were riding together. We formed a mini-paceline and eventually saw Scott ahead of us. Unfortunately when I caught up to Scott, I dropped Jim and Renate.
The second checkpoint was in Okawville at mile 78. After this Scott and I headed east for about 50 miles. This was nice because we had a slight tailwind again. This made up for the time we had been heading south with a slight headwind. We stopped in Irvington, Dix, and Bluford on our way to the next checkpoint in Belle Rive. It rained on us a little bit between Bluford and Belle Rive.
The checkpoint in Belle Rive was at Wilkey's Cafe (mile 140). This is just the type of restaurant that you would expect in a town with a population of 371. The employees there were just so nice to us. "Would you like to sit near the air conditioner, or would than make you too cold?" "Would you like some water?" "Is there anything else that I can get you?" The cliche seems to be true: people in small towns are very friendly. As we were leaving Wilkey's at 4:04, a few other rides were arriving. It also started to drizzle again.
After we stopped at Thompsonville (6:10 pm, mile 167) we could see the dark clouds ahead of us. I told Scott that I thought that the storm would continue to move to the east and we would miss it. I was partially correct. We missed the main portion of the storm but still caught some of the rain as we rode through the trailing edge. Still the rain wasn't too bad.
When we reached Creal Springs (8:04 pm, 190 miles), it was raining a little harder. Several people warned us that it was pretty bad out there. After eating a getting more water. We put on our rain gear and rode east towards the storm. As we rode, we could see huge bolts of lightning crossing the sky in front of us. It was still raining but it certainly wasn't a downpour. I was still hoping that we would not catch up to the storm so that we would stay relatively dry.
Like most of the riders, I had reserved a hotel room in Vienna to spend the night. This was at the 210 mile mark. That would allow me to do 210 miles the first day, sleep a few hours, and do 165 miles the second day. The only downside was that to stay ahead of the bear, I would have to leave the hotel be about 3:30 am.
After riding about 5 miles from Creal Springs we had a choice of routes to get to Vienna. We could either ride along US 45 or we could ride on a bike trail. The organizer strongly recommended the bike trail if we would be riding after dark, so our choice was easy. I had been looking forward to the bike trail as a psychological milestone in the ride.
The trail was crushed limestone, which is better to ride on than gravel but obviously not as good as asphalt. The rain had stopped but we were riding through as wooded area so the trail was a little foggy. The gray fog, combined with the gray trail, made it a little hard to see. With our lights we didn't have trouble seeing the path, it was just hard to see anything else. We tried riding side by side, but the trail was a little too narrow to do that comfortably in the dark. We just took turns leading.
One thing I don't like about riding in the dark is that I can't see my odometer. I did not to see it for navigation because we just had to ride the trail until it ended, but sometimes I like to have some reassurance that I am actually making progress.
The trail must have passed some ponds because at time the croaking of the frogs was incredibly loud. There were also tiny frogs or toads sitting on the path that would hop out of our way as we passed.
As we neared the end, I saw something in the path ahead. With the foggy path and my foggy brain I could not immediately tell what it was. It looked like a rock wall directly across the path. As I got closer I could tell that it was the branches of an enormous tree that had fallen directly across the bike path. I called back to Scott to make sure that he stopped.
The tree looked like it had fallen recently, probably in the storm that had just passed. Neither of us had packed a chainsaw so we considered our options. It was not possible to go around it because the branched extend for quite a ways in both directions. There were also lots of bushes, trees, and mud blocking that option. We eventually decided to go through it. This involved climbing over, under, and through the branches while carrying a bicycle. This was not easy and took us about 20 minutes.
After making our way through the tree, we only had about a quarter mile to go to reach the end of the bike path. That meant it was only a mile or so to the hotel. On the way, we stopped to buy some food at a convenience store. I bought a coke, some chips, and a sandwich to eat once I got to the hotel. We reached the hotel (213 miles) at 10:19 pm. This was later than I had hoped for but I would at least be able to get a little sleep. Scott noticed that his rear wheel was out of true. Something had probably happened to it when he climbed through the tree. He loosened the rear brake so that it wouldn't rub.
We later found out that the fast riders made it though before the tree fell. The riders behind us decided that it was impossible to go through the tree so they backtracked a couple of miles and walked up an embankment to get on US 45. We also found out that the riders ahead of us and behind us both got totally soaked at some point during their rides. We were lucky enough to thread the needle between the storms.
The front desk told us that they would have a continental breakfast set up for us at 2:30 am. I though this was very accommodating of them. When I got to my room I realized that I had left my sandwich sitting on a ledge outside of the convenience store. I had neglected to put it in my bag. Oh well, I had the chips as well as some other food that I had packed in my drop back. I took a shower, ate my food, and went to bed. I got about three hours of sleep from 11:30pm - 2:30am.
In the morning, I had some cheerios and Scott and I were back on the road by about 3:18. The bear kept going the whole time we were sleeping so we were only a few minutes ahead of the bear at this point. This is why we had to build up a lead yesterday.
The first leg this morning was heading east but it was early enough that there wasn't any wind. It was still foggy which made things a little disconcerting. There were times when the road looked flat to me but I was going at least 15 mph without pedaling so I was obviously headed down hill. There weren't any turns for the first twenty miles so we didn't need to worry about navigation.
In Anna we stopped for second breakfast (5:00 am, 235 miles, an hour ahead of the bear). Scott was a bad role model and had a microwave sausage biscuit. I followed his example and that wasn't a good idea for me. The biscuit just sat in my stomach for the next hour or so.
After that we were in the hilly part of Illinois. Yes, there are hills in Illinois--they keep them in the south. A little bit after Anna we turned north towards Alto Pass. Now in Colorado, a name like Alto Pass would involve several thousand feet of climbing. This wasn't that high but it was still a long stretch of climbing. Once we reached the top it was quite beautiful. The sun has just come up and we were riding past some orchards. I sung a few lines of "Oh what a beautiful morning".
We reached Murphsboro (mile 261) and stopped at Hardee's for another breakfast. When we left Scott's back tire was flat. Scott suggested that I go ahead but I stayed to see if I could help. I was hoping it was just a slow leak but while replacing the tube we saw that the rear wheel was damaged. Scott again suggested that I go ahead, so I did. There wasn't much I could do but I was afraid that Scott was just getting rid of me so that he could quit with nobody watching.
I later found out that he got it fixed enough to ride to Pinckneyville where his wife met him with another bike of his. According to the rules, you can only receive support at designated checkpoints so he had to make it the 24 miles to Pinckneyville.
I left Murphsboro at 8:00--less than an hour ahead of the bear. As I rode north towards Pinckneyville the wind started to pick up. I was coming out of the west so it was a crosswind, but I knew that I would be headed into it soon enough. I stopped Pinckneyville (285 miles) for about half an hour. I left at 10:00am, an hour and twenty minutes ahead of the bear. Now I was headed directly into the wind. It was very difficult-in some parts it was a struggle just to go 10 mph. Eventually I reached Eden for a brief rest (303 miles, 11:37).
I stopped in Coulterville for more water and then continued towards Okawville. In once section I got to ride east for a few miles. After I turned, I wondered where the tailwind was because I didn't feel it. Then I realized that I was riding at 15 mph in still air. The wind was directly behind so I didn't feel anything. In this section, someone was driving the route checking on the riders. I said I was doing fine and asked if anyone was still on the route behind me. This is when I found out what had happened with Scott. I also found out that Jim and Renate and a couple of other riders were behind me. At this point I realized that I had more respect for the riders who were behind me that the ones who finished ahead of me. It might be easy for the fast riders (or not), but I know the people behind me were working harder than I was.
I reached Okawville (mile 329, 1:46 pm), which is my favorite convenience store in the world. I felt like I was only 50 miles from the finish. This meant that I should be done in 4 or 5 hours. Okay, 4 or 5 hours doesn't sound good so don't think about it. I should reach New Baden in an hour or so. You should never think about how far it is to the end, just how far it is until the next stop. I left Okawville at 2:28, an hour and 40 minutes ahead of the bear. This section was heading into the wind again.
As I neared New Baden, I saw some riders from the "flat as a pancake" century. The odd thing is that I rode that ride last year for my first century (100-mile ride) ever. In one year I had gone from riding 100 miles to riding 375. I stopped at New Baden and Scott caught up to me. A friend of his was riding that last section of the ride with him. We headed out for the rest of the ride together.
By this point I was pretty tired and my hands, butt, and back were hurting. In the hilly sections earlier I was in the drops going down the hills which puts more pressure on my back. On the bright side, it takes some pressure off my hands. The ride was taking its toll on me but I knew I could keep going.
We made one last stop in St. Jacob (358 miles, 1:50 ahead of the bear) and the headed for the finish. We had talked about stopping in Marine but we decided to just keep going. When we got to Fruit Rd we were headed into the wind again but being so close to the end kept our spirits up.
We finished at 6:50 pm. Our time was 37:50, so we finished with two hours and ten minutes to spare. I didn't really think about it until after the ride was over, but it would have been possible for me to fail at this ride. I also know that I would need to be in better shape to do a 1200K. I'm not going to Paris so I don't need to worry about it this year. If I ever want to do a 1200K I am going to have to do some training.
4 other riders (including Jim and Rebate) finished behind us. I was glad when I found out that they finished. I don't know how many riders started (15-20?), but 12 riders finished.
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