Blazing Saddles

Since I’ve been logging a bunch of hours on the bike, I figured I’d give the Blazing Saddles ride a go again this year. I put the call out to all the runners I know (who are also bikers) in my quest to get someone to join me.  Christin Doneski answered the call and convinced me to do the 100 mile as we’d done last year.  I kind of swore off 100s after last year when my arthritic ankle was not happy with me after the ride.  I think 100 kilometers is probably the longest I should ride.  We got just about a perfect day for the ride with temps in the 70s and lower humidity.  This was a huge improvement over the 90 degrees last year.  At exactly 7am we headed off, after I knocked my Garmin computer off the bike as I pushed the start button.  An ominous start.  That was by far the worst thing that happened on the ride.

We headed west out of Byfield into Groveland, then north through West Newbury and crossed the Merrimack River on Rocks Bridge.  That brought us into Haverhill and the first point where other course distance branched off.  We’d only seen a few groups thus far as we were among the first to start.  Our route continued south into Haverhill before taking a nearly 180 degree turn and heading over the border into NH.  A few more fast riders went by as we passed through the nicer outskirts of Plaistow and then turned northeast into Newton NH.  We reached our first support stop at 27 miles and were efficient grabbing a snack (Clif bar for me) and topping off bottles and getting back on the bikes within 6 minutes.  Only a quarter of the ride done, but it was going by easily. 

The mostly downhill riding from Newton to Merrimac (MA) and then onto Pleasant Valley Road in Amesbury featured some nice riding along the Merrimack River.  There was a solid breeze which had people at the aid station wondering how it would be when we got along the ocean.  I guessed it’d be a cross wind, but we had a lot of miles to get through before that.  For now, we were getting re-passed by people who had passed us early but took longer breaks.  This would happen several times during the ride (some would pass us four times!).  Most were nice, calling out “on your left” but a few came by at very high speed and never said a word passing way too close for comfort.  Not sure what that was about.  Perhaps we were viewed as outsiders since I was the only one out of the 300+ people riding to be on a touring bike and Christin was the only one on a cyclo-cross bike.  I was also the only one with a kickstand, which I still don’t get why people don’t have them.  It only adds a little weight and is so useful!  We continued heading east through Amesbury then crossed the Merrimack heading south over the chain bridge into Newburyport.  We passed a guy on the climb up Ferry road, and he complimented us on our “fast ride” as we went by.  I offered him encouragement and wished him a pleasant ride.  The parking lot at Maudsley was hopping!  This was a “bonus” aid station, mostly for the shorter rides.  Since we had a stop coming up at 50 miles it wasn’t worth it to stop at 41 so we rolled onward.

 We continued south into West Newbury and then headed east into Newbury for our second stop of the day.  We were efficient again, I got a strawberry fig bar and topped off my bottle and saddled up again in 5 minutes.  No messing around.  There were a lot of people at this aid station and spirits were high as we headed onto the second half of this adventure.  More nice scenery as we headed south in Rowley.  Then a somewhat busy stretch on route 133 heading into Ipswich.  For the most part drivers were very nice we got a lot of waves from people, and we were also generous with our “thank you” when people let by.  Next up was a nice stretch out and back to Little Neck with a loop around the very scenic (and kind of hilly) peninsula that had great views of Plum Island and Plum Island sound.  The wind was not bad, as it seemed to be mostly a cross wind.  We saw a lot of the groups ahead of us as they came back into Ipswich and surprisingly saw quite a few behind us as we headed back inland. 

 This was the point last year where I wished we were doing 100km, but as we hit 65 miles, I was still feeling okay.  We were riding steadily, and it had clouded up now which kept it even cooler.  We headed south into Hamilton and some quiet roads through Appleton Farms.  There were only a few groups passing by and I was focused on getting to the 78 mile aid station at Bradley Palmer and was even starting to think about what I’d have to eat at the finish.  There was a good crowd at the aid station, but we were in and out of there in six minutes, I got some Gatorade and another Clif bar and was still eating as we headed out. We headed southwest into Topsfield and one of the few times during the day we were stopped at a light.  We just missed crossing route 1 and then the light did NOT cycle back to us!  It was funny as at that moment Bob Strout (long-time Winners Circle runner) came biking by heading up route 1.  We didn’t wait for the light to get back to us and got a good gap in traffic and headed off.  There was a tough little hill at 81 miles, it was only 100’ but I felt it.  

A little later a group went by us, and the last rider commented “I can’t believe you are riding with those pedals”.  I had no response to that; I was also the only person out there who had the old school toe clips with straps. Hey, whatever works!    We turned north into Boxford and Georgetown.  The last tough little bump was at 97 miles.  A rider on the side of the road with a cramp asked how far to go and I was happy to say only 4 miles.  I saw him after the ride, and he told me he hadn’t done any riding this YEAR and that maybe 100 miles was a bad idea.  Yikes!  It was all gravy after the final hill, and we reached the finish in less than 7 hours (6:54:07).  Our moving time was 6:41:42 or about 15.2 miles per hour.  We reached the 100 mile point in 6:36:55 which was 10 minutes faster than last year, I put most of that down to better conditions this year.  I wasn’t really all that hungry after but enjoyed some brownies and a couple of cookies.  It was a fun day, but like I said last year I’ll probably stick to shorter rides.  My ankle was sore post ride and I hobbled around the rest of the weekend.