“I’m pretty sure I felt more comfortable while getting that stem cell transplant,” I told myself. “Well, maybe not.”

Chris, Joby and I grinded our way up the foothills of Mount Rainier to get to the town of Greenwater. I think by “town”, they mean “store”. The temperature was in the mid to high thirties, and we were all still pretty well soaked from the 60+ previous miles of constant, cold rain. There was snow still in piles on the ground, resisting the temptation to melt. It was a slow and relatively steady grade to the control point, lasting 27 miles and peaking out around 1,700 feet.

It was a day of many firsts for me. This ride marks the furthest I’ve ever ridden in a single day, the highest elevation I’ve ever climbed to, the best food has ever tasted post ride, the most bike malfunctions our group has ever suffered, the strongest I’ve ever felt climbing, and the most calories I’ve ever needed to stuff down my throat.

We started the figure 8 style loop at Greg Cox’s house in East Kent (on the highest hill in town of course) at 7am. After a few miles of cruising, we saw Matt on his way to the starting point to sign in. I felt bad that I only have the capacity for 3 bikes on the car. Honestly, I’m surprised that we fit that many with the size of bags we all carry. The group shuffled down towards Dash Point and we followed a similar route of what we took on the training ride earlier this year. It looped around the sound and provided some beautiful views of Tacoma.

We swept out of Auburn to hook on to Green Valley Road. I’ve covered this route a few times and it is always beautiful. The difference this time, however, was that the group rode the opposite direction to Black Diamond that I’ve done in the past. To the left, there is a steady 10 mile climb to the bakery. To the right, the same elevation is jammed in to under 2 miles. Naturally, SIR chose the right.

After destroying a donut from the bakery, we started what Dr. Codfish described as “the slog to Greenwater“. It was indeed a slog. To make you feel even better, you get to watch the people out front pass the other direction on their return from Greenwater. By this point we were near the back of the pack due to multiple tire and tube malfunctions. It felt like an eternity passed between Black Diamond and the Circle K in Enumclaw.

The sun finally graced us with its presence about 80 miles in to the ride. The didn’t stop, but the sun was there to say hello. I think we all got a second wind from it. I took us on what turned out to be our only mistake of the day, adding about 4 miles to the trip. After getting back on track, we reached the Circle K. We refilled on water, ate some chocolate, and went back into a good and steady pace.

The final 20 miles or so held a couple of climbs in the 8 to 10% grade range. It wasn’t the most pleasant time to be climbing a hill. We groaned and grunted and reached Greg’s house again. He and his wife had stupid amounts of food waiting for the SIR riders. Apparently they’ve hosted this for a number of years. We had far too many calories to replace, so we went to work.

200k by the numbers:
Flat tires – 6
Road kill – 9
Miles ridden – 129
Feet climbed – 7,385
Avg. Temp – 43°
Calories burned – 9,000-10,000
Time on road – 11 hours 30 minutes
Time spent riding – 8 hours 41 minutes
Avg. Speed – 14.8 mph

Awesome.