Word spread pretty quickly that we were looking for a possible 12 hour 30 minute 300K. That wasn’t my idea of fun, but I knew that I wanted to do my best to keep up with Joshua Bryant and his scrappy gang of Oregon Randonneurs.

“I feel like we are the Bad News Bears compared to SIR,” ORR’s Michael Johnson told me early into the ride. “You guys get pampered at controls; Foot massages, gourmet food, air conditioned tents.”

I managed to keep up with the heavy hitters until we hit the major climb up Wilson River highway going towards Tillamook. The tempo was just going too high and I resigned myself to riding solo for a while. It was a beautiful road that never seemed to be too far from amazing rivers. It was still pretty cold out and I was happy to have full tights on that morning.

I was surprised to see Joshua hanging out along the roadside after some of the major descending. He said he was cramping up and decided to wait back for me. We latched on with a couple of other riders and somehow caught a major tailwind east to west into Tillamook.

We caught up to newbie SIR member Dylan (on his first 300!) at the Shell gas station in Tillamook. We did our best to make the stop efficient and hit the road again. The three of us rode out to the 3 Capes bike route starting along Bayoceran Road. It was a stunningly beautiful start with the waterfront pushing up along the road closer than is probably safe year round. I had one of those moments where it all connects, “This is why I do this”. You couldn’t ask for a more amazing riding road.

We handled the climb up Cape Meares without too much issue. I could tell that Joshua wasn’t feeling super hot, but we all kept a pretty solid pace anyways. Every cape seemed to have an awesome descent and picturesque view of the ocean. The photos I took are going to have to stand in for where my descriptions can not.

Right before the climb to Cape Lookout, we took a little stretch break and were pretty shocked when Michael and most of the rest of the fast group rolled in behind us. They had spent a little more time at the control in Tillamook and were just catching up. They let us latch on and we all took the climb together. It was steep and long, but it felt pretty good to be with this group of guys. And the views, my god, the views….

We decided that Grateful Bread Bakery would be our destination in Pacific City. I was the only one smart (or dumb) enough to actually get a sandwich. It ended up being a monster of meat, cheese and buttered bread. It was glorious, but I was pretty aware that it could have killed my ride if I didn’t be careful. I ate half and bagged the rest for the near future. It was good to have some hot food in me.

We kept pretty well together onto Little Nestucca River Road and we treated with some light headwinds on the climb back into the valley. It was surely a sign of things to come. We split up quite a bit on the Summit to Sourgrass. Joshua fell off the back and I used it as an excuse to stretch the legs a bit and soft pedal with Dylan. Everyone regrouped at the top and decided that we would stop in Grande Ronde (about 200K into the ride) for a refuel.

I was at the back of our paceline when a massive pothole blew out Joshua’s tire. Nobody else seemed to know what happened as we pulled over to fix it. We rolled into the city a few minutes later to find the rest of the group again.

Joshua dropped off the back again as we pushed on towards Yamhill River Rd. Dylan and I dropped back a bit to see if we could get him to catch up but we never ended up seeing him again. I was kind of bummed out about it, especially since his wife had offered Jane and I dinner that night. Would she be mad at me for ditching him? Where was I going to eat now?!

The farm country in the valley was all really stunning. I did my best to enjoy it, but the headwinds on the last 100K were pretty defeating. I felt like jello at times and pretty much sat on Dylan’s wheel. It didn’t seem to help any because the wind direction was pretty fickle and seemed to move into a crosswind at a moments notice.

Dylan and I talked about food for the whole last part of the ride. We were both starving each other. Where is the best pizza in Seattle? How about brunch? I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

I kept in touch with Jane and let her know that I should be back between 8 and 8:15 or so. Maybe. Probably.

We rolled in at 8:15 or so. I’m not totally sure because we couldn’t seem to find the finish area at first and rolled around the parking lot a bit trying to make sense of it.

I left a note for Joshua to call me and head back to my mom’s house real quick for a shower. She was nice enough to put Jane and I up for the weekend. We had a great time, as always.

Joshua called and we swung back by Forest Grove to take him home. His wife Brit made a glorious roasted chicken meal with all kinds of amazing side dishes. And BEER. YES.

Thanks to EVERYONE involved in all of this madness. I had an amazing time.