I’ve been sitting on this writeup for a couple of days now. My time has been filled up with a web conference called An Event Apart that my full time employer was kind enough to send me to.

Much like last year when I attended, I’ve come back a stronger designer and anxious to dive back in to my old code for updates. Unfortunately, sometimes actual work gets the best of me so I just need to apply it looking forward.

This last Friday, Chris, Dylan, Jane and our dog Chibi crammed into our car and drove down to Portland. The boys and I had planned on riding the Oregon Randonneur’s 300k that I had enjoyed so much last year. We got in to town fairly late and went out for junk food and beer first thing. It probably wasn’t the smartest move the night before a brevet, but I’ve never been all that smart anyway.

Saturday morning was blur. I know that we had to get up way too early though. I think we might have got 4 hours of sleep before hand, if that. Some oatmeal and coffee was a nice setup for the day though. We loaded the car and head out. I forgot all of the food that I had made for the ride.

Nothing should have gone right that day for me. Beer before hand, a lack of sleep, no food at the start, and lots of climbs in the ride. I had been terrible with the climbs on the last few rides. And yet, I felt stronger than ever. Sometimes it just works out, I guess.

I knew things were working out for me on the climb up to Tillamook. I was able to keep tempo with Dylan, who is always stronger than me (the jerk). He might have been a little more tired than usual, but I’m going to take the small mental victory, okay?

We held together, more or less all the way into Tillamook. I called my mom to say hi and she came out to see us and give me a hug. It was sweet of her. An ORR member named Theo hooked up with us in town and we set off for the 3 Capes loop as a group.

The rain never really stopped all day. Not even that time that the sun came out for a moment. Well, maybe for a minute or two in there. I didn’t take my shoe covers off all day. I willed my rain jacket off for about 15 minutes before I threw it back on.

Somewhere around Cape Lookout, one of Theo’s fleche team members joined up with us. Her name was Asta and she was riding her first ever 300k. She was pretty damned strong and we were lucky to have her on board.

We accordion-ed out at times, but mostly stuck together all the way until around Grande Ronde (200k or so in). Joshua wasn’t feeling up for the pace mentally and we lost track of him. I wasn’t planning on losing anyone in the group, but sometimes things happen kind of organically while out on the road. It’s more effort to sit and wait than it is to just ride out at your own paces. We all know the unspoken rules of randonneuring. Everyone is effectively on their own, even when in a group.

Some lovely tailwinds pushed us hard back towards the start/finish in Forest Grove. It was a great time for them too. We were all starting to fatigue from the day’s tough riding.

We finished in 13 hours and 59 minutes (20 minutes faster than last year) with a healthy stop for lunch and no flats. Joshua finished shortly afterward and we headed back to his house for a great pasta meal and beer. It was another wonderful day out with friends.

All that is left is the 400k and the 600k in order to qualify for Paris Brest Paris. I get to pre-register this weekend though.

I need to learn how to ask for “a damn slice of pizza” in French. Any tips?