The Beach Was Reached!

Date: Saturday, May 19th, 2007
Ride Time: 5:44
Distance: 104.3 miles
Average speed: 17.3 mph

Justin and I made the 100 mile Reach the Beach ride in triumphant fashion and quaffed our victorious pints like pillaging Viking warlords.

The ride was great. We loaded up our pockets with all the free ClifShots and bars we could hold and left the start line at about 7:30AM amid a wash of other Portland cyclists. We kept a good, fast pace as we headed out south west from Portland, and I was surprised that the route actually went up Kruger road, which is a fairly long climb. The descent off of Kruger was so much fun, and both Justin and I were feeling great. We stopped and quickly filled our water bottles and kept rolling on towards Amity.

It began to be clear that the headwind we had been riding into all day was not going to subside; in fact, it was gaining strength as we made our way west. There was one stretch of about 7 or 8 miles that was on pretty rough pavement with a direct headwind, which was the worst bit. Once we made it through that stretch, we were fine and everything else seemed like cake.

The last rest stop we took advantage of was in Grand Ronde, which left about 25 miles to the end. After we filled up our water bottles and at some more bars and ClifShots, we headed out. I felt unusually strong still, and decided to hammer to the end. There was a stretch coming down off the costal range to the beach that was just amazing... it wound along the river and had a great road surface and no wind because of the tree cover. My legs felt great and I had lots of energy due to all the free snacks, so I was flying. There was one bit where Haystack Rock careens into view as you drop out of the hills, indicating that the end is near; which is an awesome feeling, and gave me another boost.

I quickly found myself being cheered on by a bunch of folks as I pulled into Pacific City and on to the Pelican Brew Pub where the finish line was. It was pretty cool to have a bunch of strangers cheering me on as I pulled into the parking lot. It took me a second to realize that it was really the end, and I totally felt like I could have kept going. The worst part about the end was the fact that they were blasting Hootie and the Blowfish through the PA.

I checked my bike into the storage lot, resisted the strong urge to get beer and waited for Justin to arrive, which he did only about 15 mins behind me. We went straight through the food line, which turned out to be a less than stellar spread of bland and unimpressive, fajita-like fixings, but fortunately, there was beer and we did quaff.

Mandy and Violet showed up a little later and we chowed some food and enjoyed the cycling nerdy and the fine Pelican Brewpub's beer. We ran into Lon and Sally, who also rode the 100 miles.

All in all, it was a great ride with no mechanical or medical problems and decent enough weather. We had a house at the beach with a hot tub and a weekend-long babysitter, so the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing on the beach. Good times.