A big day for some, not so big for others

It is a big day for those who've trained hard, often for years, in anticipation of the Furnace Creek 508 which starts today at 6:30AM. After a few years of riding these crazy events I've met a few of the participants of this year's FC508. I wish them, and all the competitors, a great race and awesome adventure.

(photo credit for all racer "mugshots" to AdventureCorps)

John "Geoduck" Pearch finished 42:00:24

                         See Geoduck's location via his SPOT tracker

Rob "ZomBee" James
DNF :-( 

                              See ZomBee's location via his SPOT tracker

Chris "RAM" Ragsdale finished 33:05:07

Mike and Joan  "Trojan Rabbits" Diechtman finished 32:41:22

Janine Spence and Catharina Berge members of the 4x "Rock Ewe"
finish  28:23:30

 

Adam "Rock Rabbit" Bickett finished 33:52:35

       

Janice "Wooshkeetaan" Sheufelt finished 33:53:57

and a nice wrap up with George Thomas's interview of the Furnace Creek 508 director, Chris Kostman

       

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As for me, I'm heading out to ride a 40 mile loop, twice.  80 miles on mostly bike paths with a few friends.  Hardly a life changing adventure, but will be fun none the less.

UPDATE
  Well, I did get out for that ride today.  Four others joined me for a fun day in the sunshine.

We rode the 40 Mile Loop, which despite the photo above, is mostly on dedicated bike paths.
One of the first paths we encountered today was the Peninsula Crossing Trail. This path is very dark at night but is quite enjoyable during daylight hours. Here's a short segment of that trail.



There was a brisk wind coming out of the Columbia Gorge, perhaps 25-30 mph.  We rode into that as we were on the Marine Drive Bike Path on the shores of the Columbia River. My friends struggled a bit with the wind, but Paula managed to keep a smile on her face.

  The rest of the group only planned on riding one loop so they weren't as concerned with time as I was. We rode a bit slower pace and spent a lot more time stopped than I would have if I were riding alone, but it was nice to have the company.  We stopped for lunch at Cartlandia.

(Eric Shalit photo)

We arrived back at Oaks Park after 6 hours of fun.

 My friends went their respective ways, I took off on lap two.  I had considered riding the route counter clockwise so I'd have a tailwind along that exposed stretch of the Marine Drive path, but changed my mind when I realized that with a 4PM start I'd likely be finishing up in darkness, or close to it. That would put me on roads at dusk as where riding the route clockwise would have me on the road section early in the ride while the sun was still relatively high in the sky.

I pedaled a bit harder on lap two, but more importantly, did not stop.  I finished in 3 hours, just as it was getting dark.

It was a good day on the bike.

 ............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
 Today..........80..............0.............0..........0...........80
Jan...........105.............34.............0..........0..........139
Feb...........428............108.............0.........24..........536
March.........809..............0.............0.........22..........831 
April........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010 
May..........1000..............0............20..........0.........1020
June.........1500..............0.............0..........0.........1500
July.........1558..............0.............0..........0.........1558
Aug...........531..............0.............0..........0..........531
Sept..........730..............0.............0..........0..........730
Oct............215..............0..............0..........0...........215
YTD..........7872............142............20.........46.........8031