Original 600K Ride Report

This is a ride report from Ottawa. Okay. I did the Original Ottawa 600 this past weekend starting on the 17th. Initially, it was supposed to be the Denbigh 600 but there were no hotel accomodations in Denbigh and Westport. Supposedly, Westport had a Dualthon and I think a Triathlon going on there. It was peak season for the resort that the club used the previous year. It was really only an issue for my wife and I. I had to promise to stop and sleep. My wife knows me better than I know myself most times. She had visions of me wandering around sleep deprived getting more and more lost.

What with alot of other Ottawa Chapter members going out for the Rocky Mountain 1200, There was only myself and Mike Lau doing the ride. I don't think Mike sleeps, at least not on rides.

I got up at 3:45 am, had a quick shower. My wife surprised me by being awake. She wanted to see me off. Our seven year old was deeply asleep and had already said he did not want get up to drop Daddy off.

I guess I slept fairly well but I had been ruminating about switching bike bags for a larger one. I wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. So I went for the larger bag, filled with alot of things I never used. With all the talk of rain and thunderstorms it never rained on Saturday. I worried so much about things I did not need that I forgot my third water bottle. I got to the checkpoint about 5:10 after wasting time worrying. Mike had already left. My map and brevet card were on his windshield. Mike knows my bike and the only change I had made was new brake pads. I was using my Davinci touring bike for the fenders and the chance of rain. Only all my recent training had been on my old Bianchi with a 53-39 crank, I had just put on replacing 52-42 Gipiemme it had come with. And my new toy, a beater bike with a flip-flop rear hub and a track front wheel.

Just a quick question for the people who ride fixed alot. Is a 42-16 set-up too high or too low. I have heard mixed opinions mostly from couriers here. I rode fixed In Montreal with a 42-16 until my knees blew up. But Montreal is all hills and Ottawa is flat. Also I feel there is greater benefit when I train with the fixed over my regular bikes. Is it true? Or am I just being subjective?

On the way to the first checkpoint the overstuffed bag fell off twice.

Mike had kindly posted his old check-in times,on the Ottawa Chapter web site, at various checkpoints from previous years when he had done the ride. I knew I was not going to approach any of those times. Somebody recently requested the elevation for the Westport Hill, I don't know what it is but it is nothing compared to the 2.3 km Foymount Hill. Before and after it things are spiced up by numerous smaller hills.

I was rolling along pretty well anticipating getting to Kingston around 11:30 pm. Vernacher General store was the third checkpoint. I had stopped there to confirm some directions on the Vernacher 300. (I rode that one alone too. Mike Lau and David McCaw were off setting a record.) There was just about nothing in the store so this time I stopped early got some water, coke and chocolate milk at another store. Thank God. When I got to Vernacher they had closed the store permanently. I got someone out playing with her dog to sign my card. I figured I could restock again before Westport.

Nothing was open, finally I found a pop machine outside an ice cream parlour in Maberly. The guy who had just closed the Ice Cream Store changed my five and I restocked with water, Gatorade and Coke. I craved Coke throughout the ride. Outside of the energy bars, I carried with me I only some cookies I bought in Pakenham at the first control. Otherwise everything was liquid: Chocolate milk, chocolate milk shakes (the ones you shake yourself) , water, Coke and Pepsi.

Things got dark fast on the way to Westport. The gentleman at the Ice Cream Store had said it was one third uphill and two thirds down, and I have to agree. Lot's of wildlife even some bats who flew in close for the bugs circling my head whenever I used my dual beam pezl headlamp. I had fooled myself into believing that bugs do not bite me. My wife said I just never notice and do not seem to react to blackfly and mosquito bites the way most people do. She turned out to be right. Under the light of pezl I saw lots of bugs come in for an evening meal on my legs and arms. I just do not react. Next day I could not find a single spot which I'd call a bite.

I pulled into Westport about 10:00 pm. The checkpoint gas station was just closing. The clerks let me know Mike had passed through around 8 pm and added they thought I was crazy to be riding on to Kingston.

What is it with people and high beams? Everytime somebody would ignore me flashing the high beam on the pezl as well as the five watt light on the bike and leave their high beams on I would be temporarily blinded. Strange and worse than that the lights seemed to attract me causing me to the centre of the road. Once I caught myself completely on the wrong side of the road. I had a real struggle trying to stay at the edge of the unpaved shoulder.

I met Mike coming into Perth Village as I was going out. He asked if I had enough food. And pushed on when I said no problem.

I checked into Denny's at 12:30 am. Woke my wife to get into the room, entered quietly not wanting to wake my son who had tried to stay up until I came in. My wife had called me on the cell, I was carrying somewhere between Maberly and Westport just before it really got dark so she had a rough idea when I was getting in.

I had a quick bath ate a couple of Arby's junior sandwiches (Arby's is always better in the States, why?) and got to bed about one.

In the morning we had a leisurely family breakfast at Denny's, I had the meat lover's breakfast. Nothing bothered my stomach the whole ride. I rode out of Kingston about 09:20. I figured no problem I had about 12 hours to get to Ottawa. I lightened my load before I left, transferring everything I did not figure I would need to the trunk of our car.

I was averaging just 23-24 km/hr all the way to Westport. Stopped there at the checkpoint from the previous night and had more chocolate milk and coke. Refilled all my waterbottles, three of them now.

Just after finishing Westport Hill, I met Pat Chen out for a trainng ride going into Kingston. He'd passed Mike earlier on the outskirts of Ottawa. Mike had told him to watch for me.

I kept going, flowing with the terrain, not killing myself; coasting down long descents and some not so long and then pedalling like crazy up the other side aided by my momentum. Stopped again just past Maberly. Spoke with a cyclist restocking there too who I had seen just miss becoming a traffic statistic when he ran the stop sign at Maberly. He was talking about the 130 km, he had already done. He did not have much to say when I said I was around 480 myself. Said something about his back not being able to take real long distance. He got even quieter when I just showed my back brace.

My back hurt on and off. Nothing that adjusting the brace, changing position and taking ibuprophen could not help. The other rider had complained that his herniated disc might act up on real long distances. My disc according to the neurosurgeon is ground to dust with just a barely visible residue to tell them one had been there before. He shook his head when he told me he'd never seen anything like it. No problem I just cannot do the limbo anymore. My wife and I suspect the doctors are amazed that I am not using my walker, anymore.

I checked into Lanark with only 15 minutes before the control was to close. Someone saw me looking for the grocery store checkpoint and offered me directions without being asked. When I told him where I was going, he warned me about all the hills. What an inspiration! I covered the last 92 km (which turned into almost 130 km, thanks to my flawless sense of misdirection) in 4 hours and 34 minutes including two stops one for more coke, the other to flag down a motorist for directions.

First I missed the Country Road out of Almonte, it was well-marked one way but not the other. I had to approach it from the poorly marked side. May be due fatigue or due to a genetic disposition for getting lost I did not pay attention to my odometer to note I had gone further than I needed to. Not a problem. Worked out to be an extras 10 km. Then closer to Ottawa I discovered that Ashton Station Road is not called Ashton Station Road anymore. I flagged down a car to help with this one. It was raining now, and my rain jacket happened to have been part of my load lightening.

Just a summer rain. I heard and saw the lightning, but it never came close.

The driver I flagged down told me I had to turn around and go back 9 or 10 km. I refused. I was almost there.

It was wierd to find myself going faster at the end than I had for the whole trip. I was averaging close to 30 km/hr. My back began to spasm and arms and hands were cramping.

I stopped drank a bottle of powerade, took some ibuprophen and two puffs of ventolin (I am asthmatic), and I was off again.

Somewhere along Flewellyn Road I was having thoughts of calling my wife to pick me up at Eagleson Road. I had already done over 600 km, well over I remembered riding to the starting point.

My wife called me. She asked when she should be at Britannia Park where the ride had started. An hour or forty-five minutes? I said 45 minutes and just pushed on.

When I pulled in, I was still going fast and actually felt I had another 100 km in me. But why push it.

I e-mailed Mike and received his congratulations for finishing.

My wife told me again and again there should have been some sort of fanfare. I did not really care. I did it. I had fun and even managed some family time at breakfast in Kingston along the way.

I had been thinking about the new Ottawa-Quebec-Ottawa 1000. May be next year. But there is a 400 in August to finish my series. Probably....

There you go, an unusual thing a ride report from Ottawa.