To the Beach! To the Beach!

American Lung Association Reach the Beach Charity Ride
May 19, 2007
55 Mile Route from Amity, OR

I wasn't actually going to post a formal report about this ride since I was considering it just another training ride, albeit a very well-supported one, to ramp up to my summer tri season. But I was out on my long run this morning reflecting on the ride, how I felt, the beautiful course, when it hit me like a ton of bricks how far I've come in the last two years. You see, two years ago, I was a casual rider with a love-mostly hate relationship with my bike. I would *hike-a-bike* at the slightest hill. I can hear some of our friends thinking now. Didn't we go to Italy and take a *biking* vacation two years ago? Well, yes. You see, I liked the IDEA of biking at the time. The actual biking part, uh, not so much. Midway through the first day of that vacation, I was castigating myself for ever getting into that mess but I plodded on determined to enjoy myself and figure out this cycling thing if it killed me, and I was almost sure it might. I started to figure out how to really use my gears on day two when I realized that it wasn't about how fast you got up the hill, it was just getting up it. A lot of spinning in my granny gear and I started to hike less through the vacation and actually started enjoying myself and the sport of cycling a bit.

Fast forward, two years....I'm in my second tri season and I told a friend last week how much I loved my tri bike, Bellatrix. I've already put 600 miles on her since she followed me home in November and she is just another extension of me when we're out on the roads, the perfect companion for my longest ride ever - a route which winds through the Willamette Valley, through the Coast Range, and on to what may be my favorite place on the Oregon Coast, Cape Kiwanda.

I now feel the same about cycling as I did about running after Shamrock. I love it! And as an aside, I've always been a fish so you won't be seeing similar reflections about swimming.

Pre-Ride
Not a lot of nerves today. The longest ride I've done leading up to this was 40 miles but I wasn't worried about the extra 15 since I had plenty left in my legs after the 40-miler. Typical running around the house tossing stuff into the car before a day trip. Chad and Nathan were meeting me in Pacific City so they needed buckets, shovels, kites, the usual things to make a toddler happy. Only managed to make some coffee and pour it into travel mugs before we had to hit the road. Forecast was upper 50's with a 30% chance of rain. Perfect if it stayed dry. We got to Amity High School in plenty of time. I ran to the Port-A-Potties and grabbed some bread, peanut butter, and banana from the breakfast station. By the time I got back to the car, Chad already had Bella put back together and topped off the tires. It turned chillier on our drive south so I opted to put tights on over my shorts and wear my shell. One more potty break, some pictures, a kiss & hug for my boys, and I was off.

Amity-Sheridan
I started off spinning easy to warm up a bit. The course was mostly flat with some tiny rollers and wound through serene farmland. Even though I was spinning easy, for me, I was passing an awful lot of people and not getting passed much myself. I was also happy to see that most of the riders were very spread out allowing me to get in aero for long periods of time. Life was good. I was feeling so much joy that I started mooing at the cows, baaing at the sheep, and saying hi to the llamas....what sounds do llamas make anyway? In no time at all, I had covered the ground to the first rest stop in Sheridan. I stopped ate some cookies, refilled my aero bottle, and grabbed a fruit leather bar thing for my Bento Box. I even ran into a minor local celebrity, the weatherman from Channel 8 who was out on the 75-mile ride with his buddies.

Sheridan-Grande Ronde
It was getting warmer so I took off my shell and stuffed it into my jersey before setting off. This part of the ride has the most RR track crossings, many of them heavily potholed, and started the gradual climbs up to the Coast Range Pass. It also featured a nerve-racking stretch on the main highway. That wouldn't have been so bad if half the bike lane was not a rumble strip. But, it is what it is and luckily only lasted about four miles before I turned off on Hebo Road on my way to the next rest stop in the town of Grande Ronde. More of the same at the next stop-cookies, water, Gleukos. I ran into Mr. Weather again and was checking out his ride. A nice Look frame but what really gave me a chuckle was amid all the sweet carbon components, his poor bike bag was being held together by duct tape and he was asking the REI mechanics for more to prevent it from spewing tools all over the road. Another nice rest here before embarking on the last climb and the subsequent sled ride to the beach.

Grande Ronde-Pacific City
The race organizers really did a great job spacing riders since I was able to be in aero for 95% of my ride. There were long stretches where I was even by myself for a few miles. This part of the ride took us through the Siuslaw National Forest and it was gorgeous. Gentle climbs, a bit of confusion where the mountain bikers turned off, and a FUN screaming descent on the backside of the mountain. I saw an upset looking girl on the last climb of the day fumbling with her cell phone. I offered some assistance but she said she was OK.....only to overhear her screaming at her boyfriend for leaving her on the mountain at the next rest stop. Oops. I got out of the mountains and hit a short stretch on 101 before turning off onto the main road to Pacific City. Four miles later and I crossed the finish line amid cheers and bubbles.

Post Ride
Unfortunately, Chad and Nathan missed seeing me come in since they were in the bathroom. But when you have a potty training toddler, you gotta do what you gotta do. We loaded Bella back on the car, I grabbed a quick shower at the local county park, and we headed for lunch at Pelican Brewpub. After lunch, we spent some time in the rider expo, made sandcastles, and cheered other arriving riders in before piling into the car to drive up to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for ice cream. Final stats...55 miles, 3.5 hours, and a tremendous sense of pride in what I accomplished.

Chad's Holy Grail

Inaugural Eugene Marathon
Eugene, OR
Overall Time: 3:07:57
Placement: 95/1497 Overall, 79/835 Male, 23/117 Male 30-34

Beep Beep Beep. 4 AM already. Oh well, it's not like I slept much anyway. Between nerves and a mattress that formed a true V-shape when occupied, I tossed and turned most of the night. I quickly dressed and headed out into the pre-dawn for an easy 10 minute jog to the starting line and back. Fully awake now, I stopped in the hotel lobby for two cups of coffee and headed back to the room to eat my pre-race meal and chill out for a couple hours until I needed to head to the start.

We lined up about 6:45 for the 7 AM gun. I found the 3:10 pace group near the front of the pack and the magnitude of what I was about to attempt finally struck me. Here, in a pack of about 3500 marathoners and half marathoners, I was standing only about 10 feet behind the 40 elite runners who were looking to qualify for the US Olympic Trials. Behind me was about 2 city blocks worth of runners. Could I really do this? The National Anthem was sung by John Keston, an 82 year old marathoner who was running today aiming for a new world record for his age group (he got it finishing in 4:27). Then Jarrod, the guy from the Subway commercials, fired the starting gun and we were off.

The start was fast and without any problems for our group. As we passed the first mile marker, we were about 15 seconds faster than the 7:17 per mile pace needed to run a 3 hour 10 minute marathon and qualify for Boston. I had read many warnings about going out too fast and crashing in the late stages, but I felt good and decided to stay with the pace group for a few miles to see if we could get our pace back closer to the target. Mile 2 featured a small climb and descent. We crossed mile 2 at 30 seconds ahead of pace. This would be a trend that would continue through most of the race. Our pacer was consistently 5-10 seconds per mile faster than goal, but I was feeling good and decided to go with it.

As we crossed mile 4, I finally got a chance to take care of my bladder since long lines before the start kept me from going before. This stop along with the largest climb of the day resulted in my slowest mile of the day, 7:45. I was still 15 seconds ahead of my goal pace as I caught back up with the group about a quarter mile past the 5 mile marker. The harder pace that I had to run in order to catch the 3:10 group had me breathing a little harder than I would have liked, but now i could settle back into a more comfortable pace. I only hoped I hadn't expended too much energy that last mile. The next few miles were non eventful as we settled into a pace only around 7:05 per mile. At mile 10, I needed to make one more quick pit stop for my bladder and made a mental note to skip every third water stop from here on unless the sun came out in full force. This time, since I was still about 30 seconds ahead of my goal, I decided not to push as hard in catching the pace group and simply set a goal to keep the pacer in sight. I knew that as long as I could see him, I was still in good shape.

At mile 12, I first started feeling the effects of the race. My bowels complained a little (maybe I should have left the pepperoni off of last night's pizza) and my legs started the first signs of little nagging pain. I knew that I had a perfect day to race and was still running my fastest half marathon ever so I forced myself to focus on running the next two miles strong and then assess how I was feeling again. It only took about 2 minutes for me to start feeling strong again and passed the halfway mark in 1:34:16, a new personal best by almost 3 minutes. Miles 14-16 felt good and the course flattened out as we ran along the bike paths next to the Willamette River.

I started feeling the doubts again about whether I could hold the pace the rest of the way. This was about the place where my pace had dropped off in the Portland Marathon last October. I focused on maintaining my running form, figuring that if I stayed relaxed and kept my steps going at a consistent rate, I'd stay close to my current pace. I just kept focusing on one mile at a time. As I passed the 19 mile marker, I started to gain confidence. I knew that I had almost a 10 minute cushion with only 7.2 miles to go. I could run the rest of the race at my easiest training pace and still qualify for Boston. Then, near disaster, I rounded the corner expecting to see the 20 mile marker and instead saw “Mile 19”. I had misread the previous marker. NOW I had 7.2 miles to go and only a 2 minute cushion. Fortunately, I was still feeling strong and running my miles ahead of goal pace. About mile 22, I was starting to really feel the affects of 2 and a half hours of hard running. I was still putting in a pace ahead of my goal, but I wasn't sure if I could do that the rest of the way. I had spent the past few miles doing mental arithmetic to determine how much I could slow and still finish under 3:10. I just kept talking myself into running ONE more mile with good form and then I could slow that much more at the end. I also told myself not to worry about passing anyone else the rest of the way. Just stay focused on my own running. It must have worked, because I ran my fastest mile of the day 6:56. I also started passing people again, and not just those that were forced to walk.

By the time I reached mile 25, I knew that I had my 3:10 locked up. I could jog the rest of the way and still make it. With the pressure off, and crowds cheering, I managed to run a 7:07 the last full mile and pushed hard to the finish to try to beat the 3:08 mark. I did it finishing in 3:07:57. I raised my arms in victory as I crossed the finish and realized that I AM GOING TO BOSTON.

For a runner who can never hope to qualify for the Olympics, qualifying for Boston is my Olympics. Boston is the only marathon in the US, outside of the Olympics and National Championships, that requires its competitors to meet a qualifying standard in order to run. Beating the 3:10 standard by more than 2 minutes surpassed my best hopes. Before the race, I felt like I could run a 3:08, based on my training and 10K performances, by I also felt like running a 3:07 pace might put me in serious danger of bonking out in the late stages and missing my 3:10 goal. Overall it was a great day and one I won't soon forget.