Saturday, June 1, 2013

Harpeth River Ride

   Today was the day if one of my favorite triathlons - the Mach Tenn Tri. Unfortunately, due to my ankle, I couldn't race it. However, since I CAN ride, I signed up for the Harpeth River Ride. The HRR is a fantastic local ride that is put on by the Harpeth Bike Club and is now in it's 18th year.  Dudley and I have participated maybe 4-5 times in the past. It's amazing to see how this ride has grown. When we first rode it years ago, it was big for a club-sponsored ride (maybe a few hundred people) and started at a local school. Fast forward a few years...today it started and finished at Nissan HQ (title sponsor), had about 1,500 riders AND now has a music festival afterwards that Blues Traveler headlined. The past two years, when Nissan sponsored the Radio Shack cycling team, had pro riders like Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner come out and ride. Of course, the cycling drug scandal that resulted in Nissan dropping their sponsorship of the RS team put an end to the big name pros coming out, but it's still quite the event.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.

   I signed up for the metric century (62-miles), but had decided late this week that I'd probably switch to the 44-mile route. It kind of depended on the weather, but it's also a really hilly ride. I figured I'd ride the first 25 with the 62-mile group, which is where the 44-mile group split off. If I felt Ok, I'd go on and do the metric. If not, I'd go with the 44-milers.
   At check in, I ran into East Nasty and Fab 5 member Kevin. He was riding the 62-mile route as well. He's training for an Ironman. I am not. I told him I'd hang with him if I could, but wasn't going to kill myself (I was feeling kind of wimpy this morning, if you couldn't tell).
   We lined up with the other 62-milers. The HRR has grown so much that they have a staggered start. The first riders are VIPS, then the 100-milers, then the 62-milers and so on until the 12-mile riders start. The race organizer would let about 50 people start at a time and had gates to help stagger the start. You would think this would have helped with congestion, but it really didn't that much. We were pretty much in heavy traffic until the first rest area at mile 17. 
   Due the the congestion, we couldn't really ride fast, so staying with Kevin wasn't an issue. That is until mile 5 when I hit a rut in the road and BOTH of my water bottles popped out of their holders. Yes, I was THAT girl who had to pull over to retrieve her stuff from the middle of the road. With about 1,000 cyclists riding towards her. No - that's not dangerous. Fortunately, I was already riding on the right side of the road so I didn't have to weave through riders to pull over AND there was a very nice police officer who had picked up my water bottles for me. Thank you, kind sir.
   One thing that is nice about the HRR is that they have exceptional rest areas. The one at mile 17 pretty much had everything a rider could possibly want: sandwiches, cookies, fruit, muffins, pickles, trail mix, water, gatorade - I could go on. I didn't stay there too long, as it looked like it was about to rain. This was also when I decided to only ride the 44-mile route. The winds had picked up and I really didn't want to get rained on. If it was an important training ride or a race, I'd ride in the rain. But considering I'm just getting over an injury, I didn't see the need to risk a nasty fall by riding a hilly route in the rain.
   It was after the rest area that the ride started getting interesting. And by interesting, I mean really, stupid hilly. Check out this elevation chart.


It's not the best visual, but see those two pointy things in the middle? Those are two of the most ridiculous hills I've ever scaled. While they aren't technically straight up, they certainly felt like it. The first one was steeper, but the second one was longer. That one is called "Pulltight Hill," and it's kind of legendary in local riding circles. The ride organizers actually created a "King of the Mountain" competition up this hill. (Sidebar: next time I sign up for a ride with a KOM competition, don't bring my tri bike. Tri bikes don't like hills.) If I hadn't already decided to cut the ride short before climbing these hills, I probably would have afterwards. They were killer.
   One funny story about the hills. When climbing the first one (about half-way up), I passed a female cyclist standing on the side of the road looking at a map. She asked those of us riding if we knew where the 24-mile ride turn off was. I would have laughed out loud if I hadn't been so deep in the pain cave from climbing. Bless her heart, the turn off was around mile 6. We were now at mile 20-something. I just said "Oh - it was a while back, before the rest area." I'm sure she wasn't happy at that news. 
   The remainder of the ride was pretty uneventful. Some rolling hills, but nothing like Pulltight Hill. Fortunately, it never rained, though there were some gusts of wind that almost blew me off the road. I was very ready to get off the bike by the time the finish finally came around.

Finishers medals. Nice touch.

   Overall, it was a great ride with one or two small issues. The first being the congestion of riders. I'm not sure what else the ride organizers could have done, but those first 15 miles or so were pretty dangerous. The problem with a huge ride like this is that cyclists get a false sense of security. Some tend to forget that they're riding on open roads with other riders and cars. They'll ride four across the road and not move. There were several times when I'd yell "on your left" or even "car back" and riders wouldn't budge. I passed two ladies late in the ride who were just tooling around in the middle of the road, you know, chatting. Don't get me wrong, I get it (and have been guilty of doing the same thing). It's a long day in the saddle and it's nice to have someone to talk to. But PLEASE, be smart. Move over when cyclists and cars try to pass.
   My other issue was that the rest area after Pulltight Hill was a mile and a half off the main route and wasn't well-marked. It was actually so far off the main route that every rider I saw thought we were going the wrong direction and turned around. It wasn't a huge deal today, more of an annoyance than anything, because it wasn't that hot. If it had been warmer, people might have really needed water after all of that climbing. A few signs would have really helped. (Sidebar: Remember the girl who missed her turn off? I ran into her again after looking for the rest areas. I pulled over to talk to a police officer who was directing traffic to let him know that he might have some lost cyclists wandering about looking for the rest area. She was there and told me she specifically wanted the 24-mile route because she didn't want hills. Bless her heart (again). I'm 99% sure she called someone to come pick her up. She was DONE.)
  But as I said, it was a great ride. If you have any interest in riding, you should consider this next year. With routes ranging from 12 to 100 miles, it has something for riders of every ability. Just be ready for Pulltight Hill if you ride the 44+ mile routes. And don't bring your tri bike.  

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