ornoth_cycling | Entries tagged with bourne

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Well, I got in around 1 o’clock which is about half an hour later than usual. That whole last segment was pretty much pouring rain with a strong headwind, and it was pretty brutal. And it is continuing to pour here at Mass Maritime in Bourne, although I’m gonna try and […] massage and so forth. […] the prospect that the rain might let up, but I don’t see that happening. Definitely finished the day and the ride, but still have about 10 miles to ride to get to the hotel. But generally just got completely soaked. Just finished my shower which is a good thing, but it’s gonna be kind of pointless. Gonna try to find shelter here […] to do anything. That’s it for now; probably will update you maybe later tonight or first thing in the morning with an update about how things have gone since arrival here. […] but the riding is over for the time being. […]

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Okay, we're here at MMA, and the riding portion of the day is over, thankfully! I got a nice long shower, because I got here pretty early and I had the area to myself. And I just finished up with my massage.

I also was delighted to discover that there was a little ice cream truck that they have on site, so I had a free ice cream and a Pepsi, and just downed those as soon as I crossed the finish line, then showered and massaged. Everything's good. I'm still coming down, as far as heart rate and general fatigue level.

I've already been in touch with Jay. He's already arrived, so I'll synch up with him and certainly other friends along the way. I'm looking forward to a long afternoon just hanging out, eating a lot of food, and just enjoying the breeze.

The last segment was really hard of course, but it was only eight miles. It was complicated by some construction and bridge work. As soon as I left the Wareham stop we got our first views of the ocean and also our first significant breezes and headwind. Which wasn't that bad, but it certainly has cooled this immediate area along the coast off. It's only 86 here as opposed to more than 90 that it was at the stop in Wareham. It's gonna be a nice afternoon here, I think. I probably still need to put on some sunscreen.

I'm generally pretty happy with the day. Very tired, and I need to let my muscles and my knees recover, but that's the agenda. I'll be hanging out here at MMA until about 6 o'clock, so I'll have close to five hours here to just hang out and recuperate.

And then of course I will bike another hour out to my hotel in Sandwich, which gives me about another ten or fifteen miles, crossing the Bourne Bridge and going along the bike path up to the hotel... but that's another story!

The next post will be an end of day recap after I get back to Sandwich and have dinner and so forth, so that will be a little late in the evening.

Other than that, I finished in good time: I think it was seven and a quarter hours for 110 miles, and generally happy with the performance. No mechanical probs and just overall it was a good day, aside from the fact that it was oppressively humid. But it could've been a lot worse, and I certainly prefer hot to cold.

That's it, kind of a wrap-up from MMA. I'm very happy and now just gonna sit back and relax and enjoy the afternoon with all my friends here at the Pan-Mass.

Thank you again for your interest, and I'll talk to you again this evening!

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Okay I'm at Mass Maritime Academy in Bourne. The last leg was incredibly windy, and it's very windy here on campus. I managed to finished the entire course in 7 hours which certainly is impressive, given that it's 110 miles. It's very sunny here and very windy. It looks like it'll be a great afternoon. I stayed 20 minutes ahead of Jay all day, so basically kept pace with him, which is good since he's 17 years younger than me! I also just got out of the massage session that we get -- we get 15 minute massage sessions -- and I actually had three women giving me my massage. Usually it's one; if you're lucky you get two people. So that was really nice, so I'm feeling a lot better right now. Next stop is gonna be the food tent, but overall today went astonishingly well despite running out of gas toward the end of the ride, but that's to be expected when you're doing 110 miles! Generally now just need to come down, get my heart rate down, get some food in me, rehydrate, try and put some fuel into my body for tomorrow, which I am steadfastly going to refuse to think of right now. Going to spend the afternoon hanging around near the Cape Cod Canal, which is always a beautiful place. I may stick my toes in the ocean in Buzzards Bay, track down some buddies, just hang out, and then make my way up to Sandwich. The next upate that you'll receive will be from my hotel in Sandwich sometime this evening. Right now I'm having a great time and obviously wish I could communicate that to everyone who sponsored me, everyone who is interested in my ride, because it is a very moving experience and a great weekend, sharing the mission and how much we've accomplished with 5,000 other riders and 3,000 volunteers. It's a huge sense of camaraderie and working with and for other people's benefit. It's very moving, but right now *I'm* moving: to the food tent! So I'm gonna cut this short. Talk to you later, bye!

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Okay, it's 20 minutes of 6 and I am leaving Bourne for the hotel in Sandwich. This is the fun part of the ride, where I get the Cape Cod Canal bike path all to myself for about 10 miles.

The canal is actually 17 miles long and connects Cape Cod Bay with Buzzards Bay. Built in 1909 to 1916 and it's cool because there's like a 6 knot current that goes one way when the tide is coming in, and it's the same speed going the other way going out. It's a really strong current; there's always a strong breeze here, but there's a bike trail on both sides.

I'm Leaving Mass Maritime: Mass Maritime is the second oldest state maritime academy in the US. I'll go past the vertical-lift railroad bridge, which is actually the second longest lift bridge in the United States at a 544-foot main span.

And then I'll actually go over the Bourne Bridge, which is an automotive bridge built in 1933 which has a 616-foot span and it's 135 feet up. It's the twin to the Sagamore Bridge, which I will actually be going under while I'm on the bike path.

But things remain grim as far as for the potential for finding any spokes this weekend. So we're gonna continue to hobble along, but this segment is gonna be nice and easy, and hopefully I will have regained some strength from the rest that I've had. And get into Sandwich shortly, and I'll send an update from Sandwich at some point this evening, before probably a start tomorrow morning around 6am. But that's it from here.

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Well for those of you who've been waiting for the final post, I did in fact make it to Bourne. It was actually quite a slog. I really hit the wall on that last leg, ran out of power and just hobbled in.

Actually though, at the same time, I arrived a couple minutes before 1 o'clock, which I think may be a record, but it's at least 15 minutes ahead of the pace that I had set for myself as a goal. So on one hand it actually was an exceptionally quick ride, but a little bit painful at the end, and of course, I have mechanicals, which...

I just visited the mechanicals tent, or parking lot, or parking space, because there's only one guy with a tire pump, and that's about the extent of the mechanicals here at Bourne. Apparently other repairmen are going to show up later, but again they're not very confident that they'll be able to find a spoke for me even tonight.

So tomorrow may be another ginger day. Fortunately tomorrow is usually a day that I take it much easier, so we'll see how that goes. But we'll try them again around 4 o'clock.

Also since I got in I have of course had my shower and massage, which were nice, a hamburger and a Pepsi (sorry for the product placement). Right now I'm sitting next to the Cape Cod Canal and the view of the Bourne Bridge and the elevated railroad bridge that I'll actually probably talk about later.

I will send another update when I leave, probably either when I leave Bourne for Sandwich or when I get to Sandwich at the hotel, but that won't be until much later in the evening.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon lounging around, ingesting as much as I possibly can to hopefully beat some of this fatigue that I've got, and eventually just passing out in the sun somewhere. It's a beautiful day, the sun is very warm. So it is hot, but there's plenty of shade around and cool breezes.

Very happy day so far, and appreciate everyone's interest and support and of course contributions. It's been a good year; it hasn't been a record-setting year, but at the same time I've reached all my goals. So I'm very happy with it, and enjoying the ride.

That's it for now, and I'll probably send another update in the 6 or 7 o'clock range.

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Okay ladies and gentleman 110 miles down. We are now at Mass Maritime in Bourne. That last section is always very short; it's only about 8 miles, so it wasn't real bad in terms of pain, but I definitely left everything out on the road as it were, as you're supposed to. This is gonna be a brief one. I got in here at Bourne at 1:46 which is exactly on my time schedule, so my estimates were pretty good. Other than that I'm going to go shower and get in the queue for a massage, so that's gonna be it for this message. I'll probably leave another message this evening in preparation for tomorrow, and of course tomorrow there'll be messages starting as early as six in the morning, when I leave the hotel in Sandwich for Provincetown. The remaining 60-80 odd miles of the ride left to go. But the report from day one at least as far as riding is: everything is cool, very happy. Now I get the next 5 hours to hang around and shower, massage, eat as much as I possibly can before I bike back to the hotel. That's it and I'll see you sometime soon!

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Well, I dunno if that last update took, because my cell phone cut out, but I successfully arrived at Bourne. It took awhile to do this update because I had to do some self care in terms of taking a shower, trying to get a massage apppointment (and failing), having some food, and just generally relaxing and cooling off a little bit after a 112 mile ride. Weather here is not bad; it's starting to be a little cooler at least, and there's a breeze off the water of Buzzards Bay, so that's kinda nice. Plan from here is to hang out here till 6pm and eat and just hang out, relax a little, then take the Cape Cod Canal bike path up to Sandwich, where I have a hotel overnight. And I will probably make another update around 6am, when I wind up leaving there. Hope you have enjoyed the updates and that's it for today. Finished 112 miles today, pretty successfully, conserved energy, got a few twinges in my knee, but I think I wound up here 45 mins or an hour later than usual, because I was taking it easy. And hopefully that means I have more legs for tomorrow. Hope you're enjoying the updates and there'll be another series of them tomorrow.