What is RAMROD?
Credit to the Redmond Cycling Club for the following information
RAMROD [Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day] is the Pacific Northwest's premiere one-day ultra-marathon cycling event. It combines the incomparable scenery of Mount Rainier National Park with a challenging course featuring 10,000 feet of climbing over 149 miles. The course begins in Enumclaw, WA and takes riders through the rolling hills near Eatonville, Elbe and Ashford before entering the Mount Rainier National Park. You'll be challenged by three climbs: a 12 mile ascent to Inspiration Point (4,850 ft), the 3 mile Backbone Ridge climb and the challenging 9-mile Cayuse Pass ascent (4,694 ft).
Preparation
In preparation for RAMROD, I signed up for several local challenges. In March, I did the annual Slick 50, a 50-miler in Minneapolis. In May I did the Almanzo 100, a 100-mile gravel ride in Spring Valley, MN. In June I did the MS150 Bike Tour, a 2-day, 150-mile ride - but I turned it into the MS300 by foregoing the Friday bus ride up to Duluth and riding up with 5 other guys. All that and a couple of solo centuries and I hoped I was good to go - in spite of the fact that Minnesota has no way to replicate a 12-mile climb.
Obstacles
The ride was July 25th. On June 29th, I broke my nose mountain biking at Cuyuna near Crosby, MN. Didn't keep me from putting in one more century ride on July 7th, but that was the end of my training. I had major nose surgery on July 10th that had me laid up for a few days. On top of that, my heart went into atrial fibrillation while I was under anesthesia and didn't self correct like it was supposed to do. My confidence dwindled quite a bit. When my cardiologist gave me permission to ride, I was elated, but I honestly didn't know if I could even do it. My plans were to enjoy as much of it as I could.
Finally, the night before we left for Seattle, my heart returned to a good strong steady beat. I was obviously delighted, but there was a tiny part of me that thought - there goes my excuse. I still didn't know if I could do it or not. I hadn't ridden for a week and a half, and the surgery took a lot out of me.
But I got a few 20-30 mile rides in after getting to Seattle, and my confidence started to return.
Ride Day
Up at 3:15 am, on the road by 3:45 to get to the starting line by 4:15. Breakfast at the high school cafeteria was... was... was the reason we arrived early. Next time I'll get 30 more minutes of sleep.
Riders could depart anytime after 5am. Not having any idea how long it would take me, I wanted to be ready to go right at 5am. The route closed at 8pm, so I wanted my full 15 hours in case I needed them all.
It was still dark at 5am. And much of the first 30 miles were foggy. I wanted to not over-do it, and I didn't think I was, but my speedometer was reading 20 mph. That seemed fast when I still had 140 miles to go. But I was just spinning freely and not working it, so I decided not to worry about it. Tom from Boise passed me and I started riding with him. We were a good match.
The first rest stop in Eatonville was welcome. I was starting to feel it in my legs, and I hoped it wasn't a bad sign. Couple of blueberry scones and some fresh water (to which I added Nuun electrolyte tablets - which I prefer to all the sugary sport drinks like Gatorade and Powerade) and I was on the road again.
Tom and I rode together all the way to Inspiration Point, the end of the first big climb. I was feeling good and rocked this climb. I lost Tom somewhere on the downhill, probably because gravity loves me much more than him. The second climb was tougher, but much shorter. I rocked that one too. And my fan club (Kristen, Marcia, Don, Linda, Phillip, and Samee) was there cheering me on, ringing the cowbell like crazy. Cowbell compliments of Zach at Cascade Bicycle Studio! I stopped for a kiss from my favorite fan. At this point in the ride, I was passing more people than were passing me. That was about to change.
Climbs in cycling are rated from Category 1 (hardest) to Category 5 (easiest), based on steepness and length. A climb harder than Category 1 is HC, which stands for hors catégorie (“beyond categorization”). I was about to face my first Cat 1 climb.
I was a little surprised how soon into the last climb I found myself dropping into my lowest gear (my bike has 3 front rings and 9 rear rings, making 27 gears). I thought I was doing fine, but the climb just kept going and going and the legs were starting to lose it. I saw someone pull off the road and stretch. That looked like a great idea so I joined them. Just getting off the bike and walking around a little bit brings new life to dead legs. Couple minutes of that and I saddled up again. The new life lasted a little while, but not long. I started watching the odometer and setting goals. My legs had nothing left. I'll try and go 2 miles before I stop again. The next time it was one mile. My mental game was gone as well. The time after that it was less than a mile. But I finally made it.
Fresh water at the top of the climb, and few minutes of rest, and I started the most exhilarating part of the ride. No pedaling required. I coasted at 30-35 mph for almost 20 minutes (10 miles!). And it was on smooth, fresh pavement. It was heavenly!!
At bottom of the descent was the lunch stop. Lunch was made-to-order deli sandwiches so the line moved pretty slow. Had a nice chat with Jeremy, who was also a RAMROD rookie, to help pass the time. Probably spent close to an hour here between getting my lunch and eating my lunch. 30 miles to go!
The stiff headwinds on the last section eliminated the benefit of the slight downhill grade. I was working pretty hard to go 16-17mph and the legs were complaining. I felt that twinge inside my thigh that comes before a major cramp. So I backed off a bit and hoped I could get to the end without cramping up. People passed me. More people passed me. I would have loved to hook on to their train, but it wasn't in me. Eventually though, I started to feel better and a group of 3 passed me that I decided I might be able to keep up with. So I kicked it up a notch and hung on to the end of their line. Not sure if it was the benefit of a pace line or just the mental help of having someone else set the pace, but my legs came back to life and I stayed with that group at 20mph the rest of the way in. The front two guys were strong riders and took turns pulling. I'm sorry to say I didn't take a turn. But believe me, I thanked them profusely when we were done!
I finished about 4:45pm - 11 hours and 45 minutes. That was with about 2 hours of non-moving time. The moving average on my bike computer was just over 15mph.
Was it worth it?
If I just look at the day of the ride, then I'm not sure. There were moments where I really tried to soak in the beauty around me. But mostly I was focused on completing the ride. So it's hard to justify everything for the experience of that particular day.
But when I look at the last 4 months, it's a different story. The ride was fun. But what's deep in my soul is the experience of setting a crazy goal, working toward that goal, and seeing it happen. That is life-changing kind of stuff. That is totally worth it.
Plus I lost weight and got a nose job to boot. I'm like a new person!
Post Ride
So now what? RAMROD has been checked off the bucket list. I don't even want to know how much we spent on this. Between bike gear, airfare, hotels, meals - it's not something I plan to repeat soon. Yes, I'll keep signing up for challenging rides (like Almanzo, which I'm totally hooked on), but they will be local ones for awhile.
On the other hand, Kristen really does want to go to Europe. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I squeezed in a ride somewhere along the way, right? Maybe a stage of Le Tour?
