MS150 Day 2

Everyone assembled in the early morning light to prepare fo the second day of the ride.  Even though the flesh was sore and achy, spirits were high and we were ready for the days ride!  Today we had 19 people heading out of the ride.  The short ride route is here, and the long route is here.  

Since John did such an excellent job of writing about his experience, I will let him describe day two of the ride.

The first 10 mile section (there were rest stops every 10 miles), going through Nambé to Chimayó, was pretty hard for me, even though I was taking it much more slowly than normal. To my surprise and delight, my legs were in better shape that morning than I had feared. All my effort icing down my legs at the end of Saturday's ride, and massaging and stretching them, helped a great deal, and I have my fitness educator, Callie, to thank for the advice on this. That first ten miles was mostly uphill, and working like that brought back mild belly cramps that went away on the flats, and I was generally fatigued from being behind on sleep. However, the stunning scenery was a great, positive diversion. The landscape there (between Pojoaque and Chimayó) was incredible, and made even more beautiful by the color sprayed on it by the rising sun. I was again really sorry I had not brought a camera, and I will be getting copies of pictures taken by teammates. Particularly breathtaking was the view from atop the hill ahead of the first rest stop, looking down onto Chimayó in the valley below. 

Sunday's routes were identical, except right after this first rest stop. From there, the long route included an out-and-back spur that went up 1400 feet (topping out at 8000 feet elevation) over six miles to the town of Truchas. Truchas is the town that stood in as fictional "Milagro" (because the real town of that name is not nearly so photogenic) in the film The Milagro Beanfield War, a delightful little film we saw years ago (Truchas is also mentioned in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop). I had originally planned to do the long route, but with the lack of adequate sleep a second consecutive night and the lingering belly cramps, I didn't want to push myself too hard. In fact, at that point in the day, I wasn't sure I could even finish the short route, so I stayed with the smaller part of our team that did not take the turn to Truchas.

Let me interrupt quickly and talk about the ride up to Truches.  It is an out-and-back leg from Chimayo to Truchas.  It is not an easy or forgiving ride but amazingly we had 13 riders complete the long ride on day two!  It is a six mile slog uphill with the grueling hill made worse by two distinct sections of 10% grade.  Total elevation gain of ~1500 ft in 6 miles.  We split up into 3 main groups, the two speed demons Chris and Danny arriving first, a second big group with about 9 riders in it arriving a little bit after, and followed quickly by the rearguard who arrive just after that.

It is a rewarding experience to be up at the top, drinking a cycletini (gatorade with a green olive in it served in a martini glass) looking over the Española valley to Los Alamos glittering in the sun on the other side of the valley over 30 miles away.  But the best part?  Knowing you have a 16 mile down hill stretch in front of you!  The top speeds clocked by our team on this segment were around 47-48 miles per hour.  Fun!

Now back to John and his eloquent prose:

The next eight miles or so, going from Chimayó to Española was one of the most fun and delightful rides I can remember. This was due in no small part to the fact that it was a nearly continuous, gentle downhill route, which I really needed at that point. Even without that aspect, it would have been a very nice ride. The road goes parallel to at least one stream, so the area is green and lined with tall, old shade trees, and winds lazily through a series of small towns comprising mostly older adobe, pueblo-style architecture - quintessential northern NM. The morning was still cool and damp, traffic was very light and the pedaling was easy enough to make a 20 MPH pace almost effortless. When we got back into Española, I wanted to turn around and go back through that route (I'll bet it seemed even more enchanting for the riders coming down from Truchas)!

After scenery like that, just about anything else would have been a letdown, and going through Española (a town that would never be described as picturesque) was no exception. After passing through Santa Clara Pueblo, SW of Española, the vistas were much more broad and bleak. The climb up the hill before the interchange with NM 502 (Los Alamos Hwy), west of San Ildefonso Pueblo was a tough one for most of us. However, shortly after getting on 502, we were greeted by one of the loudest, most enthusiastic groups of volunteers at the final rest stop, cheering us each as we pulled in, which gave me a real lift.

The climb up the highway from there was pretty grueling. It was getting warm enough to matter, our legs were tired and my butt was getting quite saddle-sore. After climbing a few long hills, though, it mostly leveled out, and we knew there were no more big climbs left as we started seeing road signs for our destination. Our little group of five riders got stretched out as we tried to grind out the last few miles, so we didn't manage to finish right together. I was alone as I approached the finish area, and heard "We have another rider!" over the speakers. There was lots of cheering, clapping, cowbells, air horns and great enthusiasm from everyone in the finish area as I crossed under the banner, making me feel like a real champion! The little girl who had the microphone, tried hard to match numbers with names, so she could welcome us back, so I heard "Welcome back, John!" shortly after crossing the line!

The speedsters finished around 10 am, with the large group of 9 riders sticking together and crossing the finish line around 11:30 am.  Our last two riders were not far behind and they crossed around noon.  We certainly lived up to our name - no one came in last!

All told a fantastic weekend and I hope that we can convince even more people to ride with us next year!

Early morning calorie cramming.

Rest stop 1 - epic coffee and donuts.

In Truchas after the long climb.

Almost done!