At 3:15 AM, the alarm went off. Why? Because our friend Dave (4x finisher) talked Ruth into a 5 AM start time for the ride. We grabbed our bags and headed south for our very first RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day).

We pulled into the Enumclaw parking lot at 4:35 in the dark and it was almost completely full. We registered, had a bit of back and forth about the layers to wear and crossed the start line at about 5:15 AM. The first 30 miles were through the dusk under overcast skies. We kept the pace easy and were passed over and over again by herds of pacelines. The first stop was disappointing as it was just water and porta-potties -- no food :( I think the picture Ruth snapped of me sums up our mood...

After that, the sun started to come out, our mood improved and we rode through Eatonville to outside of the Nisqually entrance of the park. Finally, 60 miles later, there was some food with delicious fruit there but they ran out of peanut butter -- not something that would EVER happen on Ruth's ride! From there we rode into the park entrance and starting the climb to Paradise. Aside from simply finishing the ride, my goal was to keep Ruth's pace when climbing as she is such a strong climber. I stayed right with her -- surprising her even and followed her as she picked off many who had thundered by us on the flats up to the (almost) top as the route this year was cut a bit short due to construction at the visitor's center. Got a nice picture of Ruth and Dave at our very scenic water stop.

Then we had a nice descent, climbed back up Backbone Ridge to a checkpoint and then another beautiful descent to a terrific rest stop at Box Canyon Picnic Area at mile 88 (yum, chocolate croissants!)

Rode a bit longer to the most challenging part of the ride -- Cayuse Pass, a 9 mile climb at mile 100 of the ride. Right before we started to ascend, we were caught by construction which meant that there was a bit of a bottle-neck with some rather obnoxious other riders who were in a hurry to go by us as soon as we were released :(


I hung in there with Ruth during 8.75 miles of the ascent as she picked off many of the riders one by one. I voted against stopping at the water stop mid-point and wanted to just get it over with. At one point, there was a guy climbing who was "too cool" to wear his helmet and did not like getting passed by Ruth. So he started to chase her but could not keep up and settled in front of me. This made me very unhappy as he should have retired his spandex shorts about 20 washes ago and his large sweaty frame was blocking everything in view. I pulled a break-away -- nothing like translucent shorts for inspiration and continued to chase Ruth up the mountain. During the last 1/4 mile, all I could do was watch her pull ahead (chased by another guy who was inspired by her) and she finished about a 100 yards in front of me. Ruth got a nice picture of Dave at the top.

From there, it was all downhill...to the best rest stop of all because they make custom deli sandwiches for you! Then a gradual 35 mile descent (unfortunately with a wicked headwind, but is normal for the base of Crystal to Enumclaw at that time) to the finish. We were really psyched at the end with a finishing time of 10:07 -- as Ruth said, we can now call ourselves real cyclists :)


After a shower and mini post-race massage, we enjoyed a beer together and bragged a bit more :)

As Ruth put it best: I am proud of us!