#41: Ocean and Burlington High Points: Make it a Century

Arney's Mount (photo by Tom H)

16 May 2015


"Yawn.  Arrgh, whinge, groan, moan, whine, grrrr, complain.  Not quite a snarl, but I’m not ruling it out tomorrow.  Not necessarily a morning person, that’s me.  Don’t be surprised to notice some extra drag from the bungee cord that could mysteriously appear connected to your bike.  Do I sound Jim-level grumpy yet?"

That was Snakehead Ed at 8 p.m. last night, upon resigning himself to a 7 a.m. start from my house on Saturday morning.  Pete's email arrived at the same time; his was grump-free.

Tom's Ocean/Burlington high point ride would push off from Bruno's at 8:30.   Tom knew what I was up to. I had a 19-ish mile route that would get us there, barring mechanicals, with plenty of time to sign in. I'd wanted to front-load the distance more than that, but waking up at 5:30 a.m. is early enough; anything before that would have had me whingeing Ed-style.

Although there were showers in the forecast, we started off  a few minutes after 7:00 in sunlight.
Despite a moderate headwind, we arrived at Bruno's with time enough to refill our water, grab a snack, look at some bikes, and sign in.

Tom, with Jim, had biked in 10 miles from his house.  Chris, Mary, and Herb had done the same from their homes.  Mighty Mike, Jack H, and Ron were the only ones in the parking lot and were wondering where everyone was.  "Didn't anyone else drive?" Jack asked.  Jackie did; she'd parked across the street.

So there were twelve of us, a huge crowd by our standards.  We stuck together until we got near the halfway point, when Mary and Herb decided to go a little more slowly, which had been their plan all along.

The Ocean County high point is east of New Egypt, on Route 539.  A sign alerting us that we were now entering the Barnegat Bay watershed at the top of a small hill was the clue.  Tom stopped there to take a picture of his GPS reading, sending us on to the New Egypt Speedway.  He said the group picture would be better there.

We stopped at the Wawa in Browns Mills.  As is the custom, I handed my muffin stump off to Jim, who made his way through the crowd, as is custom, offering up "Laura's bottom." (Thank you, Dave C, for that gem...)

We turned south.  I looked up a the sky because that's what I do when I'm riding with Tom in the Pinelands.

Neil C agrees with me that, for some of us, himself included, a ride through the Pinelands must include rain. So you know what happened next, because it pretty much had to.  "I can't think of a ride down here in recent memory where I didn't get rained on," I said, as the downpour pelted us.  It was brief, but strong enough that the drops hurt.  At first I thought it might be hailing.  It took longer to get past the wet roads.

Burlington County's high point is Arney's Mount, where we've all been a zillion times.  Tom posed us in front of a miniature windmill that, despite us all having been there a zillion times, none of us has noticed.

During the ride, and I'm not saying when, in order to protect the (*cough*) innocent, this exchange happened:

Slug 1: Do you know the three rules for old men?

Slug 2:  No.

Slug 1:  Laura, you shouldn't hear this.

Me:  I'm half deaf anyway.

Slug 1:  Rule number one is never pass up a bathroom.  Rule number two is never dismiss a fart. Rule number three is never waste a hard-on.

Me:  If I can remember that, it's gonna be the lead-off quote in my blog post.

We had a tailwind pushing us home. Back at Bruno's, we rested and ate some more, then left with Tom and Jim to get in the 18 miles' we'd need to complete our century.

On Gordon Road, Pete asked me how I was feeling.  "Pretty good," I said.  "But that question is only relevant for this moment."  In a century, one can go from good to misery with one pedal stroke.

When we passed Perrineville Road, Ed asked, "Are we doing the full hundred or just 90?"

"What do you think?"  I grinned.  "Would I come all this way for 90 miles?"

I did feel pretty good.  Moving my saddle back by 7 mm after last week's ride made a huge difference. Tom had kept us to a reasonable pace. It was warm enough not to have shivered after the rain. I'd eaten the right way (PB&J on cranberry nut bread rocks!) and had plenty of coffee. I didn't hit my 70-mile wall until well after 80 miles, but it was a short wall, not the 10 miles of misery I'm accustomed to.

Still, I'm taking a rest day tomorrow.