On Whidbey Island

Tour de Whidbey - 70 mile bike race

Chris is loading on the bikes. We are ready to leave Langley to head up to Deception Pass.

The race is just about ready to start. Here is our group (Alan, Chris, Bruce, and Doug). Barbara (the photographer) drove us up.

This is the group that greeted us at the end! Given how we felt we tried to lie down on the stretcher, but since we were still walking they said we couldn't stay long.
At the END! As you can see, Doug is hold me up (otherwise, I would have fallen over).

Here are some of the race details:

- We got up at 5:30am and left from Chris/Barbara's at about 6:10am.
- The race started at 7:40am.
- Doug was ambitious and kept pace with the lead group (about 8 people). He said this only lasted for 5 miles, then he was by himself for the next 35 miles.
- Chris and Bruce stayed pretty much together for the first 45 miles. At about the 35 mile point, Chris lost his chain and Bruce carried on for about 5 miles (until Chris caught up to him).
- At the 40 mile point, we caught up to Doug.
- We made it to the 3rd rest stop and this was in Greenbank (at the 45 mile point). We had skipped the first two stops (in retrospect, this might not have been a good idea). Doug and Bruce just about collapsed at this point. Chris had been pushing us too hard. He took off after about a 30 second break while we stayed and had an apple, water, cookies, and some fruit roll-ups. We stayed for about 10 minutes until we finally realized that the finish line was not getting any closer.
- The legs, the knees, the hands, the neck, the shoulders, even the hair ... had been in the same place for the last 2 3/4 hours, so we were pretty sore. We had averaged 16.5 mph, but we were dead tired.
- We kept going and trudged along the final 25 miles, finishing the whole race in exactly 5 hours.

It was quite an accomplishment for us and Doug/Bruce crossed the finish line together. Doug could have easily pushed a bit more at the end, but he thought it was fitting to end the race this way. Chris finished in 4 hours and 42 minutes and Alan finished in 5 hours and 40 minutes. There were about 50 racers that did the 1-day event (about 100 did the 2-day event). There were a few other people that passed us along the way, so we probably came in about 15th place. It was an informal type run, so they didn't keep offcial times ... we were pretty happy that we just made it to the end!

Tour de Whidbey link


Chris is loading on the bikes.	We are ready to leave Langley to head up to Deception Pass.

The race is just about ready to start.	Here is our group (Alan, Chris, Bruce, and Doug). Barbara (the photographer) drove us up.

This is the group that greeted us at the end! Given how we felt we tried to lie down on the stretcher, but since we were still walking they said we couldn't stay long.	At the END! As you can see, Doug is hold me up (otherwise, I would have fallen over).