Cold Midnight Marathon Ride: Fewer Photos

It's the Midnight Marathon Ride! The kick off event of my cycling year.  The ride is an ad hoc show and go thing.  Thousands of cyclists ride the Boston Marathon route the night before the Boston Marathon.  Many, like me, bicycle out from Boston to Hopkinton, the starting point of the marathon, and then ride back.  The biggest wave of cyclists start at midnight, but there are people out on the course all night long.

Cyclists in Ashland heading west

As always the weather was a concern. This year, it was cold, almost freezing. It had been raining, but it stopped shortly before I was going to roll out at 8 PM.  I wore a fleece helmet liner, a thin gaiter, cycling jersey, winter cycling jacket, a screaming yellow shell, winter cycling gloves, thermal tights, cycling shorts, wool socks, and booties over my shoes.  I also put hand warmers inside my shoes.  In addition to two water bottles, I had hot tea in my bike bottle shaped TK Travel Kuppe.

My friend Jay had a death in the family and a couple of my other regular riding buddies have Raynaud's syndrome, so the cold weather was keeping them off the road.  I arranged to meet up with another friend, Andy, later in the evening along the route (just like last year).

Despite the cold weather there were quite a number of cyclists heading out.  I decided to ride out along Beacon Street instead of Comm Ave.  I thought it meant I would end up riding solo, but I met up with three guys from Framingham.  I guess they were doing a different kind of out and back?  Maybe they drove in and left their car near the finish line?  I can't believe I didn't ask them.  Anyway, they were riding a bit slower than my pace, but I slowed down a bit and showed them my route through quiet side streets that cuts out most of the 128 interchange.  When we got back onto the regular marathon route, I said goodbye and went back to my regular pace.

It was clear out -- there was a slight waxing crescent moon low in the west with Venus shining below it.  Just amazing.

I had a mellow ride out to Hopkinton.  I stopped a couple times to IM family & friends.  It was pretty cold, so I did not like unzipping my jacket to get to my phone & reading glasses. This meant I took far fewer photos this year.  I made a point to check in on cyclists who were stopped by the side of the road and had to stop for one who had taken a spill on the railroad tracks in Framingham.  She was able to raise both arms without any discomfort, so hey, her collar bones were OK!  There are three sets of tracks on the route, two in Framingham and one in Cleveland Circle.  I was glad to be around people who took them all conservatively & safely when I went through them all (NB cross tracks as close to 90 degrees as possible!).

It was great to get to Hopkinton to see my friends Tyler and Marsha.  They were in the gazebo providing water (cold AND hot) as well as Clif bars to the cyclists and rollerbladers there.

Tyler and Marsha (making tea!)

It is just amazing that they come out like this every year.  And it was COLD.  While I was hanging out with them I started to get pretty chilled.  We were also talking to two young women who looked super cold -- they got some hot beverages.  At the time I was worried about them, but later in the ride I met them again while we were going up Heartbreak Hill and they were fine (and riding faster than me).

After saying goodbye to Tyler and Marsha (and thanking them again profusely for their support), I started on the way back to Boston.  It was a bit after 11 PM.  Holy moly I froze on the descent from Hopkinton.  How damp was my cycling kit from sweat?  I found out.  It evaporated and wow, you could feel the heat escaping.  Nice in on a summer day.  Tough on a chilly night. My refilled insulated bike bottle with hot tea in it from Tyler & Marsha was a real treat.  My high speed for the night was 32 mph and it was likely on this bit that I hit it.  For the descent I turned both my headlights on high.  My primary light is a stupid bright MagicShine that I was running on low for most of the night.  I had an optional high capacity battery which ended the night just below 50%.  I also had a secondary PlanetBike light which isn't bad on its own. I kept it off for most of the ride, leaving it in reserve in case there was an issue with my primary light.

DISCO BIKE HELMET!

I was so happy when I finally got off the hill and had to start really pedaling.  On the flip side, Hopkinton and Ashland just fly by.  By the time I got to Framingham I could feel myself warming up nicely.  For a while I played leapfrog with three or four other cyclists who were in a group.  It was their first time doing the ride.  They were kind of impressed with my bluetooth speaker.  I try to keep the volume down, not wanting to be that guy, but it's nice to have a bit of music on these long rides.  I told them it was my bluetooth enabled entertainment/navigation system.  Later on while we were riding together Andy called me and I had the muscle memory to hit the right button to pick up!  OK, it's the same button that you have to hit to start/pause music.  I rarely take calls in the saddle.  

Though the night I noted a disturbing percentage of riders who had no lights -- and some didn't even have reflectors.  It was tough to see them at times, and I saw a couple instances where drivers were giving well-light cyclists a wide berth and coming too close to the unlight cyclists who were very tough to see.  In general traffic was light all night and amazingly polite.  

There were people out on their lawns in a number of places cheering on the riders.  Many of them had small fires going.  In Ashland there was the traditional ENORMOUS bonfire.  

I met up with Andy in Wellesley.  It was great to ride with a friend!  We just chatted the rest of the way to Boston.  Extremely fast roadies passed us impressively.  Other people were having a tough time on Heartbreak Hill.  We just spun our way & talked.  Later on we stopped and I gave him an extra pair of handwarmers I had.  Somehow the group I had been leapfrogging with rejoined us in Brookline.  How they got behind us I'll never know.  

It was amazing to see some of the lights and decorated helmets that some of the riders had.  We also saw a number of people on the heavy Boston bike share "blue bikes".  Ouch.  

It's always tough to ride past my neighborhood.  My warm bed is right over there!  Why am I cycling past it on a cold night?  

We had a nice uneventful ride through Kenmore and then -- a turn or two -- we were coming up on the finish line!  

You can see the finish line from here!

The police wouldn't let us get very close.  The ride is not an official event and you get the feeling it's just barely tolerated.  Well, that's an element of the fun for me.  Even if it meant the cops started firmly asking us to move along.  Oh well.

After a celebratory snack of dates and almonds from my bag we mounted back up and rode back to Brookline.  That cold wind was sure blowing from the west. 

After I got home, I showered, snacked, and when I went to bed I started shivering!  It had been a long cold night.  But a lot of fun.

My Midnight Marathon Ride tips page w/ links to write ups of previous years

Thanks for reading.  Keep the rubber side down.

.  

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

 What did I do over my summer vacation? Besides get to hang out with my whole family? A bunch of cycling on Cape Cod!

I took a day to recover from my 130 mile/209 km ride on Sunday.  Then, it was back in the saddle to enjoy the Cape.  I rode from Brewster out to Ocean View Drive in Wellfleet.  After stopping at the beach to admire the view, I doubled back to PB Boulangerie.

Does it look gorgeous? Well, it is.

I'm in a bread line. Did we lose a war?

There was a long line at the Boulangerie.  I thought about coming back another time, but my kids deserved some pain au chocolat!  Also, I wanted a coffee and an almond croissant.  It took about 30 minutes but I got my pasteries plus some baguette, cheese, and Orangina.  Riding back to my place with a baguette sticking out of my pannier was most definitely a humblebrag.  Oh, you passed me?  Well I have a pannier full of food.  I passed you?  You got passed by a greybearded guy with a pannier full of food.  No matter what the scenario, I was protected from mockery.  Plus I had baguette.

They couldn't sponsor the TdF if it wasn't really good for you, right? (file photo from France)

Later in the week I got to do a short ride with my oldest daughter and then a longish ride out to Truro through the Pamet Marsh/Estuary.  I confirmed that Gelato Joy is still open for business in Wellfleet center.  And that their water bottle filling station works.  And that their iced coffee is better than I remembered.  

Stopping to look out over the Namskaket Marsh on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. 

Ocean View Drive in Wellfleet

A selfie from Ocean View Drive, there's a couple cyclists behind me.

A large iced coffee in Wellfleet at Gelato Joy.  They also have a bathroom & a water fountain/bottle filling station.  The pastry didn't last long enough to be photographed.

Pamet Marsh in Truro. They're letting the salt water back in.  The trees took it on the chin, but more naturally occurring wetland is coming back.   

The rest of the week featured more rides, but I never got back up to above 40 miles for a given day.  My legs were just achy all week -- I never let them really recover.  For the seven days following the Big Ride Out, I got to about 260 miles/418 km.  That is a lot for me these days.  Unquestionably the biggest mileage week since I had Covid last year.

The rail trail by Marconi Beach. It was generally quiet until Labor Day weekend.

That's a well behaved dog on the back of the bike.  On a separate note, and how did I not get a photo of this guy, if you're going to wear a straw boater hat, you must ride an old English three speed, not a mid-90's mountain bike.  I don't make the rules.

Lots of sandals in Wellfleet at Newcomb Hollow.  I saw a hysterical (?) tiff between a married couple there.  The husband didn't want to leave his pricy Tevas there.  

For some reason I was unable to get rid of my helmet strap tanlines over vacation.

There's a big hill going up from Newcomb Hollow.  Really.

One of the things I love about late summer cycling is the occasional smell of Concord grapes in the air.  You get a bunch of this on the Cape in late August.  It's like GRAPES! You can smell them in various places along the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

                             

Why no pictures from a crowded rail trail? Because when it's crowded, I'm not going to take out my phone!  Sigh, overall people are courteous and careful on the bike path.  But there are exceptions. People riding well above their skill level on ebikes, people racing like it's a town line sprint, etc. People.  What are you going to do?  Well, besides trying to ride carefully yourself?  

Who Wants to Stop at Just 100 Miles Anyway?

 

"Hey, I'm renting a place on the Cape in Brewster for vacation.  Interested in riding out there with me?"
"Sure, but only if we ride all the way out to Provincetown."

Eh, why stop at 100 miles (162 km) when you can just go 130 (209 km)?  So went the conversation between me and my riding buddy, Jay.  My friend Richard has developed a very unfortunate triathlon habit and bowed out of long rides with us this summer.

After some last minute complications we agreed to meet up for a 6 AM rollout.  The plan was to ride to Ptown following the Outriders' Route and get Jay there well ahead of the 7:30 ferry back to Boston.  After a rather mediocre night's sleep, I was up quite some time before my alarm was due to go off.  Everything was packed and ready.  I had even made a breakfast sandwich the night before that just needed to be warmed up.

I really do need to figure out how to get a solid night's sleep before big rides.

Richard texted us very early wishing us a good ride.  We both responded, so there wasn't even any stressing about the scenario where one of us overslept his alarm.

The biggest negative of the early morning wakeup was I woke up my oldest daughter.  She's visiting from Jerusalem.  The prospect of a week's family vacation on the Cape was a real treat.

For some reason I didn't ask Jay if he wanted to roll out a bit earlier than planned but there you go.  I went out, he came by, and we were off.

It's that early in the morning. The sun is just rising and there are no cars.

The streets were fairly empty as we rolled out.  Temps were on the chilly side, but just barely warm enough to not need arm or knee warmers.  I had them plus a jacket in my trunk bag.

For the first leg of the ride my concern is always getting through Dorchester to Quincy before the traffic picks up.  The route is mostly on 203 and there are long stretches with no shoulder.

Suffice it to say, we were through and over the Neponset with no problems.  The bits where we were riding directly towards the sun were concerning, of course.  If the sun was in our eyes it was also in the eyes of anyone driving behind us!

In retrospect our mistake at this point in the day was not starting to drink & eat early enough.  It's a long long day, and you do not want to get into any kind of deficit.

That's a lot of wild turkeys

Since we hadn't been drinking too much we had plenty of fluids on the bikes. So we stopped at Wamsutta Park instead of riding a few more blocks to a Cumberland Farms.  That's about 30 miles into the ride -- and having so much water on board should have been an alert that we were not drinking enough! 

On a side note, the parking lot was FULL of pickups with boat trailers.  I often stop here while cycling to the Cape and I'd never see so many.

Wamsutta Park in Halifax.  Note my three water bottles and the trunk rack full of food & spare clothes. I was also carrying shorts & a tshirt in case I bagged out at some point!

After eating and drinking a bit, we got back on the bikes and continued along.  There's a lovely stretch after Hanson on the way to Plymouth.  On many rides I've found cell phones along the road and had some whacky experiences trying to return them to their rightful owners.  On this ride I found a Keurig coffee maker!

I was managing my caffeine needs with the GU "liquid energy" packs.  They have about half a cup's worth of caffeine AND 400 calories.  Earlier this year I had pronounced them as "vile", but I've since changed my mind.  

Obligatory photo of Plymouth sign 

We made our way through Plymouth and on the other side we stopped at Mayflower Convenience for more fluids.  They don't have public restrooms as it turns out, so next time I'll press on to another store not too much further along the route.

Gallon of water to split, some Gatorade, and crackers w/ peanut butter.

Jay borrowed a large under the saddle back from Richard. He had a third bottle there.

The next segment through Plymouth to the bridge featured THE WORST pavement of the day.  Someone decided to pave the road with "chip & seal" style pavement.  This is supposed to be the Claire Saltonstall Bike Route to the Cape and it's got one of the most bike hostile paving.  It was really rough and covered with a loose fine gravel.  Not a lot of fun.  Even less for Jay who was riding on more narrow higher pressure tires.  For more on chip and seal see "Why Chip Seal Is the Absolute Worst Surface for Road Riding"  Or just google " Chip and seal cycling" for some NSFW cyclists' comments on it.

"To what do we owe this enmity? For one thing, it hurts: Crashing on chip seal is like sliding into a body-size cheese grater. Loose chip is harder to see than black ice, and about as terrifying when you hit it. And it’s messy. Chip can stick to tires and cause flat tires. Plus, the asphalt layer is designed to melt in hot weather (to reseal cracks), which makes little balls of tar fly up from your tires and stick to your frame (try WD-40 or peanut butter to remove).

And if none of those fates befalls you, you’re still consigned to a buzzy, hand-numbing ride that is actually slower because of the surface’s greater impedance. Because it’s cheap, and transportation budgets are stretched, we’ll probably see more chip seal in the coming years. But that doesn’t mean you have to like it."

Chip Seal: not a fan.

Well, anyway, we made it through it eventually.  This segment of the route also has a lot of rolling hills that kind of take it out of you.  It's about 15 miles of up and down and it's where the ride starts to feel like a real thing.

Just before the bridge we took a quick bio break at the McDonalds. They were advertising spicy egg McMuffins. I wondered if they would make a vegetarian one...

Anyway, it was time for one of the most frightening bits of the ride: GOING OVER THE BRIDGE

It's a narrow windy walkway high above the canal.  There's speeding traffic next to you.  So much fun.

We made it to the other side.  Took the photos.  And mounted up for the second half of the ride.

The traffic leaving the cape was C R A Z Y.  Fortunately, it was very light on our side of the road.  We had a smooth ride through Sandwich up to the access road that parallels Route 6.  Even better, we had the new bike path to enjoy.  Super low stress and easy sailing.  Just a lot of fun and a chance to easily ride side by side and talk without shouting.

Some day there may be a separated bike path going all the way from the canal to Provincetown.  As of now, it ends well shy of Hyannis.  We got on the access road, continued to Shootflying Hill Road, and then into lovely Hyannis.  This is another tough bit traffic wise.  Not Dorchester bad, but generally ugly, with a whole bunch of loud traffic going next to you.  Most of the Boston to Ptown route I know by heart.  This segment is still fairly new to me and I was depending on the green arrows that get painted for Outriders.  I almost missed one -- and later on, past the steamship authority/hospital -- I did miss another.  Fortunately, we rejoined the route pretty easily.  Then, we got to the Yarmouth/Hyannis border and the very start of the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

Outriders' green arrow showing the way

The very start of what will be the Cape Cod Rail Trail off Higgins Crowell Road

We were kind of low on water and were disappointed to find that the water fountain in Falmouth was non functional.  We did stop to eat a bit and use the clean indoor bathrooms. I was definitely starting to feel pretty grubby.  Just splashing cold water over my face and neck felt great.  

It said this in Yarmouth, but it was not the finish line!

I had about one water bottle left and I knew that wasn't going to be enough to get me to the bottle filling station in Orleans.  We were going to have to stop before then, most likely at Ferretti's Market in Brewster.  It was pretty smooth going.  The rail trail was not too crowded.  When we got to Ferretti's it turned out there was a new fountain/water bottle filling station on the path!  NB, there's another new one just off the path at Nickerson State Park.  We stopped at Ferretti's anyway, agreeing that we needed some Gatorade.  It turned out they only had large-ish bottles left.  As Jay and I sat and talked we each ended up draining and entire bottle.  Additionally, we each drank a bike bottle of water!  We were thirsty and didn't even realize it!  Following all this fluid we felt quite a bit better even if it was sloshing a bit on the inside for a few miles.

We were starting to feel a bit pressured for time. Our pace hadn't exactly been blazing.  Jay was holding off buying tickets for the 7:30 ferry, but I was sure he did not want to take the 9:30 ferry.  Or crash at our place and catch an AM boat for that matter.

Somewhere past Nickerson State Park each of us hit 100 miles for the day.  I was getting so tired I didn't even take a photo to mark it.  The fatigue felt more like it was from the bad night's sleep than the ride per se.

My wife and kids arrived on the Cape around this time and we started intermittently IM'ing about when and where to meet up.

As we were approaching the end of the rail trail in Wellfleet we discussed a couple important items. Would we try to stop at PB Boulangerie?  Which route would we take into Provincetown, the more scenic but challenging Outriders Route or something easier that put us on Route 6?  Given how the service is and the typical long line, we bagged out on the Peeb.  How tired was I feeling?  I couldn't say the word "boulangerie".  Please bear in mind that I speak a pretty rough French and boulangerie is most definitely in my vocabulary.

Not looking our best at the end of Rail Trail.

We also elected not to do the Outriders Route. Instead we'd take Ocean View Drive (gorgeous) to Gross Hill Road/Gull Pond Road (pretty nice too) to Route 6 (suboptimal).  After six miles on Route 6 we'd hang a right to Highland Light.  We were so close to the finish at this point.  We stopped in Truro, did some IM'ing, bought a ferry ticket for Jay, and mounted up to finish the ride.  While we were going up Ocean View Drive there was some crazy traffic -- the likes of which I've never seen there.  Cars were parked all over the place turning the small two lane road into a one lane road.  Pedestrians were walking up the road.  There was some kind of surfing contest happening.  And only one cop to direct traffic.  It was nutty.

Made it!

I did a really bad job coordinating with my wife.  She was waiting at the Harbor Hotel - the old finish line for the Harbor to the Bay ride.  Jay saw them and asked if I had zipped up my jersey.  Of course I had - for the photo when we crossed the town line.  And like an unimaginative exhausted cyclist, I didn't ride side by side with Jay for the photo.

Mary had intended to drive us into the center of town, but Jay and I just kept going.  "We have to keep going into town!"

After some whacky riding down Commercial Street we made it to The Aquarium to get a veggie burger for Jay's trip home.  I had mine later when I sat down for dinner with my family.  We got Jay to the wharf for the ferry and got his burger into his hands.

It was a great ride.  Next time, I'll figure out the pre-ride jitter sleep thing and we'll do a better pace.  Thanks for reading, keep the rubber side down.

Happy Sunday!

 

Early morning start makes for dramatic lighting

Since Outriders in June my weekend riding has generally been with my friend Jay.  We've been ratcheting up the distances to get him back to doing centuries.  Something we should have been doing in the spring!  Of course the weather was bad in the spring almost every weekend and I had a big thing at work that kept me off the road.  The long distances we've been doing really underlined how unready I was this year for Outriders.  I don't know how the heck I did that ride!  Anyway, after a couple weekends of doing 77 mile rides, we were ready to do 100 or something very close.  The loop we were doing was a variation on our "Marlborough Man" route.  

90 miles/145 km of fun in Eastern MA

We met up at what felt ungodly early on Sunday, 7:30 AM.  In retrospect, given how light traffic was early on and how hot it got, I wished we had left even earlier!  

Quiet Roads were a feature at the start

Of course the light traffic was true until it wasn't.  In Sudbury one guy in an SUV had to try a punishment pass.  He leaned on the horn far too early and didn't pass close enough to actually be frightening.  Amateur.  

Despite Jay and I doing a good job staying on top of food & drink we still had plenty of water, so we bypassed a couple of our usual stops for water.  We were thinking of stopping at a particular fancy gas station in Hudson.  Well, it was actually a few miles down the road and over some climbs in Marlborough.  Jay still had some water, but my bottles were dry.

Holding up the wall in Marlborough. Not my garbage in the background.

We split a gallon of water.  I had a caffeinated GU pack, a gatorade, and a Luna bar.  We mounted up and headed out on the toughest section of the route.  A long climb up to Hopkinton, winding up going past the water tower next to the school.  Of course after all that we were rewarded with an excellent downhill, continuing on 85 heading towards Milford.  We jumped on the Upper Charles Bike Path and continued on.  It had become pretty hot, around 92F/33C.  The shade on the path was quite welcome.  

The previous day Mary asked me if it was boring doing essentially the same route for the third time this summer.  I mentioned this to Jay and his response was just about the same as mine -- no, it's better to do the same route repeatedly.  You learn where the iffy bits are and can ride it faster.  

Zooming down the Upper Charles Rail Trail

After getting to Milford and the end of the bike path, we got on Route 16 and headed towards Natick.  This was a tough stretch, quite exposed to the sun.  Whenever we got caught at red lights it felt HOT.  Still, we put our heads down and rode hard.  We didn't stop to eat so I snagged a GU pack from my pocket.

Somewhere along here a racer zipped passed us, grinned, yelled "HAPPY SUNDAY!", and banged a right turn.  And now we had a new catchphrase.  For the rest of the ride it was periodic yells of "Happy Sunday" at appropriate and inappropriate moments.

As we got closer to Natick center my mind drifted to the bakery there, its air conditioning, and its iced coffee.  Lo, it came to pass.

ICED COFFEE  AIR CONDITIONING

After some danishes, iced coffee, and water refills, we were ready to press on to the finish.  As we got close to the end we realized we would be shy of 90 miles.  That just wasn't going to cut it.  So we rode a little bit of a loop and brought the ride to 90.  

With this ride under our belt we're ready for anything now.  Sadly, I'm going to miss out on the North Shore Cyclists' Blazing Saddles Century next weekend (last year they rectified the post ride picnic issue of 2023).  

Thanks for reading.  Keep the rubber side down.