I went up Friday in time to take advantage of Gary Bradford's invitation to the recumbent dinner gathering in Iowa Park. Besides seeing Bud, Doug, and Dan there, it was fun meeting Reever and several new friends, and Gary and Gay have an AMAZING stable of wheeled transportation. It was also my first time to ride an electric assist trike -- VERY cool. Thanks for the invitation!
I stayed at the 1st Xtian church, as did Bud. Good place, a worthy alternative to the Lamar, and $50 is still cheaper than two nights at a local hotel. It's several miles from the start, so about 6AM, Bud and I drove over to 7th street, and parked.
It was an interesting day at HHH... I wasn't necessarily planning to ride hard, but adrenaline kicked in at the start, and things went from there. The "race" and "pace" groups start about 10 minutes or so before the recumbents and tandems do, then the main group starts about 10-15 minutes later, I think.
When our group started, I was near the front, and started rolling about 20mph. After a couple miles, a tandem passed me with Reever on their tail, so I latched on, rolling at 22-24ish. After a couple miles, Reever dropped off, and the tandem had hooked on to a TT rider, another tandem, and a couple others, with me following -- I decided to continue with them. Our group kept up the pace, and at one point, I rolled up to the front, and thanked the TT guy for his pulling - which took him aback a bit, but brought a smile to his face!
About 3 miles before the 30 mile rest stop, we actually caught the "pace" group, which actually slowed us down a bit, due to the number of riders. I decided to stop at 30 to hit the bathroom, so I said adios to the others. I had a 24mph average at this point... my highest ever.
After a short stop, I hit the road again, and within a mile, along came the lead group of the main riders - about 150 or so of them, I estimated, rolling at 25ish. Not wanting to get into the middle of that, I let them pass, then latched on! I kept with the group for the next 30 miles, at speeds up to 30-32mph. There was a constant litany of "whoa!" and "bottle" and yoyoing from the large group, so i was glad i wasnt in the middle - and I had some fun conversations with the folks in the back, about recumbents. They were rather surprised that I could hang...
At the 55 mile point, before Burkburnett, we caught the "pace" group again - I almost laughed... then, somebody got crossways in the pack, and a bad wreck happened - I saw a guy on the ground at the side, out cold. I almost stopped, but the pace group truck was already radiong in about it, so kept rolling with the group.
There in Burkburnett, we came up on a guy on a Vendetta recumbent... I said my hellos -- which turned out to be a good thing, further down the road...
At the 60 mile point, I decided I had had enough - I STILL had a ~24 rolling average, and had to pee again..
so, I stopped at the rest stop (It looked like I was the first one to stop there... all the food was untouched), texted the wife, and stopped and took a couple photos with "Pyro Pete", for fun. - I started back up, and latched on to a group of 20 or so, rolling at 20-22 into the wind -- about 8 miles up, I decided to pass them, but shortly after I did that, leg cramps started to tweak.. so I let them pass me again, and I stopped at the next rest stop, for sustenance - The Vendetta rider had passed me while I was at the 60 stop, and we started taking at this stop, and decided to ride together for a while, at 18-20mph... we passed the 75 stop, then, about mile 80, both of my hamstrings locked up, simultaneously - owwwww...
so we both stopped, while I stretched for a bit, and swallowed a pack of Sportlegs. John volunteered to hang back and help me along for a while - so I drafted him, at 15-16, and we stopped at the 83 mile stop for a bit, and then I drafted him for several more miles, until my legs loosened back up. The last 10 miles were much better, with both of us rolling at 18-20, as well as a nice 30+ downhill for about a mile.
After climbing the freeway overpass into downtown, the finish was a welcome sight - and I was pleased to see a rolling average still above 20, despite the leg cramps and slower pace through the last 25 or so... and I owe my new friend, John (O'Connor, from New Braunfels), big time ... We finished right around 12:30.
This was really the first time I had done what was essentially a 60 mile sprint (or at least two 30s)... and I obviously paid for it! However, it feels good... as did the beer at the finish area, and the shower at the church facility afterwards.
My recumbent-related pics are here:
http://s977.photobucket.com/user/pbrown8js/library/2016HHH_Bents http://s977.photobucket.com/user/pbrown8js/slideshow/2016HHH_Bents