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2009 San Diego 300km Brevet

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I love Old Julian Hwy and it was great to show Brandy the great back country of San Diego County. We arrive
at Santa Ysabel and there's Mike B, Tom and Tina and Tom Parkes. The only good thing about being Tail End
Charlie is you get to finish off Tina's homemade soup and bread.

I think it took us 10 hours to get to Control #2 at mile 96. It was starting to get cold and the sun had setting
fast. We put one all our cold gear on that has been stuffed all day in the Detours High Tail. One of the last
pictures we took was at. I think we left within 5 minutes of that time.

The route has a lot of descending ALL the way back to Lakeside. It was nice to get the big gears rolling again. It
was also important to get out of elevation. It was warmer in Lakeside plus we were no longer creating our own
wind chill factor at 50mph.

Once in Lakeside we climbed up to Alpine. The climb on Japatul Rd was weighing heavy on my mind. I knew
it was the hardest steepest climbing of the day. It was on the back end of the course and our largest cog was
only a 28T rear cog.

On the climb to Alpine I couldn't believe my eyes-- blinkies up ahead. After 14 hours of riding-- off-the-back
mind you -- I am finally seeing the tailights of other riders. We say a few words to Mark and another rider and
we press on to Carl's Jr. At the crest of the climb I see Milly Valdez and Alonso Gomez heading out to Japatul
Valley Rd. When we get to Carl's Jr there are at least two other riders there. We grab a couple of burgers, a
receipt and head out.

I felt bad for rushing Brandy out of there but I had a couple of reasons. I know how comfy a warm place can be
after being on the bike for that many hours. But I strongly believe taking the chill off is all you need-- don't wait
until you get warm. I also know the Japatul Valley Rd climb. I lived in Santee and I would torture myself on that
road a couple of times a week. The climb has good number of steep grades and rollers the give you false hope
as you drop only to pitch up again-- steeply. I also knew it was only going to get colder. Luckily we don't do all
of that road. If you continue past the Lyons Valley turn off it is about 7 more miles of steep undulating terrain
climbing all the way to the I-8 freeway.

I was surprised at how well we did on the steep rollers. We have an 11-28 SRAM Cassette and it seems to be
working out for us. I was even more surprised when we came up on Alonso Gomez. I was sorry to hear that he
DNF'd so close to the finish. Had I known he was that close to the edge I would have stopped, talked to him and
motivated him to go on. We passed him just as we were nearing the right turn onto Lyons Valley only 27 miles
from the finish.

The descent on Lyons Valley was Brandy's favorite part of the ride she told me later. I wish we could have
done that in daylight. It is one of my favorite roads out there. I later found out that Milly Valdez was on the side
of the road and was impressed at our descending speed in the dark of night. It is very invigorating to descend on
the tandem at 50+ mph into the darkness. The NiteRider Moab is your friend on dark nights. The amount of
light the Moab puts out and the beam pattern is incredible. I feel very safe descending at high speeds in the dark
with the NiteRider Moab.

Once we got under 25 miles I was doing the countdown of miles. I was also trying to calculate our finishing time
based on pace, miles and terrain. Once we crested the little bumb of Honey Springs Rd I knew the last 15 miles
were going to be easy going and mostly Big Ring Time! Otay Lakes Rd was really cold and it was the first time I
had to put on my Showers Pass Pro Tech jacket. I love this jacket it so thin, easy to pack and so warm when
you need it. It was nearing Midnight and I was glad I had another layer to put on.

It was foggy as we came in to the finish. The fog made for a very fitting conclusion to our epic ride. Three
flats, Rear Der issues, and Rear Disc brake issues and a lot of mental anguish being off the back for 14 hours of
the 17 hours and 20 minutes but it was done and in the books.

The flats were a huge delay because the flat repair was buried in the Detours bag. You would think we would
learn our lesson after the first flat but how many flats do you think you will get in a day. By the second one I
thought we were done flatting. During the day we had to Showers Pass Pro tech jackets, two reflective vests,
two sets of knee warmers, two sets of gloves, two tubes two CO2's, multitool and the Swiss Army knife.

This is the longest ride to date for Brandy and I on the tandem. I honestly didn't believe riding a tandem could be
so much fun. Brandy is so awesome as a stoker. Our teamwork is improving every ride in particular on our
climbing out of the saddle. Riding the tandem is a lot more difficult on the climbs... well actually in every aspect
except the descents. We joked and laughed for hours. We even role played as two characters to pass the time. I
really enjoyed the 300kms, the 17+ hours, the mechanicals, and the laughs with my girl.

Thanks to Mike Berry and all the volunteers who put on this great brevet series. We'll see you at the 400km.