The Promised Land 200K begins in Evans, GA (near Augusta). Some of my regular rando buddies, who mostly live in the Atlanta area, initially talked about wanting to do the ride. However, they changed their minds as the day approached, not wanting to drive that far on New Year's Day. Unlike me, maybe they were able to stay up to up until midnight. If you can't stay up to see the new year because you have to get to bed early for a brevet the next day...you might be a randonneur/randonneuse.
Three of us hardy/foolish souls showed up at the start: Neil, a new guy named Graham, and me. Honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had been the only one. The forecast called for 100% chance of rain. At least the temperatures were mostly in the 50s.
Gator originally came up with the Promised Land 200K route. He was in charge of the brevet on behalf of Kevin, our RBA. Kevin still showed up at the start, which was a good thing. Gator overslept! Not a big deal. We waited a little while for Gator but finally headed out at 7:47, 17 minutes late. Kevin said that Gator would meet us on the road, and we would get credit for the delayed start. Fortunately, Graham and I had the route loaded onto our bike computers, and Neil had printed his own copy of the cue sheet.
For a little while I rode with Graham. It's always fun to make a new cycling friend, and he had the novelty of riding a recumbent. We rode together for the first 15 or so miles. Eventually, I started pulling away from him on the climbs. I had vague ambitions of finishing in about nine hours so that I could get home to cook Robert's and my traditional New Year's Day dinner of black eyed peas, grits & greens, cornbread, etc...
Interestingly, only the first two miles and last two miles of the Promised Land 200K are in Georgia. The route is primarily in South Carolina, and much of that is in Sumter National Forest. The roads have little traffic anyway, and it likely was even lighter than usual because it was Sunday and a holiday.
The birds were my main companions, especially the buzzards. I passed a group early in my ride and wished them a happy new year. I don't think most people do that.
The first control was in Edgefield, quite an attractive town. My favorite part was the large turkeys placed around town and painted in various artistic styles. Gator and Katelyn met us at a convenience store and gave us our brevet cards and cue sheets. The brevet card was most important, but I always like to have a cue sheet as backup to my computer. Gator recommended the chicken at the next control in Promised Land. Yes, there's actually a town by that name!
Promise Land Grocery was the control. They had fried and baked chicken. Gator hadn't said which kind of chicken. Both looked good, but I decided to splurge on the fried chicken. It was as good as advertised. Juicy and flavorful, it didn't even need any hot sauce. The workers were really nice, too. This is definitely worth a stop if you're in the Promised Land.
I continued my ride. My average speed was lower than I expected. The climbing wasn't that much greater than at home (about 58 ft/mile vs. about 50 ft/mile), but between that and the fairly rough surfaces of the roads, it was enough to slow me down noticeably. Also, at 134 miles, the total distance was slightly greater than many 200K's. I soon calculated that it was going to take me longer than the nine hours I first anticipated.
I didn't worry, though. Despite the bleakness of the day, I found the quiet roads through the national forest to be peaceful and meditative. The day was overcast/drizzling the whole time. I wore my low-light sunglasses with the yellow lenses, which made everything significantly brighter.
My sunglasses reminded me of a broader truth: life is how we choose to look at the world.
Sunset was approaching. Happily, I had a front light, an extra rear light (my first one lasted the entire ride!), a reflective vest, and reflective ankle bands. I hadn't assumed that I would finish before the sun went down, which turned out to be a prudent call.
My Garmin battery died about seven miles from the end. No problem there - I used the Strava app on my phone to record the remainder of the ride. Later, I combined the two files into a single ride. If you ever need to combine Strava files, just do a Google search for Gotoes. It's easy to use.
The last few miles seemed to last forever! Although I didn't have the route on my Garmin available anymore after the battery died, I had only two turns left. The first one didn't come and didn't come. I kept climbing and kept climbing. I didn't remember going downhill so much at the beginning (must have been talking to Graham), and so I started worrying that I had missed a turn. I pulled over and checked the cue sheet. Just to make sure, I pulled up Google Maps on my phone. Sure enough, I was on the route, and my turn was only about a quarter mile farther. It's easy to get a little discombobulated in the dark after riding 125+ miles!
At last I made it back safely to the starting point. Kevin greeted me and finished my paperwork. I changed clothes and started the drive home. When I got home, it was too late to cook New Year's vittles, and so I saved them for tonight. I hope that doesn't mean that Robert and I will be a day late and dollar short in 2017.
Ride on!
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