Ride Report - Sunshine 1200 km - 2015





This is the best bench ever on a grand randonnee

Jim Logan - RUSA 3730

Why This Ride?

To some extent I learned ultra riding in Florida, riding Gator Hell Weeks in Florida in 2004 and the several years following.  My mother lived in Fort Myers for 30 years, and she just came north a year ago.  Fort Myers is familiar to me.  The combination of the two made this an appropriate good-by to Florida.

I know I am not going to Paris Brest Paris, so I looked for a North American substitute.  By an accidental convergence, I had all the requirements for a RUSA cup except a North American 1200 km.  If I didn't get it this year, I doubt the convergence will come together for 5 years, if ever.

This was a once in a lifetime chance for me to ride the Florida Keys.  I don't like heat, so I wouldn't do this on my own.

How Was the Ride?

Florida was beautiful.  Any many wonderfully empty roads.  But with the heat, humidity, and sun, as well as stiff headwinds on day 1 made it a sufferfest.  Fortunately the sufferfest relented at times, so it wasn't unrelenting.  Being a good RBA, I rode my own 400 km 5 days before this event, which was a mistake.  On the plus side our 400 km was on a hot and humid day, and that started my acclimation for Florida.  As well as started my biker's tan.  At the Sunshine 1200 km, I mostly rode my own ride and was on my own for most of the 4 days.  The first night north of Miami, it was so built up it was really hard to fine a place to pee that I couldn't be sure wasn't someone's multi-million property with security cameras.  The second half of day 3 and much of day 4 it was hard to fine any place to get off the road to rest - Florida is fire ant country.

I decided the week before this likely would be my last grand randonnee, The experience mostly supported that decision.

The organizers and riders were all great.  I witnesses one bike on bike accident.  Although the controls were sparse, I managed to pass two of and managed some bonus miles.

Preparation for The Ride

My main preparation was getting the drive train rebuilt on my Bilenky this winter, and performing indoor off-season training in January through March.  Other than that, about the only riding I did this spring was a 100 km populaire, and our 200 km, 300 km, and 400 km brevet.  I started a business two years ago, and I've found I've been able to maintain my endurance fitness riding long once every two weeks or so.

We got the cue sheet Thursday night before the ride, which was too late for me. I was running and riding a 400 km on Saturday, and I worked on Sunday and Monday.  The organizers did publish the sleep controls in advance, so I did get them programmed into my GPS.  I didn't have time to get intermediate controls programmed in.  I did get cue sheets laminated.  I had to trust GPS tracks shared by the organizers, and didn't have time to program my own GPS routes with proactive guidance.

Before the Ride

Because of my business, my timing was tight.  I flew down to Ft Myers on Tuesday,  got on the shuttle to Key West on Wednesday, and started on Thursday.  Fortunately, getting my Bilenky together went well.  I did manage to tangle my chain, but someone else had the tool to open and close the break links in the chain, which I borrowed.  I got my help from another rider betting by derailleur properly mounted.  We were about 5 miles from the beach, but I took a beach shuttle to visit Fort Myers Beach.
I pack my Bikenky in two S&S boxes.  It gives me lots of room, and redundancy if one box breaks.  Yes, I've broken a latch on one in the past.
Since this was the Sunshine 1200 km and Florida is flat enough that there isn't a great penalty for weight, I powered my Garmin 510 using a Goal Zero solar panel and external power  bank.
I visited the Times Square area of Fort Myers Beach.  I came here often with my parents over the last 30 years.


Wednesday morning we boarded the high speed boat shuttle from Fort Myers to Key West.  We left from the back channel of Fort Myers Beach where the fishing boats are.








The shuttle ride was smooth.  I great improvement from a decade ago when I made the trip with my mother and Carol. The bathrooms are now accessed from inside a cabin.  We arrived in Key West around noon.

I chose the hotel closest to the start - about a mile away.  The nominal headquarters hotel was about 5 miles away.  We couldn't get into our rooms at our hotel until 4 PM.  That gave me time to do some sightseeing and check out my legs.  The report on my legs is that they were ok, but I could have used another 3-7 days of recovery and taper in my legs.  I stretched my legs and they were solid, but I wasn't starting with a lot of upside.  I ate some seafood and Key Lime Pie in a bar on Duval Street.
Seafood in Key West - fish, shrimp, and conch fritters.

Key lime pie in Key West

I didn't have a bike lock, so I used a bit of cord to tie my front wheel to the fork, and used my helmet as a second booby trap on my wheel.

We had bike inspection at the headquarters hotel in the evening.  Riding there confirmed what the headwind the next morning would feel like.
The velomobile finished first.

Bike check In

A piper in Mallory Square in Key West at sunset raised my spirits. 

The sunset in Key West was a bit drab, but this sailboat helped make a nice photo.

The organizer Dave, bless his heart, said all we have to do is ride in daylight and ride 15 mph like the preriders, and this would be a fun and easy ride.  I learned long ago never to trust organizers and always trust control times.  My plan was to leave each of the days at 4 AM.

Day 1

It was too humid for me to wear wool, but I carried my Pittsburgh Randonneurs jersey at the start.

I wore my Western PA Wheelmen jersey on Days 1 and and 3.
Riders checking in at the start and dropping off bags.


I was the first person to leave my hotel, and the hotel staff wanted to check my bag, which I knew was a bad idea.  So I carried it to the start.  I stopped at Denny's for breakfast.  The temperature was about 80 F when we started and humid.  We knew we would have stiff head winds of 10-20 mph for the first 100 miles up the keys.

To add color, a drunk female bystander decided to be our starter. The ride started off fast.   Rationally, we were racing against the heat of the day, so it made sense.  During the first hour there was a peleton riding 20 mph or so.  Several times the police told us to clear the lane.  That made sense, since trucks did come roaring by.  I dropped off the group within the first hour.  I found that Bill Olsen wearing his Eastern PA Randonneurs jersey had dropped off soon after me, and I rode up on him and rode his wheel for a while.  Then he rode my wheel for a while.  Then somewhere along the way sunrise happened and it got very hot.  From here on in, most of interaction with other riders for 4 days was watching them ride away from me as I rode my own pace.

The Keys have great bike infrastructure.  Most of the roads had bike lanes.  At times, there were also bike paths.

The first control was at mile 98.  A few miles before it, 4 riders came by me fast.  It was hot by that time, so I was on a bike path trying to get some shade.  They were on the bike lane on the road.  There was a female rider ahead hundreds of yards, someone chasing her, and two riders back about a bike length apart.  As the back two riders passed me, the front one may have considered hopping on the bike path to get shade like me.  However it happened, the front rider paused and moved forcefully some direction (left?).  She caught the front wheel of John Smith, the last rider, and he went down hard.

John was unconscious laying on the road.  Susan (the other rider involved) stopped and helped John.  She clearly had emergency medical skills.  My first thought was to stop traffic so they weren't run over.  Two motorists stopped to help immediately, and they started directing traffic.  Susan was worried about keeping John's airway open and stabilizing his neck.  She yelled at me first to call 911.  My phone was off, so I delegated that to a motorist.  Next she yelled at me to call the ride organizers.  There was no organizer contacts on the cue sheet, and I didn't think of the control card.  She wanted me to use her phone to call the organizers, but I wasn't familiar with it and couldn't see the unlock in the sunlight - I apparently wasn't running on all cylinders.  I did arrange to get John's bike taken to the next control by a bystander.  But ride volunteers did show up, so we transferred his bike to the volunteers.  The EMS station was only several miles away and they arrived quickly.  I spent 30 minutes at the accident site.  John reported after the ride he was also had a helicopter ride after his ambulance ride.  He had no memory of the day.  He also reported that he had no injuries on the side of his body/arms/legs from trying to cushion the fall - he apparently went down too fast.

I rode on.  I missed the next control, and put in about 3 bonus miles there and back.  As I arrived the last of the other riders were leaving.

I managed to overtake a couple of Canadians and Bill Olsen as we headed north toward Miami by keeping a stop short.  The Canadians rode away from me and Bill dropped back from the heat.  He DNFed that day.  I fared pretty well in the heat on day 1.  I was sweating profusely.  I was wearing a full zip jersey.  We had headwinds to cool us the first half of the day, and sidewinds the second half.  I carried suntan lotion to apply anywhere I had a hot spot.  If anything, I was overhydrated all of Day 1. I peed a lot. I cool best when hatless and sockless, with full zip jersey unzipped, with a camelbak full of ice. I kept one bottle of water for spraying myself with.  So that is what I did for 4 days.  My clothes and I smelled very bad.  Within two days the smell permeated my drop bag, despite rinsing the used clothes at the end of the day.  I discarded the bag at the end of the ride.

I hit Miami right around rush hour.  I took every bike path I could to stay away from traffic.  I was desperate to pee in some upscale latino neightborhood, and found a bike shop that let me use their bathroom.  I was surprised to find some riders still at the 173 mile control (McDonalds) when I arrived.  Leaving Miami, I did ride with a couple of groups of riders - two in one group and three in another.  For a while, the groups merged.  After a couple hours I was on my own after I stopped to pee.  About 2 AM I couldn't keep my eyes open.  I was fortunate to find a park with a picnic bench and slept for 1/2 hour or so.  A rider from North Carolina caught after me after his nap too.  We rode together for a while.  As we passed some police kerfluffle, for some reason he pulled off.  Around 3 AM I was approached by a panhandler on a bike, which was a new experience.  He said something about being disabled.  Not sure if was a panhandler or a mugger, I decided going faster was the best option.  Arriving at 4:30 AM at the sleep control blew my clever plan to leave at 4 AM.  I ate, showered, and slept.

Day 2

I left at 7 AM.  A group of perhaps 10 riders started ahead of me, and I watched them ride away.  Dan Driscoll and another rider blew past in the first few miles.  I overlapped with a couple of riders ahead and behind me at the control 50 miles in, but I don't remembering seeing many other riders this day.  I spent the first few hours appreciating the cool, but thinking it would have been better if I could have started in before sunrise per my plan.  Just after noon I had a 45 mile stretch straight north on an island,  It started out hot, humid, and sunny.   I broke it up into 10 mile stretches and promised myself a reward every 10 miles.  I found the beaches had beach showers, and stopped at several for showers.  A light passing rain did hit me on this section.  I was passed by a recumbent as stopped to pee.  I stopped at a soft serve ice cream place for the worst milk shake ever.  A few miles after the island I found a real ice cream place and got a better milk shake.

It took me to day 2 to realize that in addition to dumping water on my head and back, my legs and feet really appreciated a dowsing too - they were the ones generating the most heat.

I missed the control at Merritt Island, which was about 110 miles in.  I hit it right at 5 PM.  That meant I climbed a steep bridge with high speed traffic several feet from me right at rush hour.  Then turn around and go back.  The good news is at least I saw the lay of the land and stopped for dinner at a Wendy's instead of the control 7-11.

Riding into sunset and after sunset I was in some nature preserve.  The road was absolutely straight for 10 miles.  Like all of Florida, this was fire ant county. There was no good options for getting off the road.  I was desperate to lay down a bit.  I did lay on a dirt pull off for a few minutes.  But I looked like an accident victim and moved on.  The first place I found to lay down after this section was a really strange Christian store of some kind after dark.  It's open signs were on but the lights were off.  All sorts of glowing displays inside.  Dogs barked in the back the whole time I was laying down.  I moved on.  I hit a Burger King at 9:55 PM and managed to get in 5 minutes before they locked the walk-in doors to get a milkshake and ice.  I arrived at the sleep control as 12:30 AM.

.

Day 3

Daytona Beach had good control food - Jumbalaya and potato salad. I ate a lot of it.  I left at 5 AM.  I had a funny perceptual issue leaving Daytona beach.  With a brisk tailwind, it felt like I descended 100s of feet leaving the beach, then descended 100's of feet more after crossing the water channel.  This should have been a fast section, but I was averaging control speed (10 miles per hour with stops).  I did enjoy getting to the first control before the heat of the day piled on.  Perhaps around 8 AM I had a flat.  I had just crossed the Amtrak tracks, it looked like a pinch flat, and I didn't find anything in my tire.  It was in a very sandy place, which made a tire change a bit risky if you fiddled too much.  I changed the tire and went on.

This day we had some tail winds plus hills, which is a special type of hell.  If you are going tailwind speed, you get your own heat cocoon of death surrounding you.  If you go faster you get some air, but exert more.  I picked up the wrong container this day so I didn't have electrolytes.  I drank V8 whenever I could.  Sugarloaf Mountain seemed steeper than the several times I rode it on Gator Hell Weeks, but I got up it in good form.  Then it was mid-day, and the usual of hot, humid, and sunny.  We had a section of moderate hills after that for 20 miles or so.  I rode them well, but slipped into mild heat exhaustion.  After this section we had 10 miles of trail.  There was a volunteer at the start.  I noted to myself I wasn't drinking or eating much.  I laid down for 5 minutes.  When I got up I felt much worse,  I took that in part to mean I recovered a bit was indeed in the early stage of heat exhaustion.  Fortunately the trail had some shelters.  These were the best grand randonnee rest benches ever

This was the best grand randonnee rest bench ever.  Not only did it have a bench, but it had a roof and was cooled by a swamp.

View from the bench.

I had ridden this trail before, but this is the first time I saw wildlife - a small gator scurried across the path.  A snake started to cross and backed off.  Perhaps 10 turtles that did the turtle thing with their head and feet when I went by.

So I rode the trail for 5 miles and stopped for a lay-down on a bench.  Then I went another 5 miles and did it again, drinking a lot of cold water.  I recovered a lot and averted problems with heat exhaustion.  Unrelenting nature can also be very boring.  I practiced my swerving skills in my aerobars on this section.  Nobody passed me despite my two stops, so others must have been using the path as a randonneur recovery area as well.

At the control around mile 140 this day I overlapped with multiple riders.  As I rode away, my tire was flat.  Checking it, it was flat in the same place as the morning.  Although I almost never use patches, I patched it as an experiment.  Then I did find a thorn, which I likely picked up when I pulled off the road to pee one of the zillion times so I removed that.  I booted the tire as overkill, and got on the road.

Within several miles the patch blew.  It blew the tire off the rim.  I have a lot of stuff to get off my bike to get it upside down, so I was poking along, sitting on the bike lane to avoid fire ants.  Several Canadians stopped to help me with a speedy tire change.  However, as we mounted my wheel, my brakes were knocked askew.  The Canadians rode off as worked on the brakes.  Then I saw that not only did the blowout knock the tire off, it caused a tear in my rim and dented it out for several inches.  The dent is what knocked my brakes askew.

I was worried about additional blowouts from the bead slipping out of this rim dent the last 170 miles, but it didn't happen.  I use 28 mm Continental 4 Season tires.  They were well wide enough to follow the dent with their bead.

 Three California riders rode up and donated me 3 tubes in case I had more blowouts.  I called in to the organizers saying I was looking to borrow a rear wheel that night.  Then I rode very carefully on the wheel for 20 miles, arriving around 9:30 PM.  Riding in, I realized I had non-standard spacing on my rear wheel for strength - 135 mm instead of 130 mm.  The organizers Dave and Dick suggested the best approach was to ride the busted wheel.  The day was going to be flat, they advised, so I didn't need my back brake.  So that is what I did.


Day 4

Coming downstairs at 3:30 AM, there were some drunk people lingering after a wedding.  One of them rode out the door on one of our rider's bikes.  I asked the front desk to call the police.  That helped his friends to help convince him to get off the bike and get out of there.

Leaving on Day 4, I discovered the track I downloaded was somehow the reverse of the prior day.  So I was navigating only off the cue sheet.  The night was cooler - low 70's perhaps, but very high humidity, and I sweat a lot before sunrise.  Still, it was cool. The first 40 miles were uneventful, but I was riding slow.  The next leg was about 50 miles.  Like prior days, late morning was the worst part of the day for heat, as clouds didn't show up yet.  I did find a radio station to lay in the shadow of during this section.  I ran dry about 5 miles before the control. However, I got off course and that became 9 miles.  Then came a next 60 mile leg that was pretty miserable.  Especially a 25 mile leg with a headwind and just no where to get off the road.  I did find one culvert under a tree to lay down under.   Through a passing motorist did circle around and stop to see if I was ok.  I was out of full-zip jerseys on day 4.  This section was so hot I rode without a jersey for 15 miles or so.  The only virtue of this section that the clouds were traveling the same speed as me at times, and sometime I could stay inside a cloud's shadow as it moved west.    There was a volunteer late in this stretch, but all he had was a tiny umbrella and not enough drinks.  He did have ice cream bars.  I had one of those, drank one bottle, and added one to my camelbak.  I ran out water within 5 miles.  Fortunately, the 5 miles after that some clouds and a few raindrops saved me.


I stopped at a gas station and got a Klondike, coke, ice, and drinks.  I was about 30 miles from the end. Fortunately, Fort Myers was hit by a big rainstorm before I got there.  The next 30 miles were cooler, and I rode in to Ft Myers in good form.  I stopped a 1/2 mile from the end to put my Pittsburgh Randonneurs jersey on.  It was over.  Yea!  

My hero shot arriving at the end of the Sunshine 1200 km

There is a very pretty medal inside the coffee mug.


769 miles as the GPS rolls.


My feet got the worst of it, riding for most of 4 days without socks.

My bike box got a new sticker.


The medal and jersey are classics


This is me modeling the jersey on a ride a week after I got back along with spiffy RUSA shorts and hat.  Different bike.  In front of a convenience store, of course.

So What did I Enjoy on the Ride?

- Heat has always been my kryptonite, so it is rewarding I've learned enough in the last 8 years ride ride successfully under these conditions.  I DNF'ed a 1000 km in 2008 from heat exhaustion.  From that experience and a successful 600 km in northern Virginia under very hot and humid conditions several years ago, I learned enough to ride successfully under these unexpectedly adverse conditions.
- I enjoy I can do this.  That even when conditions aren't perfect, I've conditioned my body it can just go and ride 200 miles a day. And mostly deal with whatever comes up.
- Cycling from Key West is something I'll always remember. 
- I did get the most time off the bike at sleep controls I've ever had on a 1200 km.  Dave, you were right on that.
- I enjoyed ghosting through some of the nights and early mornings.  In daylight I often struggle to find the right cadence.  At night, my legs go on autopilot, and they do what they do.
- I enjoyed riding by the nightclubs in Miami on the beach.  After years of riding in remote areas, I enjoyed riding where a lot of vibrant life is going on.
- Having volunteers at the sleep control and show up on the course where we needed them.  At the top of Sugarloaf and before the swamp on Day 3.  Late in the last hot section on Day 4.  Approaching Miami on Day 1. Homemade cookies and jambalaya.  Dave and Dick showing up everywhere.
- We rode through some of the same orange grove country I rode through on Gator Hell Weeks a decade ago. That brought back good memories.
- While we did bike through several congested areas (Miami), the abundance of bike infrastructure everywhere was pleasant to leverage.  So many roads were essentially car free - Florida off-season is great.
- I enjoyed being with people who have the same skills.  We are a motley collection you can find laying down almost anywhere on course and we think that is normal.  Convenience stores are our natural habitat.
- I'm at this point quite surprised I still have never been arrested for public urination, given so many creative places I've peed.
- I love my aero-bars.  The best thing I ever did for my butt is to ride with aero-bars. (I started using them 3 years ago to get my speed up for the Tejas 500).  So much less butt damage with the additional positions.  Given I like to listen to my own body more than other people, my aerobars cut me free from needing to draft other people.
- I enjoyed riding to the sound of the ocean, especially on the first evening.

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