Whose idea was this 50@50 Project, anyway!!???! Oh yeah... never mind.
Events 29 and 30 took us to Bend, OR for (29) the Tour des Chutes 50 Mile Ride and (30) the Deschutes Dash 5k. We'll cover the ride here and the run in a separate post.
We arrived in Bend Friday afternoon and visited the two different locations for our event packet pickups - one bike shop and one running store, obviously. After enjoying lunch at Longboard Louie's www.longboardlouies.com we headed to the hotel, checked in, unloaded the SUV and settled into the room to do what every couple does in a hotel - or at least every couple who doesn't have cable at home - we watched the Food Network almost non-stop. This consists of non-stop 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives' with host Guy Fieri (who, I gotta say, is looking just a little bit chunky these days) and 'Restaurant: Impossible' with Robert Irvine, who must lift refrigerators in between takes to maintain his physique.
We assumed Bend would be busy enough, given that there were two sporting events happening the same weekend - and the Deschutes Dash is a two-day affair offering triathlons, duathlons, runs, rides, swims - and all in various distances. We didn't know it was also the same weekend as Bend's Summer Fest, which closes off the streets of downtown for several stages of live music, food and crafts vendors and a gajillion people. Plus, we found out all of this is the same weekend as - wait for it - the Outdoor Quilt Show in nearby Sisters, OR www.sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org All of these events culminated in us playing the people watching game of 'Triathlete, Musician, Vendor or Quilter?' for the next three days.
We walked from the hotel to Summer Fest, listened to some music and had dinner at Pizza Mondo. Or tried to, anyway. Downtown was a zoo of people and the restaurants were all slammed. The pizza place lost our order so the pie didn't get made until I went to check on why we hadn't yet been fed. They apologized, made our pizza right away and boxed it up. After waiting so long, we were ready to head back to the hotel to chill before our ride the next morning. They did give us a couple of fresh baked brownies as a 'sorry' for holding us up. So that was nice!
The next morning we loaded up the bikes and drove across town to Highland Elementary School, which was the start/finish for the event. The ride was started by Bend resident Gary Bonacker, who was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in 2003. In 2005 he started the ride to raise awareness and money for the St. Charles Survivorship Program, a service that provides comprehensive support to cancer patients and their caretakers. read about the ride, Gary and the program at www.tourdeschutes.org
The riders tackling the full century and the 74 mile routes had already departed. We were in the 50 miler group and started at 8. They gathered us all together and then sent us off en masse to bagpipers playing tunes in honor of all those who have dealt with cancer in one way or another. People rode in memory of loved ones, others rode in groups with a survivor or rode in honor of someone fighting the fight now. It was really touching.
Some rolling ups and downs spread the peloton out pretty quickly. The course was very well marked and we soon found ourselves outside of town on quiet country back roads. The first half of the ride was pretty easy with a lot of elevation loss. This was fine and dandy except that we knew for every hill we blasted down we would have to climb back up at some point to get to the finish. Oh well - enjoy it while you can! We made great time to the halfway point at Cline Falls State Park, where we enjoyed the usual ride snacks of peanut butter, jam and bread, fruits, energy bars, electrolyte drinks. We refilled water bottles and hit the road for the second half.
This stretch started out much like the first half - flats, rolling hills once in a while - all fine. Then the climbs started getting a little more serious. Then a little more. And so on. Whereas the elevation loss in the first part was pretty even throughout the 25 miles, the climb back up was mostly in the last 10-12 miles of the last part of the ride. So the climbs were a little steeper. No biggie, though - we powered 'through and up'. Or maybe we threw up. I forget.
Anyhoo, we finished in about 4 hours of actual ride time, which was pretty great for us. After parking the bikes we lined up for some much needed food, which was catered by... Longboard Louie's!! They had set up a burrito and taco bar, which was a-w-e-s-o-m-e!!
Back at the hotel, we cleaned up, watched more FoodTV then ventured out to have dinner with some friends who live in Bend, Mike and his fiancee Krista, as well as 3 year old Emmit. Great people! We met up at Crux Fermentation Project, a fairly new brewery in Bend. Food and beer were both very good, and the place was packed. Very nice brewhouse and the restaurant has an awesome outdoor area.
If in Bend, visit!! www.cruxfermentation.com
After dinner, it was back to the hotel for some rest and prep for...
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