Carole and I got up at 0415. I made a bagel and peanut butter breakfast sandwich with a banana chaser, and loaded the bike up in the rental car and drove over to the start.  One-day riders could start first at 0430, two-day riders were supposed to wait until after 0515. It was a bit hectic but I was on the move by about 0530.

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Mass starts at large rides are never fun and often carnage-filled, but this was pretty sane, especially for close to 8,000 riders. There were the usual people who somehow manage to get flats during the first mile or so, a number of dropped chains on the first hill, but not a drop of blood that I saw. 

It was about 60 degrees at the start and nippy during the downhill stretches to get out of the University District.  We zipped by the Japanese Gardens Carole and I had visited earlier and then had miles of lake views as we headed south out of Seattle.

Before I knew it we hit the first rest stop at 19 miles but I was feeling so good I just kept going. I didn't stop until the mini rest stop in Puyallup at mile 40! I filled my water bottles, had a Kind bar and another banana and got back on the bike - and in about 5 miles we hit the big climb: about 350 feet in a mile or so. 

Mile 56 was the lunch stop at Spanaway Middle School, where they had the usual bike ride lunch choices plus amazing sesame noodles in white Chinese restaurant takeout boxes.  About 5 miles later we were routed onto Joint Base Lewis-McChord which was closed to outside traffic. The route took us between firing ranges and the sounds of gunfire that seemed to unnerve some of the riders until I explained that cyclists were only worth 1 point and they wouldn't waste ammo on us.

At about mile 68 a bee flew into my mouth and stung my inner lip, but I spit it out right quick. It started to swell up, so at mile 76 I stopped at the Kind Bar Mini Stop and asked the EMTs to look at it. They said it was fine, so after eating a melted Chocolate Nut Kind bar I took off again.

From Yelm we had 14 miles of trail riding on the Yelm-Tenino trail, with a rest stop at mile 90. The original plan was for me to end the day at Chehalis at  mile 110 but I was feeling so good I texted Carole that I was going to go for Winlock - where the "world's largest egg" awaited at mile 122.

One thing I noticed: there must have been a lot of people who weren't familiar with biking on bumpy roads. On every steep downhill, you could look ahead and tell a bump was coming by the giant scattered mess of water bottles and energy bars...

Mile 103 took us through the halfway mark at Centralia College where many folks would camp. I stopped just long enough to eat a free orange creamsicle bar and kept on heading south. The Chehalis rest stop was at mile 110 where I met Carole and we coordinated that she would pick me up in Winlock.

The remaining 14 miles or so were on beautiful rolling back country roads with a short bit of trail thrown in.

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At about 1:30 I reached Winlock where Carole was tanning her legs and reading a book. I felt so good that I realized I could have probably done another 30 miles and made it to Kelso, which would have made Sunday a nice short 50 mile day. But, I never thought I'd want to do a 150 mile day and had reserved a hotel room back in Tumwater (by the time I booked nothing was available in Centralia).

We loaded up the bike in the car, drove back 40 miles up I5 to Tumwater, I had a turkey grinder and apple arugula blue cheese salad at the Brick on Trosper and big old dish of ice cream at Baskin Robbins and then hit the sack.