200km Winter Brevet with the Seattle Randonneurs

I arrived in Seattle on Thursday February 9, just in time for a Saturday 200km brevet with the Seattle randonneurs. The ride started and finished in Redmond, east of Seattle. We headed NNE though rolling hills and exurbs, eventually into rural/pickup truck country. 

There were lots of riders I recognized from ... Japan, Tasmania, and previous Seattle rides. The ride organizer, Mitch Ishihara, has ridden in Japan as well as that menorable 2016 600k gravel grinder. Also Hugh Kimball, who pulled me in a vicious headwind on the gravel grinder. Stalwart Vinnie was there. And Rick Blacker, who I think I last saw in Tasmania (he can be seen in photos below giving the finger to the camera lens). ... and many others. 

On the opening 50km, I settled into riding at the rear of a reasonably fast group, just behind Narayan K., whose hand signals and warnings about upcoming obstacles were exemplary. Narayan said he ran the Camp Mazama (last overnight) control at last year's Cascade 1400 ... which I had hoped to join.  .

Cannot ask for better weather in winter -- dry, and even some blue sky.

Lake Roesinger

Riders study a warning sign for the answer to our quiz

Anyway, the outbound course had quite a few hills, nothing long, and steep for only mercifully short bits.  There was an "out and back" section between 50 and 62km, on a near traffic-less road that ended at a small dam below a lake. On the "out" route I could see the first group of riders, who ended up completing the event in 7~8 hours.  The climbing seemed to taper off soon after a quiz control at Lake Roesinger just past 80kms. 

I stopped for a quick six inch Subway meatball sandwich in Granite Falls, nearly 100km in. 

The northernmost point of the course, at Bryant, was around 120kms, ... meaning that the 80km return leg must be much more direct/shorter. It also involved less climbing than the outbound. Indeed, for much of the return we followed the Centennial Trail, a rails-to-trails route that meant no more than a grade of a few percent max, even as it climbed from sea level to over 100m elevation, then back down. We did another similar but steeper climb over an elevated section, on roads, between 170-185kms, and finished with flat path along the Sammamish River on the last decent stretch into Redmond. 

This was an easy 200km, especially with the second half easier than the the first. I finished in 9 hrs and 16 minutes, an hour or more faster than my typical "winter 200k" time in Japan. I think much of the difference can be attributed to ... lack of as many traffic signals!

The ride finished at Post Doc Brewing in Redmond, where pizza and beer were available, and well-earned.