Note Quite the New Paltz Double Century

I was looking forward to this journey and Mother Nature cooperated by presenting a fabulous day for a bike ride.  I was hoping to start out with my friend Rob for the early part of it, but he wasn’t feeling well, so I started out solo for the duration.  The first 70 miles follows my usual course, and nothing really new came of it except for a critical mistake that I made in Nyack.  That mistake was the massive glob of oatmeal from hell.

The week previously, I had stopped at the Runcible Spoon in Nyack and had a lovely bowl of oatmeal.  I was a little cold and I figured a nice warm meal would do me some good.  Not this week though.  I don’t know if the oatmeal was bad, I had too much of it or I just simply ate it too fast, but on this day as soon as I finished it, I had a feeling that things weren’t going to go so well.  I should have just turned around and purged it roman style and made sure my digestive track remained clear; but no, that would have been the smart thing to do and I sallied forward marching, well riding, ever closer to New Paltz.

I climbed my usual hills – Little Tor, Route 98/106 into Harriman and then Tiorati Brook Road.  This saw me reach 70 miles, 30 miles since the oatmeal from hell and I was struggling.  I went to the bathroom at Tiorati and tried to clear out my system.  By this time I heard from my friend Rob, who told me he made it to the Ranger Station at the end of River Road and asked where I was.  I replied that I was taking a dump at Lake Tiorati.  He response was “Charming”; yes, that’s me, all class.  I should have just tried to clear myself from the other end as I was already spitting up every time my heart rate increased on the hills.  I sat in the sun to warm up after I left the bathroom and rested a bit on a picnic table.  Well that is I assumed a prone position on top of the table and tried to recover.

I thought about abandoning the ride at this point and simply heading home.  A round trip from this point would have seen around 140 miles, but I figured tougher times are likely to come when I do the Furnace Creek 508 and I should try to continue on a recover.  So off I went to New Paltz, taking roads that I’ve never traveled before.

From Lake Tiorati, I headed down Seven Lakes Drive towards Bear Mountain and Route 6.  I picked up Route 6 west and began a nice long climb on a very busy highway.  It was very noisy and I doubt any cyclists take this route, but it had a wide clean should and except for the traffic noise and the cars busy by at 80 mph it wasn’t so horrible.  I was looking for a road that was supposed to intersect Route Six just past Route 293, but I didn’t find it.  Actually, I think I past it, but it wasn’t something navigable on a road bike.  I instead continued directly to Route 32 and started to head north.  This wasn’t how I wanted to go, but I knew it would take me directly up to New Paltz.

I continued up Route 32, then took a shortcut on Route 300 at Vails Gate.  From here the road started to get a little smaller and wasn’t so filled with traffic.  I remained on Route 300 until it intersected with Route 32 again and stayed on 32 all the way up to New Paltz.  I thought the roads would be hillier, but maybe I am just used to riding hills and don’t think anything is hilly enough.  Anyway, as I reached New Paltz things started to look familiar from previous times I’ve been up there.  I decided to make my destination be a bicycle shop called “Bicycle Depot”.   It was as good as stop as any, as my left cleat was getting a little loose and I needed a screw driver to tighten it up.

Well, it was at the bicycle shop where my day came to an end.  Having got off the bike and sat down, I quickly began to fade out.  The people in the shop looked at me and asked if I was alright.  I replied that something I ate earlier didn’t agree with me and that I haven’t really been able to take anything into my stomach for quite a while.  The oatmeal was clogging up my digestive track worse than the toughest clog in any drain.  I doubted a bottle of Draino at this point could have cleared me out.  I could feel a lump in my bowels that was no doubt an oatmeal plug.

To make a long story short, the gents in the shop were very hospitable and accommodating and I owe them a world of gratitude.  They took care of me as best they could, first offering me a chair and then their floor to lie down on.  One of them ran out to get me a cold Gatorade and refused to take any money for it.  They told me about an urgent care facility just down the road and I debating going there for an IV.  With my digestion shut down, that might be the only way I could get water and nutrition into my system.  I dismissed that idea though, because if I was admitted, I’d likely have to have someone come and pick me up.  I didn’t want to force anyone to go through that inconvenience and I didn’t think my wife would be so accommodating as to come get me, nor be able to figure out how to get there.  I instead elected to take the train home, which meant a cab ride to the Poughkeepsie train station across the river.

I got the phone number for a local car service and then had to wait over 45 minutes for the car to arrive.  I missed the 4:27 pm train and I was now in danger of missing the 5:15 train.  When the cab finally arrived, one of the guys from the bike shop took my bike apart and put it in the cab for me.  I was too weak to even roll the bike at this time.  I lay across the rear seat of the car and slept all the way to the train station. 

The 5:15 train was an Amtrack train and cost twice as much as the Metro North train.  I debated spending the extra money, but didn’t want to take a chance that they wouldn’t let me on with a bicycle.  The Metro North train was only 30 minutes later so I just decided to take that instead.  When I got on the train, I put my bike in a spot that looked to be an acceptable place.  However, the conductor was a major hard ass and started to give me a difficult time.  I was laying across the seats with my eyes closed when he came aboard.  He first asked if I had a bike pass to bring my bike aboard and fortunately, I had thought ahead and purchased one a few weeks earlier for just such contingencies.  He started to give me shit about moving the bike to a different part of the train and told me to get it off if I didn’t like what he told me.  Apparently I wasn’t moving fast enough for him.  I was about to tell him he could go fuck himself and that if I moved any faster I was likely to throw up all over his nice clean train, but thought better of it as I was in no condition for a fight and just wanted to get home.   I moved the bike to where he wanted it and then fell asleep on a different section of seats.

When I got to Grand Central Station, I found a bathroom and got some water.  By then I was feeling a little thirsty.  I was glad I did, because the subways were all screwed up and it took forever to get home from there.  All totaled it took over 3 hours to make it home from the Poughkeepsie train station and when I finally got inside my house, I simply stripped off my clothes and crawled into bed without so much as brushing my teeth, much less washing up.  I lay like the dead until about 2 am when I woke up and had a bit of cereal.  I then passed out on my couch and slept there until around 5am.  I then went back to bed until around 11am when I finally found the strength to shower.  It felt good a refreshing, but as I write this now at 2:30 pm I still haven’t had much to eat, nor do I have much of an appetite.  I want to get back out on my bike, but a nasty headache is keeping me inside. 

I am disappointed how this weekend turned out, but I suppose it’s better that something like this happen now than during the race.  I’ve never really had trouble with solid foods before during endurance days, but I’ll be extra vigilant during the race.  I still have a couple of weekends in which to train and I am still hopeful for a successful race.

Click here for the route