I Won The Lottery!

No, not the one that curses you with too much dough and makes everyone come out of the woodwork to help share the winnings..

I won a lottery that will result in me draining the energy out of my body at a rapid rate, and hopefully replenishing at nearly the same rate. (Which is harder than it sounds!)

But I wasn't the only one that "won" this lottery. 799 other people got picked to take part in the annual Ride Around Mt. Ranier In A Day, aka the RAMROD!!

If you didn't enter or didn't win the lottery, don't dispair! Sounds like they'll be auctioning off a few tickets on ebay, but I wouldn't be surprised if that gets a bit out of hand.

The quote about the ride:

RAMROD [Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day] is the Pacific Northwest's premiere one-day ultra-marathon cycling event. It combines the incomparable scenery of Mount Rainier National Park with a challenging course featuring 10,000 feet of climbing over 154 miles. The course starts in Enumclaw, WA (elevation 720 feet) with a gradual downhill to its lowest elevation (300 feet) near Orting. This is followed by 40 miles of rolling hills through the towns of Eatonville, Elbe, and Ashford, with a gradual climb to the Nisqually entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. The climb stiffens at Longmire where riders begin the 12 mile ascent to Paradise (elevation 5,420 feet). A 12-mile descent through Stevens Canyon follows and then a quick 3-mile climb to Backbone Ridge. This leads to one of the most fun descents of the course: a swooping 5-mile run to the Grove of the Patriarchs and the intersection with Hwy 410. What follows is generally considered the most difficult section of the course: the 9-mile climb up Cayuse Pass (elevation 4,694) which starts at 100 miles into the ride. The rapid descent from the pass ends with about 30miles to go. These last miles are gradually descending or rolling except for one final, fast descent down Mud Mountain Dam just 5 miles from the finish in Enumclaw. Join us for the 25th anniversary of RAMROD – it will be the best RAMROD ever.

Oddly enough, this ride won't be the apex of my riding season, that will most likely either be the 400k brevet (Snoqualmie, Blewitt, Stevens Passes in one day!) or the 600k, or the CANNONBALL/S2S if I do those.

But even though this will be a "training" ride for me, that doesn't mean it'll be easy!!