Paris Brest Paris prioritizes registration for next year based on the order of the longest randonneuring event from this year. I am training and attempting to make it into La Société Charly Miller (i.e., the Charly Miller record book) at next year’s PBP. I’d like to be in the first wave at the start so I searched for 1000K randoneurring events and found out about this one to be held on October 24th. I contacted the organizer (Dan) to see if I could ride it as a pre-ride during my fall break this weekend. Dan gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and decided to also pre-ride it this weekend along with three other people.
TLDR SUMMARY
633 miles in 55 hours 33 minutes elapsed time from Saturday at 8:35am to Monday at 4:08pm. I rode the first two loops (441 miles with 10 bonus miles) without sleep. I had meant to sleep a few hours before starting the final loop, but fell asleep hard for 8 hours straight. 40 hours, 18 minutes moving time with an accidental 8 hour sleep in the middle. With the heat, my gas station stops were quite frequent. At about 30 miles between stops during the day but a bit longer at night, I estimate 15-20 store stops totaling a couple hours. 12 hour drive each way. Amazing, tough adventure (due to many miles of rough chip seal), that had long stretches of perfect, smooth chip/seal as well as some navigational tarmac.
LOOP 1 – 230 miles mostly south towards Waco
The event is strategically designed to accommodate several different standard randonneuring distances via three loops originating in Waxahachie, Texas which is on the southern outskirts of Dallas about 650 miles from my home here in Birmingham, Alabama. After biking into work, teaching my classes, and biking home, I borrowed my wife’s car (EV) and headed out at 1pm on a 12 hour drive (with charging stops) arriving around 1am. The rest of the pre-riders were going to leave at 6:30am, but I needed to sleep in a bit. Ideally, I’d have liked to sleep in until closer to the middle of the day to simulate an afternoon Paris-Brest-Paris start. But I was wide awake at 7:30 and out the door of the hotel by 8:30.
I was going to ride the first two loops without sleep, so I needed to check out of my hotel room since I wouldn’t be checking in again until the next afternoon. I could use the car as a place to stash all my extra stuff and clothes instead of taking it all with me.
It was a busy Saturday morning as I left town, but traffic quieted down fairly quickly. I enjoyed the climb up from the river into Italy, Texas as it was tree-lined and shaded. There was a family playing soccer in the road at one of the houses and they said “go get ’em” which made me wonder if the other group had just passed through but I think it was more just a general “have fun”. But before I made it to that climb, I observed a couple things: 1) Texas chip/seal roads are rough and can have huge cracks and potholes at any moment. 2) I was getting hot. Climbing up from the river took me past a huge solar farm with the panels extending off into the distance.
It got hotter and hotter as the afternoon wore on. It also got a bit windier, but it was still well below 10mph. Huge windmills lined small hills and farms for much of the afternoon. I had to stop at more convenience stores than I had anticipated. It was a dry heat, but it kept me thirsty and going through liquid quickly. Towards the end of the day I saw the group of other pre-riders way far ahead in the distance.
A few miles later I had caught up to them and got to meet everyone. It was great riding and chatting with them for several miles, but I needed to stop at the gas station in Mart. I figured we might gas station hop each other a few times, but after I passed them while they were stopped at the next gas station I was far enough ahead to make it back to the hotel without seeing them again.
This particular stretch was rolling hills and farms and wind mills as the sun set. It was spectacular views. Much of the day had been dry and hot with everything looking kinda washed out and drought stricken. It was interesting how some places had smaller scrub trees everywhere, but as you got closer to hills or some source of water, the trees resumed their typical East Texas size.
As it got dark, I was getting sleepy but also excited to be approaching the end of the first loop. The 24 hour Texas themed gas station at the Italy I-35E exit really helped with a much needed break and time to think about my strategy between loops. I arrived back at the hotel in Waxahachie where my car was still parked at 12:15am. I was surprised to see so many people still out and about and even checking into the hotel. The college football game between Texas and Oklahoma had been played earlier in the day at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas which is probably why hotels in the area seemed quite expensive. Thankfully, Dan had secured a promotional rate for the La Quinta.
I grabbed my backpack of clothes and charging cables and walked into the hotel as if I was staying there (which I had the previous night and would be the following night, too). I had originally planned to change into regular clothes and hang out in the lobby/breakfast area while I charged devices. But they had the breakfast area roped off and the seats were in the center of the lobby area nowhere near power outlets. Thankfully, the guest laundry room was right next to the lobby restrooms. After changing clothes, I found a chair and pulled it up against the wall and rested and ate my dinner I had picked up at the gas station down the street from the hotel while all my devices charged.
LOOP 2 – 199 miles via a loop to the west followed by a mini-loop northeast
After about 45 minutes, I decided I should get started again wanting to get as much of Loop 2 finished as possible during the night and morning to avoid having to ride through the heat of the day again. I dropped off my extra stuff in the car and was on my way by 1am. One of the things I had double checked on was what places would be open on my route in the middle of the night. I had a store stop marked as 24 hours only 28 miles into the loop followed by another 24 hour stop 84 miles in.
My first stop on the way out for the second loop was the gas station near the hotel. I decided to just get enough to make it the 28 miles where I would stock up for the 56 mile hop to the next open place. This worked great, except that all three 24 hour gas stations in the town of Grandview, Texas were open for “gas only” with the convenience store closed for the night. This was a problem because I was out of food with 56 miles to the next stop. I actually had plenty of water because I found a 1 gallon / 5 gallon water dispenser with tap-to-pay. It was the exact same brand as the one I used on the Mexican border in far west Texas about 60 miles southeast of El Paso. The water was ridiculously hot, but since it was a gallon’s worth I dumped it out and it had started to cool off a bit before running out. Also, the tap-to-pay gave me $5 credit for my 1.50 gallon of water. So I had plenty left if I needed it.
The fact that the water was hot though sealed the question I had of whether I could just tough it out for 56 miles without food. I was going to be miserable with “warm” water that also might not last 56 miles. So I found and CALLED a Casey’s gas station to verify that they were in fact open. This Casey’s was only 4.9 miles off route in Covington, Texas a town of only 250 people. I commented that I was surprised to find a 24 hour gas station open in such a small town. The clerk said it was a little unusual given the much larger towns such as Grandview with an I-35W exit did not have any 24 hour places, vs Covington which was only on a state highway (TX-171). But given how many people were there at 3:30 in the morning I guess somebody did the math that it makes sense to keep that particular one open 24 hours.
So after overstocking on my favorite Casey’s food/drinks (including caffeinated drinks), I headed north (and uphill) back to the exact same spot I had left the course on TX-171 to continue heading west down into a valley along the Brazos River. No moon, and it was quite dark, but it was still a pretty cool series of county and farm roads.
As I started to make my way back north, it got lighter out. One of my favorite parts of the course was the hilly county roads making my way back east towards Waxahachie. I was impressed with the creative routing to avoid the busier roads, and it turned so much that the nasty 15+mph crosswind that had picked up during the day was broken up with some breaks with tailwind (or headwind) as the course twisted and turned. But it was the navigational pavement that amazed me. It’s hard to describe but you basically had smooth tarmac that would break up longitudinally and drop like a rut. The ruts could be so deep that cars/trailers would scrape the top of it. And it wasn’t always in the same place so you had to navigate sometimes on both sides of the road to find the smoothest line. It was fun watching cars do this as well, and all the speed limits were capped at 30mph. Cars were also going that slow or slower to avoid hitting the ruts or potholes. I was able to ride basically normal speed above and below 15mph depending on the gradient. The downhill sections were a blast to navigate at speed and even included some small jump lines on the road bike. Just required some situational awareness as you weren’t sure which side of the road a car would be on. It reminded me of mountain descents on gravel roads in Georgia and yet couldn’t have been the farthest away in terms of gradient or location.
By the time I made it back to Waxahachie proper, it was around noon and quite hot. The second mini-loop east of town also headed north so there was a bit more of a tailwind. I enjoyed another set of quiet roads before having to cross a very busy Texas highway right at the Texas Motorway where the “Fall Festival of Speed” was being held. It was cool to hear the roar of the drag car engines. Also, there was police at the intersection since there was so much traffic backing up out onto the highway. I was able to cross safely despite the traffic because I got lucky with a break when I first arrived to make it halfway. Then after about another 30 seconds there was a break to make it the rest of the way across.
I eventually rounded the eastern corner in Ennis, Texas. Thankfully, it wasn’t an immediately turn back into a headwind but a more northwesterly turn so that I had a cross tailwind for a while before eventually having to cover the last 10-15 miles or so into a straight up headwind. It was so hot by this point that I was thankful for the wind. This was probably the busiest stretch of road for the entire trip other than the short highway sections we rode where you could ride the shoulder separated from traffic.
UNEXPECTED SLEEP AND LOOP 3 – 191 miles southeast return via Corsicana
Having ridden through the heat of the day again, I was checked in, showered, and asleep by 6pm. I had anticipated a short 4-5 hour sleep so I could charge up all my devices and get started again around midnight to avoid having to ride so much in the heat. But I forgot to set my alarm and fell asleep hard not waking up until 8 hours later at 2:30AM. I realized immediately what had happened even before seeing the clock because I was well rested and my mouth was completely dry. This made me panic a bit so I also was quickly wide awake and able to shove everything back into my backpacks, get dressed, and out the door and checked out before 3AM to get started on the final loop as early as possible.
It was a cool morning with relatively light winds. I knew that it was going to be a strong headwind for much of the morning so I wanted to make it as far as possible while it was light wind. I only had strong headwinds for the last 10 miles or so of the outbound portion of the loop towards Teague southeast of Waxahachie. I imagined that I would have a strong tailwind most of the way back in, but the route twisted a bit and so there was some strong headwinds I did have to deal with. Still, they were only a few miles each compared to many miles of strong tailwind and/or tail crosswind. This led to my average speed jumping up from 14 mph into the light headwind during the night to almost 16mph by the end of the day.
The route doubled back on itself heading north, and I was curious how I was going to end up over in Corsicana as the route did a mini loop down to Teague before doubling back on itself back north. Eventually, I made it to the outskirts of Corsicana passing by the high school on the west side of town, which had a giant high school football stadium, even by Alabama standards where a lot of money is put into our high school athletics programs.
After that, the route took a new road into Italy and past my favorite gas station. The gas station was Texas themed and had swinging benches where I could relax and eat my bag of chips, drink my coke, with my shoes off. Gas station was busy right next I-35E. Eventually, I headed out again crossing under the interstate and immediately onto my favorite quiet road climbing up to the town water tower past the solar farm through the woods and a shaded twisty descent down to the river. Unfortunately, they were working at the bridge and had the road down to one lane, but two trucks were taking a break for lunch and blocking both lanes while they talked. They saw me coming and after a few more seconds separated while I stood there waiting in the middle of the fun descent I had been looking forward to. I was so happy to be almost done, though, that I didn’t even mind – especially since I was in some shade. They had recently sprayed the entire road with some sort of water / chemical mixture to keep the dust down. My tires splashed it all over me and gravity/windy took me a bit sideways as I didn’t want to risk turning the front wheel and washing out if it was slick. All good, though, and I made it across to a dry island where I could straighten again before pedaling/coasting the last wet section.
The long gradual climb up from the river had an incredible tailwind. I would turn around and head back into that wind on a fun narrow road that took me back over I-35E. This series of I-35E crossings reminded me of all the times the Unbound Gravel race crossed I-35 this summer. After short detour back south through Forreston, I made it back onto the outbound route past the Boat Dock Park lake with its cool concrete step dam that you descend down into the middle of with steps to your left and to your right. Never seen anything like it. Roads were getting quite busy, but I eventually made it through all the traffic and back past the Waxahachie high school football stadium to the La Quinta on Stadium Drive having traversed that stretch of road six times.
It’s funny because I was glad to be done, but when I was having fun from the gas station in Italy to the end I kept thinking that I didn’t want it to be over yet. I wanted to keep riding, to see more, to explore, to adventure. But I also had a long drive ahead of me, so I was glad to be done … especially since the entire 1000km event took 8 hours longer than my goal time of 48 hours.
THE LONG DRIVE HOME THROUGH MEMORY LANE
I changed clothes and immediately began my drive through Dallas rush hour traffic back home. My first stop on the way back was the Love’s / Dairy Queen exit in Van. Kristine and I met at Mercy Ships here in East Texas in 2001 and spent some of our earliest time together at the Dairy Queen. So many memories from that stretch of interstate where I spent a few months each summer for several years. Hiking through farm fields, looking for spiders the size of your hand eating grasshoppers also nearly the size of your hand. Riding alongside I-20 on the frontage roads and sometimes just on the grassy hills. Riding my road bike on the singletrack at Tyler State Park while Kristine rode on my mountain bike. A few months later she left for Nicaragua on 9/1 and 10 days later I was at Mercy Ships on the morning of 9/11 when word began to spread of the terrorist attacks. I had already been planning to leave the next day to drive back home to Alabama to spend a couple weeks at home before driving back across the country to California to finish up my last couple years of grad school. So I drove east on I-20 on 9/12 seeing all the American flags at half staff and American flags already hanging from some of the bridges. This memory came to me as I was making my way through East Texas and Louisiana overnight. One quick stop at a gas station to sleep and three EV charging stops later, I made it back home by about 6:30am ahead of morning rush hour. 1300 miles of driving and 630 miles of riding and only gone from the house for a little more than 3 days with a full day left of Fall break to recover (and sleep).
Leave a Reply