I left Chicago Saturday morning around 2:am and got to Terre Haute around 6:15am. (I had to stop along the way to take a 15 minute nap because I was having a hard time staying awake).
I parked at the Drury Inn in TH and biked the 7 miles to the start line but got there about 2 minutes late. That didn't matter though as my plan was to be the last person leaving, anyway. It seemed like 2000 riders piled out of a small country lane on to US 40, taking aboout 10 full minutes. I waited at the intersection of the country lane and US 40 just to watch the spectacle and saw several bents. When I was sure there was no more `juice in the orange' I just pulled out and rode up a small 4 - 5% quarter mile hill before the route smoothed out.
I saw a number of riders on bents and/or tandem bents yesterday on the Rice Across INdiana. It was a warm to hot day all day. Fortunately I didn't see any accidents, let alone near accidents.
We had a nice SWS tailwind of about 5 - 7 mph. Local drivers were mindful of the riders. And many people in the towns we passed through were happy to see us. About 30 miles out I saw a rider changing a flat tire while one of the townsfolk was holding up an electric fan next to him to keep him cool. What a riot!!
RAIN is a fun ride when riders are careful. A real challenge to riders is when the ride route bends south around Indianapolis into the rural residential neighborhoods. Narrow 2 lane roads with little shoulder. Lots of 90 degree turns -- and this is what makes for dangerous accidents.
I had two flat tires along the route, taking about 50 minutes to fix, total. And then I completely missed the second `rest stop' where I had intended to refill water bottles. This required me to stop at a local store to purchase water.
I finished the route (155 miles this year) in 8:04:00 riding time. Except for the two flat tires I spent only 11 minutes off the bike (water, bathroom). Elapsed time was 9:01:00.
I passed at least a dozen DF pace lines along the way. At a stoplight the leader of a paceline leaned over to me and said "You were really flying on that thing!" I responded: "Nickel body. Dollar bike." And we both had a good laugh.
I think my average mph was 19.40 for the course. This was my 11th RAIN and I think I finished it close to 2 hours 45 minutes faster than ever before. If it weren't for the clumsy starts, stops, spooky turns, etc, of that section around Indianapolis I think my time would have been about 30 minutes faster.
After about 100 miles, I was still passing pacelines. I realized then that because I missed the 2nd rest stop, bought water and canned soup at a local store along the way, purposely passed up the 3rd rest stop (the school) I must have been pedalling while the speeders were hanging out at rest stops.
After Dunreith (around 130 miles) I started to cramp up. Not sure what that was about but I doubled my hydration and ate two candy bars I picked up at Dunreith. I stopped at a closed small factory and filled the water bottles at a water faucet on the side of the building.
Cramping slowed me down for about 5 miles. Right quad, left abdominal muscle (I've concluded that the abdominal muscle is my warning system telling me to hydrate more). Had about two Endurolyte pills every 90 minutes.
Never had cramps on RAW (DNF'd). The fact that I had a crew and that the `dry heat' is actually easier to handle than the heat and humidity of the midwest ... makes hydration in the midwest particularly important.
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