First off, this Saturday was Dances With Dirt, a crazy trail relay running event that Ive done several times and was really looking forward to doing it again this weekend. In general, Dances with Dirt consists of approximately 375 teams of 5 runners, each trying to cover 100k (62 miles) as quickly as possible. Each team member runs three relay legs during the course of the day, each leg ranging from about 2.5 miles to 6 miles in length, over varying terrain including hills, swamps, lakes, with plenty of mud, sand, dirt, rocks, roots, and poison ivy. Anyway, as the event drew closer we ended up being short one runner, and my remaining teammates and I each finally let on that none of us had really been running much. In addition, the other guy on my team was having some achillies issues and wasnt comfortable doing the event this year, so after a futile attempt to come up with 2 runners at the last minute, we ended up deferring our team entry fee to next years relay. Hopefully in 2009 Ill have a better blog entry for this one...
So, that left me with an open day on Saturday, so I decided late in the week that I was going to try to avenge my failed attempt at a 100 mile ride last weekend by trying again this weekend.
I left home about 9:15 Saturday morning, headed north up to the Clinton River Trail, then west on the CRT through Auburn Hills and Pontiac. The CRT basically ends when you get to Pontiac and then starts up again on the other side of Pontiac where it connects to the West Bloomfield Trail, and although I had done that part of the ride before I still got a little lost in Pontiac but eventually picked up the trail again and continued southwest till the trail till it ultimately ends in a residential subdivision in Farmington Hills. I got lost again in this subdivision and after riding around for several minutes trying to find my way out to a major cross street I finally asked how to get out from a woman walking by, and she directed me to the next corner which was Halsted. Doh! Not really knowing the best roads for riding in this part of town I just took Pontiac Trail all the way to Maple which is where I knew I could get back on the dirt roads again. From there I took Old Plank to Buno (yes, I intentionally skipped Childs Lake Rd so I wouldnt have to take the big hill on Buno... sue me, I was going for mileage, not elevation gain!). From there I entered Kensington and then down to Island Lake for a lap of the trail. See, I actually did ride a trail! On the way back I took the most direct route which was the Huron River Trail along Grand River, under I-96 and into Wixom. From there I ended up stuck back on Pontiac Trail which I took into Walled Lake, and then around Walled Lake I took 14 Mile to Beverly back towards home. As I got closer to home I realized I was going to fall short of my goal so I added some residental subdivisions to get my 100 miles. Believe it or not, I actually got lost on Pierce south of 13 mile.... I ended up doing two loops in that sub and ended back where I started on 13 Mile each time so I gave up and just took 13 Mile from there.
So, I left at 9:15 am, got home at 5:15pm and had 6 hour 51 minutes ride time for a total of about 101.5 miles.
I was planning on taking more pics, but I was having trouble with my camera phone all day, so this is all I got...
Clinton River Trail in Auburn Hills
Island Lake trailhead
Oh yeah, I just bought a new pair of bike shoes, and I figured what better way to see if I like them than by riding 100 miles in em! Fortunately I like em!
Better picture of the new shoes
Below, my bike computer shows 105.5 miles, but as I found out at Lumberjack when I ended up with 104 miles compared to everyone else's 100, my computer is about 4% off.
Still learning how to blog.... hopefully this is a link to my Map My Ride route. Note that I didnt try to add the 15 miles of Island Lake trail, that's why it's only 85 miles.
http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/mi/royal%20oak/837554662636
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