Midnight Century 2013 Video

Midnight Century 2013 from hank greer on Vimeo.

Autofocus has a tough time in the dark and bumpy roads create a lot of camera shake. Fun times.

Bull's Eye!

I was almost home, coming down Hwy 2 when I felt a THUMP! followed by a rhythmic thump-thump-thump with each turn of the wheel. Something stuck into my back wheel and instantly deflated the tire.

 Yeah, that's in the 10 ring all right.

Fortunately, I was barely a quarter mile from home so I didn't have to walk far. But walk I did because I could not get that screw out since it was stuck into the rim. Dang it! This is the second new tire I've ruined in two months and now I might have a damaged rim.

 Here's what it looked like after I got the tire off.

And here's the damage to the rim.

There doesn't appear to be any damage to the opposite side of the rim. Just this inner wall. So is the rim okay? Do I lay a new piece of rim tape in there and press on?

Midnight Century 2013

About 40 riders departed The Elk at 11:59 pm. Several familiar faces, like John Speare and Tom McFadden, were missing. First timers from Idaho and Bellingham(!) completed the field. I didn't see any ladies. There was a guy pulling a trailer with a boom box blasting music. That was awesome but we soon left him behind.

We flew through downtown, making almost all the lights, and got on the Centennial Trail. After a few miles the group of six that John and I were in grew to about 16. We had an awesome pace line ripping to Spokane Bridge Road where we promptly disintegrated. John and I, along with three others, stopped to pee and grab a bite. When we started back up the other three took off leaving me and John to fend for ourselves. But that was okay because we had a laminated copy of the directions and yesterday morning we had scouted out the route between Liberty Lake and Spangle to make sure we knew where all the turns were.

And we missed the left turn onto Idaho and ended up lost on Mission. Brilliant!

After getting back on track then, just as last year, we kept leap frogging various riders and groups as everyone stopped at different times and places for breaks during the middle 30 miles. Erik Erickson was well ahead of us but he missed the turn onto Madison from Dishman-Mica. We caught up with him by the time he backtracked. We also caught up with Scott and the four of us loosely rode together for all but the last ten miles of the ride.

Reaching the top of Bruna Road we were concerned about the condition of the descent. When we checked the course yesterday morning the Bruna Road descent led off with about 150 feet of thick mud. Apparently enough vehicles flattened out the mud and the sun dried it during the day as it was in pretty good condition with very few ruts. This year we did not miss the gated entrance to Dunn Road. That was a fun section of the course and much shorter than the detour we took last year after blasting by the gate.

John flatted while coming down the tail end of Elder Road leading to Valley Chapel Road. We stopped on the bridge so he could swap the tube out. While he was working, Pat and Eric pulled up. While rounding a turn, Eric had come upon a porcupine in the road. He could not steer away so his ran over it. It apparently slapped its tail against his shoe after the front wheel hit. The right side of the sole of his shoe was full of quills. That has to rank pretty high on the list of Midnight Century strange occurrences.

John put his wheel back together and we headed for the last major climb, Spangle Creek Road. It is still a slog. What a joy to have that behind us.

The rest of the ride was mostly uneventful. We cruised along making pretty good time. John and I didn't set an official goal but we thought we'd make it in about 8 hours. Jennings Road was washboard central again. About a mile before we got to Cheney-Spangle Road my pannier rubbed against my spokes. It's not supposed to do that and it got my attention immediately. The bolt holding the bottom of my rack had shaken out. The one on the other side was halfway out. I tightened that up and cannibalized a bottle cage bolt for the other side. When we got onto the pavement for the last 19 miles I cranked it up and pulled John into town. We finished at 7:53 am with four other riders we caught up with on the Sandifur Bridge. Nice.

John and I both agreed that this year's ride was more pleasant than last year's. While we still had washboard roads to deal with, it wasn't to the extent that we suffered through a year ago. The dirt/gravel section of Linke was graded and smoothed just yesterday and Elder Road wasn't bad. But Jennings was still a paint shaking machine.

Finishing at Central Food was cool. We signed in with our times and had our finisher photo taken. Six of us (numbers 8 thru 13) finished at 7:53. Erik and Scott arrived later and joined us at our table. Breakfast was delicious, which is to be expected at this establishment. Central Food has never disappointed me.

 Obligatory before photo.

 These Mount Baker Bicycle Club members came all the way from Bellingham.

John flatted at the end of Elder road.

Then Erik pulled up with his porcupine quill infested Croc.

 Sunrise.

 Sunrise with a better camera.

Joe Anchondo signing in.

 Obligatory after photo.

 Scott and Eric.

A William Tell Shot

John and I were playing darts. He hit a triple 19 and landed the next dart in the back end of it. I let him have the points.

Ready To Roll

The Midnight Century is tomorrow night. All this rain should keep the dust down. Top Greer is ready. And so am I. My brother, John, came over from Tacoma to ride it again. Breakfast at Central Food on Sunday!

Horrible, Horrible News

In today's Spokesman Review we have an article validating Cathy McMorris Rodgers' many warnings about how terrible Obamacare will be for the State of Washington.

In Washington state, where final rates emerged this week, it will cost less, cover more people, and provide more comprehensive benefits than consumers get today.

See what I mean?

And what is it like today for people who can't afford health insurance?

Today, people without insurance can get some types of care in hospital emergency rooms, where costs are high and get passed along, via hospital fees and insurance rates, to those who do have coverage. But when the uninsured experience serious medical problems, the bills often push them into bankruptcy; medical costs account for 60 percent of personal bankruptcies in the United States. And, due to the inability to pay for care, many ailing Americans simply go without it and die: According to the American Journal of Public Health, lack of insurance is linked to 44,789 deaths per year in the United States.

And Obamacare will improve upon that?!?!

Cathy McMorris Rodgers was right. This pernicious government takeover cannot be tolerated. I look forward to her town hall meeting (meetings? - never!) this summer where she plans to tell us how she and her fellow Republicans will work hard to prevent this travesty from happening. Maybe they'll repeal it 50 times just to show how serious they are. After all, it's been 3-1/2 years since the Affordable Health Care legislation was passed and during this time Cathy McMorris Rodgers and her fellow Republican House members have done all they can to impede this horrible legislation.

And yet after years of saying there's a better way to do this, they have yet to offer up any legislation. Nothing.

Some may say it's a messaging problem, but I think Cathy McMorris Rodgers and her party's message comes across quite clearly.