It was a great experience. I didn't think I would be able to make it especially when the forecast called for 12 mph winds in the morning and 20 mph winds throughout the afternoon.

Steve and I set off at 4:30 am in the pitch dark...surprisingly it was very peaceful and aside from being a little cold everything felt pretty good. Hit rest stop 1 while it was still dark so was unable to drop the lights and the bathroom was locked which was a bit of a bummer so we cruised through rest stop 1 and headed to rest stop 2. Ride was pleasant and quite pretty. Everything was going pretty well. Stopped for a bit at rest stop 2 but the main goal was to get the first 100 miles over with and figure out if we were going to be able to continue. Managed to finish the first loop, 103 miles, in a total time of 6:35 or so with 6:05 of that on the bike for a riding pace of 17.1 mph. This pace was much faster than the only ride we had done of over 100 miles which was the Solvang Century (103 miles with a similar elevation gain to each of the individual loops of the Hemet Double).

Second loop started off with a vicious climb that really took everything out of my legs so the stops got longer on the second 100 miles (actually only 95 miles) but we still managed to hold a reasonable pace. At the last stop Steve realized if we held over 16.0 mph on the last bit we would beat our average riding pace from the Solvang Century for the entire double century. So after some chilli and a cup o noodles we set off to take advantage of the tailwind knowing that the last 7 miles or so would be dead into a nasty headwind. In the end we made it and ended up doing the last 95 miles in 6:05 riding time and 7:20 total time.

All in all this was a great experience and I look forward to doing another double. However, without Steve to pull me through the wind on that last stretch I might still be in Hemet.

Time is the total time on the bike. Total time for the ride was a little under 14 hours.

Lack of hill training. I need to hit the hills if I'm going to survive the bike leg in June. Need more time on the bike have not even put in 2000 miles on it yet.


Dr. Jim Watrous organizes an excellent race and is extremely kind and friendly. Lunch and Dinner were provided in the form of sandwiches, pasta, bbq chicken and plenty of snacks. All of the aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were all very nice. In addition, all of the other riders were extremely friendly and nice to us...even though they could tell we had never done this before.

The picture is of myself and Steve after the ride.