The ride of the season, RAMROD, came the last day in July. To get into this ride, riders are chosen by a lottery system in order to limit the ride to 800 people. Needless to say, Randy was selected and then dove into training. His day of cycling started at 3:30 A.M. (yes, A.M.!) when the alarm went off. He worked his way to the Enumclaw High School for a waffle (legos) breakfast and some coffee! By 5:15, with the dawn light, Randy started peddling the sixty miles to Mount Raineer. The path would take the cyclist through small towns and highways to the south entrance of the Mt. Raineer National Park. Once in the park, the cyclists had a gradual climb. From what Randy has said, this climb was not super steep but it was long which made him slow down at the end of it. The cyclists bypassed Paradise Lodge and went to the rest stop to summons up energy for the remaining ups and downs of Raineer and Cayuse Pass. Cayuse pass was not only steep, but there was road construction before it. Cyclists consistently reported that this was the toughest stretch of RAMROD! It was ten miles in the extreme heat and more than half way through the 154 mile course. Once Randy reached the top of Cayuse pass, it was downhill and some flats all the way back Enumclaw High School.
Statistics from the ride: Randy finished cycling around 7:00pm. His actual peddling time was about eleven hours.
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