#audax

It would be super cool to see Audax drawn in your style. He's a SkyWing, I promise. Feel free to draw him as the canon SkyWing design if you would prefer!

The stupid interface won't let me add more than 10 pictures, so here is a video while I brain-dump about last Saturday. TL;DR - I set out to ride a 300k audax and I did it!

I've ridden five 200km audaxes since 2022 and was curious about riding a longer one. When the Randonneurs Ontario schedule came out after the AGM I was intrigued by the 300 during Devil Week because it coincided with the summer solstice. One of my worries for a 300k was the night riding element (I haven't ridden in the dark in 20+ years, and never on unlit country roads) and the long day meant that would be minimised. So I put the date in the calendar and then carried on. Occasionally I'd get the emails with the organisational details and I generally ignored them.

I had a call with my coach in the spring and we were talking about intermediate goals for the year and I off-handedly mentioned the 300k. He said that it didn't matter if I didn't actually do it, but it would be a good event to structure my training towards, so it landed up in my Training Peaks calendar. Once it was in my TP calendar I thought about it a bit more, then eventually committed myself by booking a (cancellable) hotel room and telling the organiser that I was doing it.

I needed new head and tail lights for the dark, so those were purchased and tested on my 130km solo ride. I didn't actually practice riding in the dark before the 300, despite my best intentions.

We drove down Friday afternoon, joined a group of other riders for a happy hour and dinner and then got to bed. The ride started at 7am so we set the alarm for 5.30am. There was a hotel buffet breakfast but I wasn't sure how good it would be (it was pretty bad) so I'd taken bananas and chocolate milk and all manner of other food for post-ride.

We rolled out as a group a little after 7am and mostly stayed together heading north on the country roads. As we approached busier roads and the MUP that took us to our first control we split up a little but all pretty much rolled in to the 30km control at the same time.

The next control was at about 90km and we were alone, and then we had a group and then we were alone again because sticking with the group had me at power levels I knew I couldn't sustain for such a long day. We had a tailwind so were moving pretty swiftly and I was eating and drinking without any issues. As we approached the second control, the thunder started and then the rain. We landed up wasting some time at that control, stopping first at a Tim Horton's then a gas station but eventually got moving again. The rain picked up and between that control and the control at Goderich at 163km, I just resigned myself to being pretty wet.

At Goderich the main square was under construction and the first bakery we stopped at didn't have any sandwiches, but we eventually found a place (do not recommend) and got some food. We knew that we'd be turning back south into a substantial headwind and the sun was also coming out to make things toasty.

The next stretch was rough. The final control wasn't until 250km in but in that 163-250km stretch we stopped multiple times. Once at a gas station to refill bottles and grab an ice cream, only to find no ice creams. So then we stopped at the next convenience store en route to fulfill that desire. The sun was baking now, the roads were quite busy (and the traffic was FAST), and I was struggling to eat and drink.

There were some long stretches straight into the wind and even though Dan was doing all the pulling, those were hard - you couldn't even pick up speed going downhill. We stopped a few times to rest in the shade and for me to eat and drink what I could. We'd been leapfrogging a few other riders for most of the ride - we'd left one set behind before our ice cream stop. We later found out that they ran out of water and had to be rescued by car!

I'd scoped out the route on google maps ahead of time because I knew there were long isolated stretches; my goal at that point was to get to the hamlet at 228km because there was another convenience store there. That's where I landed up lying on the sidewalk with my legs up against the building because the hotspots on my feet were killing me. Another ice cream, and a ginger ale, and we got moving again, knowing there were some turns coming up that would break up the headwind.

The other group we were leapfrogging left this convenience store ahead of us and given how slowly we were moving I was surprised to see their bikes at the 250km control. It was nearly 9pm by then so I took out my contact lenses, ditched my sunglasses and put on my regular glasses. I also washed my face and getting rid of some of the salty grime made a big difference. We left this control ahead of them and didn't see them again until the next morning (my on-road goal became to beat them to the finish so I was pleased to do that).

We were still navigating our way through London when it got dark. Most of that was lit but there was a stretch on a MUP that was completely unlit - I wasn't a fan of that bit as it was really hard to see pedestrians.

The transition from city roads to country roads was abrupt. It was quite strange to go from a fully lit road with a wide shoulder to pitch blackness. The roads were sufficiently quiet that for the most part we could ride side by side and that gave us decent lighting to see the way ahead but also to display all our flashing rear lights in their full glory.

The route ends with these twists and turns and these roads that change orientation completely so by the last few km I was totally turned around. I'd stopped in a residential street in London to try and eat something and that bar was also threatening to make its way back up. After some dry-heaving by the side of the road I just wanted to be back at the hotel so we kept pushing on. We had one final foot-down, to cross the minor highway that the hotel was adjacent to. When I put that foot down, it cramped up horribly - but not so horribly that I wasn't about to pedal in.

Previously unpublished Jumping spider portraits. 

Species in order, as follows. 

P. Mystaceus

Menemerus bivittatus

P. Regius

P. Otiosus

Rest in peace

Crowley

You showed up at one of my lowest moments and chose to hangout with me. You immediately reignited my interest, and love for bugs, and now, spiders. You cured my fear of spiders. You were curious and cute and I love you so much. I will forever miss you. In the last few weeks, you stopped eating. I tried everything I could. And finally last week I felt amazing because I got you to eat a fly. You looked proud. And you still have a full belly.