Day 2. The Central Coast

The tent grid

Getting out of Santa Cruz

The overnight bike lot.

Day 2. This was a biggy for me. Training for ALC 10, my longest ride was 65 miles. Yesterday of course I broke that personal record by getting to Santa Cruz, which was 85 miles. Today was going to be 108 miles. I got out of camp and on the road by 7am. There was incredible amounts of traffic to get through in Santa Cruz before the long straight aways through lettuce, artichoke and strawberry fields that led us all to King City.  There were 2 rest stops before lunch, which came at the 47 mile mark for the day, in Salinas. The afternoon had 2 rest stops, a water and bathroom stop before getting to the San Lorenzo County Park. At about 3pm and about 60 miles into the day, I started feeling the effects of 'the seat' and quickly made a new best friend in Chamois Butter. I had been told a lot about this 'instant' reliever and quickly embraced its power. Day One was a very polite, "Excuse me, pardon me" kind of day. Day Two - still very polite, very cordial - but make no mistake - there were elements that clearly reflected that the honeymoon was over. ''Buttering up," getting to the massage/ chiropractic table, the medic's tent, seeing guys plugged w/ IVs and wrapped in foil from dehydration, made it very clear - this wasn't going to be all fun and games. I made it into camp at 7:20pm. I was a little concern that I would get 'sagged' for not getting into camp on time (it was posted that you had until 7pm. to ride into camp and you spend a lot of the day doing math calculations in your head over your speed, distance, elevation speed averages, break times, etc). Riders could throughout the whole event be picked up from anywhere on the course and forwarded to the next stop/ camp - for whatever the reason or that they couldn't get through the days ride by the close of the day. I vowed to never be sagged, never walk my bike and never give up. After getting into camp, I felt a huge sweep of confidence that I could meet my physical goals and ride every mile of every day to Los Angeles.

Riders helping a stranded car in Gonzalez.

Camp at night.