Keep on moving - SCR Greenfield 300k Brevet: 3/21/2009

With spring just about officially here, the days were getting longer, but not yet long enough for me to have any chance of finishing a 300k ride in daylight. At least we didn't have to start in the dark.
Although there was a chance of showers later, the day started off fairly bright and clear. As the randonneurs gathered around, SCR's Bill Bryant gave us the last minute updates on the course and weather.
Whereas the 200k route had headed north of Santa Cruz, the 300k headed south into the Salinas Valley. I had ridden part of the route before, on the Chualar Ramble permanent, but had not gone south of Chualar before. The turnaround for this route was Greenfield, three towns south of Chualar.
One disadvantage of riding south from Santa Cruz was having to get through all the traffic lights in the Santa Cruz/Aptos/Soquel area. Eventually we emerged into farm country, then headed down on Highway 1 through Moss Landing. I saw a huge mass of sea lions hanging out in the harbor
along with a sea otter showing off its favorite pose.
A few miles later we entered Marina, our first control for the day. At the 7-11 I once again came across Brian Schaeffer, who had helped me in the finish of the SCR 200k.
We headed out into the Salinas Valley together, but my pace was still slower than his so after a while I drifted back, trying to make sure I didn't push too hard. I didn't know most of the roads ahead, so I had no idea where the hills were. As it turned out the roads heading towards Greenfield seemed to be filled with rolling hills. Although the valley itself is very flat, River Road and it's brethren were bouncing around the foothills west of the Salinas River; an area apparently much favored by wineries. I was not happy about this, however; although I had done several significant rides since the beginning of the year I still didn't really have my climbing legs, and it seemed like a lot more up & down than there actually was.
Finally I reached Arroyo Seco Road north of Greenfield. Arroyo Seco Road headed up the (what else) Arroyo Seco and climbed over the 2000 foot elevation level before dropping into the Carmel Valley. Luckily we were only going a few miles up before turning around and heading into Greenfield ; my legs were protesting loudly at the little climbing they had to do. I did start to see some of the faster folk on their way back from Greenfield
or coming down from the Arroyo Seco turnaround point.

After a bit more very slow climbing I also reached Scott Brittle manning the control on Arroyo Seco.

This was a very welcome sight; it meant I could now do two much anticipated things: 1) coast downhill, and 2) head for lunch in Greenfield.
Since I was now going downhill it was much easier to take pictures of stuff I had seen on my way up. First was a vineyard with what appeared to be a guard tower - guess they're worried about the grapevines escaping.
Then there was someone's blatantly self-promotional sign.
Halfway back down the view of the Arroyo Seco opened up nicely.
Finally I got to the junction of Elm Avenue and headed over the green bridge towards Greenfield.
Once I got into town, I turned left onto El Camino Real, as it looked like that was the direction of all the businesses. I cruised along looking for the Subway and almost stopped at a little Mexican restaurant but decided to stick with my first plan and kept going. Eventually I realized I was running out of town; where was the Subway. With the help of Google Maps on my cell phone I realized I should have turned right onto El Camino Real instead of left and saved myself 10 minutes.
A quick U-turn put me back on the right track and I pulled into the Subway where Brian was just finishing up his lunch. I grabbed a sandwich/chips/drink and bought some more stuff to restock a bit for the trip back. I was a little worried about having to fight the Salinas Valley headwind as we headed back north, but hoped that the showery weather would prevent that from being too bad.
As it turned out the wind wasn't much of a problem at all. I did encounter a few rain sprinkles and a pretty nice rainbow.
I was still riding slowly and pulled into Marina well after dark. Here I made the mistake of not getting anything caffeinated. I thought I was the last one headed back but just as I was getting ready to leave a couple more guys pulled in. Mark and John had apparently taken a wrong turn coming back from Greenfield and ended up in Soledad, then had to backtrack to pick up the right route. I hung out for a bit waiting but started to cool off too much, so I told them I was heading out, figuring they would catch up with my slow pace.
As it turned out they never did, even though I stopped a few times and waited for several minutes. By this time I had realized my mistake in not getting caffeine; I had not gotten enough sleep the week before the ride and it was really catching up to me. Luckily there was a gas station north of Moss Landing which had soda machines outside (the convenience store was already closed), and I happily retrieved a bottle of Coke and slugged it down over the next few miles north.
Eventually I pulled into Santa Cruz and made it back to SCR central where Bill took my victory picture.
I was really looking forward to getting home and sleeping, but a little worried about the upcoming 400k and 600k, which were longer distances than anything I had ridden before.