Reach The Beach – WA 2022
Reach the Beach is a cycling event sponsored by the American Lung Association each year. They hold the event in Oregon in the spring and in Washington in the fall. There are four or five route lengths with the longest being 100 miles. I wasn’t quite ready to do that one yet, but I felt I could do the 78-mile route since it wasn’t that much more than my longest ride of 65 miles.
I spent the night in a hotel near Littlerock (a small town south of Olympia) so I wouldn’t have to get up too early the next morning of the ride.
I got up the next morning way too early and headed to the elementary school, which was my start location. I misread the start times, however. The 7:30 start time was for the 100-mile route. Mine didn’t start until 8:30am. Rather than wait, I hung around until around 8am and started early. I would be riding from Littlerock to Westport, which is on the Washington coast.
The route was fairly level with only a couple of mild hills, making the ride very enjoyable. There was also a variety of scenery, from farms, to forest, and eventually the beach.
I had driven from my house to the coast, though a little further south and knew it took at least 3-4 hours to get there by car. I had two spare batteries with me in my saddle bags and hopped it would be enough to get me to the finish. I was very surprised that I didn’t have to change my first battery out until I hit around 60 miles! This was unheard of for me! Usually, I can only get around 45 miles per charge. I suspected that it had to do with the level route.
When I arrived at the finish in Westport, I couldn’t believe it…I had ridden nearly 80 miles in only five hours! My average speed was 16 mph!
At the finish, I took some photos and walked around the tourist part of town, killing time until the lunch buffet was set up. When it finally opened, I couldn’t believe how much food they loaded on my plate! There was no way I could eat everything as I lounged on an Adirondack chair. I sat there for quite a while since the bus taking me back to the finish wasn’t until 4pm. A truck would follow carrying the bikes.
It was nearly 7pm by the time I got back to Littlerock and got on the road to head to Oregon for the next day’s bike adventure.
