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Paris-Brest-Paris THE FIRST BREVET Death Ride came and went and I had mentally embarked on my plan of tapering off riding for the rest of the season. Robin had other plans. Seattle International Randonneurs was offering a Summer/Fall series of brevets and he wanted to find out what it was all about and casually mentioned something about a ride the following year called Paris-Brest-Paris. I did some research on the web about PBP and quickly confirmed my initial impression of "Rando Nerds", as we lovingly came to call them (and ourselves!). What was all this about riding all night, sleeping in ditches, forcing down sustenance in a country known for its haute cuisine, and generally voluntarily subjecting yourself to a 90-hour test of mind-over-matter? Not my cup of tea I was sure but I gamely agreed to accompany Robin on the 200k ride in early August. After all, I was certainly fit enough to easily cover that distance and the weather was looking great. We enjoyed the ride although I started to bonk a bit at the end having put out a bit too much effort. We chatted with other riders on the ferry ride back to Seattle from Bremerton. Several had aspirations of riding PBP in 2003 and Robin eargerly soaked up their enthusiasm as well as tales from Kevin and Salia who had actually ridden PBP in 1999. I'm pretty sure at that point that I boldly declared I had no intention of riding any further distances with this pack of loonies. The 300k later that month fell on a weekend I had already committed to assisting with a deck building project at my sister's house. Robin weasled out on the deck work and pedaled off to ride the 300k. Again the weather was terrific. Robin returned home pretty pumped up about his experience but also pretty wiped out as he had linked up with Jan Heine for the ride and put in a blistering time. With my limited experience of randonneuring I already knew about Jan and was glad I hadn't gotten caught up with that! I considered myself to be quite wise in deciding that 200k was plenty of distance to ride.
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