The Secret Society of Randonneuring: Kit ‘n Kish 600K Permanent
3:30 a.m. Felkerino and I quietly maneuver our eight-foot tandem out of the hotel room, and Felkerino muscles it into the elevator, hoisting the front half of the bike into […]
Shenandoah 600K: Ride With What You Have Inside
While in the midst of final preparations for the weekend’s Shenandoah 600K in Virginia, a friend asked me how I was feeling about the ride. I raised my eyebrows and […]
D.C. Randonneurs 4 States 400K: Bring Your 400K Face
Want a successful 400K ride experience? Bring your 400K face to the ride and no other. After over a decade of randonneuring, some lessons have begun to sink in, and […]
Mother of All 300Ks and the Passage of Time
Fourteen years ago I rode my first 300K brevet with the D.C. Randonneurs, and this weekend Felkerino and I were back on that very same course, now fondly titled the […]
Made-Up Me: D.C. Randonneurs 600K
The uncertain arc of a ride as long as a 600K draws me to it. So many factors define the ultimate experience: fitness, weather, terrain, traffic, and the bike itself. […]
Enjoying Every Mile on the D.C. Randonneurs 400K
Stopped at mile 110 of our 252-mile ride, someone asks us where we started.”Frederick, Maryland,” we respond. When asked where we’re going we again say, “Frederick,” and then pepper in […]
Beyond Fun: D.C. Randonneurs Frederick, Maryland 300K
As I set out my gear for Saturday’s 300K, I noticed the 2015 cue sheet for the same ride still in my bag. One year later, back again. For a […]
Out of My Gordonsville: D.C. Randonneurs 300K
For the second year in a row, Felkerino and I couldn’t get our acts together to fit in a 200K, so we began our brevet season with this weekend’s D.C. […]
Living On In Memories
This past weekend I had one of the best rides of my life on the D.C. Randonneurs 600K brevet, and that’s not the randonnesia talking. The course layout, weather, and […]
Randonneuring Beneath the Stars
The sun flares orange and pink, drops behind the mountains, and leaves us. Felkerino and I pause to don night gear, assess our 600K progress, and estimate the hours of […]
Randonneuring: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
Randonneuring events allow ordinary people like me to participate in extraordinary bike rides. Brevets changed my definition of a long day ride, from a century to more than double that– distances I previously […]
The Mind’s Journey
I began this year feeling quite uncertain, almost ambivalent, about the brevets. The past year has included some serious and unexpected health issues in my family. These scrambled up my head, and […]
Randonnesia Strikes on the Mother of All 300Ks
“We’re too blessed to be depressed,” a church sign at mile 70 read. Our riding group of three shared a chuckle. We had just climbed Wolf Gap, Mill Gap, and […]
Experience: a Randonneur’s Frenemy
This weekend, Felkerino and I rode our first official brevet of 2015, the D.C. Randonneurs 300K out of Frederick, Maryland. I was feeling pretty lackluster about the whole thing, but […]
A Dose of Reality on a 200K
Felkerino and I met up with bicycling friends Eric, Jerry, Barry, and Joel to ride the classic D.C. Randonneurs “Old Rag 200K” route. Jerry had some weird rattle in his rear […]
We Interrupt This Brevet for …
Sometimes when riding my bike, I feel like I’m inside a video game that’s throwing all manner of obstacles my way, and I have to react and deal with them […]
