Great Pumpkin Ride: race report

I've been looking forward to this ride for weeks.  Last year, it was one of my favorite fall rides - the route winds through Warrenton, which has fabulous cycling terrain, with the addition of pumpkin- and Halloween-candy-flavored rest stops.  Plus, it had been almost 2 months since I had spent most of my Saturday morning staring at this:

The morning was a rushed-around over-slept lost-keys stopped-traffic disaster.  We pulled in and parked just in time to see the pack roll out.  However, I remembered the initial part of the route from last year and we were able to catch up to some people fairly quickly, plus I stopped and picked up a dropped cue sheet.  I'd only been on the bike once since Waterman's, and my legs felt slow and heavy and didn't want to wake up.  I was glad to pull into the first rest stop and stretch out a bit.  Plus fill my stomach with this:

After a not-quick pit stop (wearing bibs+50º weather+going to the bathroom=some pretty serious portapotty gymnastics), we rolled back out.  I was pretty glad that I had taken any information about speed off my Garmin screen and that we had decided to just chat and roll easy for the day.  I know that not being on the bike these past few weeks has slowed me down, and while I've made the conscious decision to concentrate on running for the next month or so, it still made me pretty cranky to have lost so much fitness so quickly ("I shouldn't feel this tired!  This hill is tiny!  We aren't going that fast! We'd probably go faster if I stopped complaining so much!").  However, I had a great time rolling through some gorgeous scenery and catching up with my riding buddy for the morning.  

The second and last rest stop was in the same location as it was last year, although we approached it from a different way and missed the long slow climb up the back side.  The day stayed gray and pretty cool, and it was nice to go inside and sit on a soft chair and fill up on refined sugar and complex carbohydrates before the last 10 miles.

We decided to resurrect the post-ride burrito on the way home, and Emily had the rather brilliant idea of stopping for some peppermint hot chocolate as well.  I was pretty stoked about the hot chocolate.

I spent Saturday night over-celebrating the poet's birthday with lots of great friends.  The details of the evening are not appropriate important to discuss other than to note that my liver really can't take many more significant life events. 

HELLO off season.  How was your weekend?  Did your liver and crotch get fantastic workouts like mine?