This blog is my attempt to journal our rides each season. TEam MANG (timang) is a very informal club - the one requirement is that you love to ride your bike (all types)...and do other things like eat and hang out and be silly. The term "Mang" is commonly used in the Filipino language to address older gentlemen but we're not gender or ethnic exclusive. We welcome women, too - we call them Team "Aling". Overall, we're just BFF's (bicycling with friends for fun).
Team Mang does camping? They sure do. During the early part of the Labor Day weekend 2013, Mangers, Alings and their families spent a few days together - literally - at the Deception Pass State Park camping in tents. By all accounts, there was a lot of time spent bonding, joking, cooking, eating and laughing with and at each other. In short - "Timangan". There were even reports of rangers coming into the sites to spoil the fun late in the night after quiet time...but that's unconfirmed :)
Team Mang distracting drivers at the park entrance
The weekend was highlighted with a planned 45 mile bike ride around the island towards Oak Harbor - that turned into a 60 due to unconfirmed reports of Mangers getting lost in the island - navigating via paper map and taking several detours. Somewhere in there was a stop for lumpia at a street festival. The ride was supposed to be "short" and "flat" (4,000 feet elevation gain) since it was a relaxed weekend. As if. But the riders still came away feeling it was worth it to explore more of the island, visit an old friend, attack a few more hills and get more training out of that Saturday.
Non-riders went hiking
The rest of the crew who didn't go biking ended up going on a hike around the Deception Pass trails.
All in all, it was another fun filled weekend for Team Mang and Team Aling forging bonds of friendship, creating memories for summer 2013. There's talk that this will be a yearly event so get yourself ready for 2014!
After a fun and relaxed ride to Vancouver, BC (and the after-party the day following day), fellow Mangers decided to tackle a couple of mountain tops. Chinook Pass, at an elevation of 5,430 feet and the Sunrise Visitor Center, at 6,400 feet were calling. Pushing off from the entrance of the Mount Rainier National Park on Highway 410, the team climbed their way to Chinook Pass, took a break, then rode down towards the intersection of highway 123 (about halfway down), effectively making the previous climb the warm up.
From the intersection, they made the steady climb up to Sunrise Visitor Center where, as usual, the main activity was taking pictures and basically "drinking" the hamburgers (the speed at which they gulped those burgers effectively amounted to drinking). You can imagine how hungry they were when they got there.
Souvenir T-shirts and knee socks were effective cold blockers
One memory that stands out among the participants was how cold it was after that quick hamburger meal at the lodge. The weather had cooperated and held back the rain, but it was cloudy and a bit cool to begin with. Naturally, climbing up with effort kept the riders warm but as soon as they relaxed inside the lodge, the cooler mountain temperatures became real and some had to scramble for pieces of clothing to help them keep warm on the descent. Suddenly, the gift shop was beckoning. Thank goodness for souvenir t-shirts and newspapers (to tuck inside your jersey to warm your chest on a descent). Everyone made it down safely, of course, and celebrated with cold beers at the parking lot. One more epic ride for the books for Team Mang.
A relaxed 25 mile ride for the rest
The rest of the Mangers and Alings who couldn't be at the twin peaks ride took some time to practice the 25 mile Cycle the Wave route in Issaquah to make sure the Alings were training for the event. Fewer in number, the small group still managed to enjoy themselves and meet the training needs of the Alings while barely working a sweat.
A few of the Team Mangs (and Aling) stop and take in the moment
near the end of the RSVP 190 mile ride
After doing the 204 mile ride to Portland just a few weeks ago, many of us felt the pressure of having to ride hard and fast lifted from our shoulders. The 190 mile Ride from Seattle to Vancouver (and Party) was going to be a relaxed ride where we would take our time, take in the scenery and enjoy the company. Day 1 started out as planned. Pushing out from UW under cloudy skies, most of us hung back, going about 18-20 mph at the most and only speeding up when we hit the downhills. Mang Kiko, riding with us for the first time on his first organized ride, experienced his first flat which caused a bit of a delay on the way to Machias - the first official stop. Still, the typical banter and joking around was ever present, thanks to Mang Jay and Mang Harry. The group came back together as the jackrabbits - the Roush tandem team, Mang Cris, Mang Roland with a few others - waited for us there.
Team Mangs at the Golden Ears bridge crossing the
Frasier River in BC - doing what they do best - posing!
We pushed off together from Machias but the train quickly expanded as some of us picked up speed on the Centennial trail while the others opted to stay relaxed. There were at least 3 distinct groups pushing towards the 50 mile mark but the 2nd and 3rd group exchanged places as the trailing group missed the Arlington rest stop while the 2nd group patiently waited for them - still thinking there was another group behind them. By the time we got to the second major climb of the first day approaching Mount Vernon, the temperatures had started to pick up and the orange train's elasticity grew. The whole group would eventually come together at the Mount Vernon rest stop, around mile 75, where we made plans to stop for a snack in the town.
Some Mangers and Alings take in the view along
Chuckanut Drive near Bellngham
This has got to go down into our history books as one of the most memorable RSVP Day 1 adventures. The leading riders missed a turn and ended up continuing on towards downtown Mt. Vernon while the rest of us turned towards the town for lunch. After adding another couple of miles of being lost, Mang Jojie led most of us to a "snack" at the Royal Star Buffet where we spent at least an hour relaxing and of course, refilling our energy stores with Chinese and Japanese fuel. $7.49 for buffet wasn't bad. After we were satisfied, this group powered through Mount Vernon's open fields and headwinds and rode up Chuckanut Drive together taking the customary pictures at the viewpoints. We also took pictures at the pink lemonade stand in Bellingham where we congratulated the girl who was getting married (check out the RSVP files at Cascade for the backstory and history behind that famous pink lemonade RSVP stand - see the picture below).
The pink lemonade girl is
getting married!
Day 1's activities were capped by re-carboloading activities at the On Rice Thai Cuisine Restaurant and hanging around at the Hotel lobby with "coffee".
Long wait at the border to Canada
Day 2 was supposed to start at 7:30 AM but you know how it is - "Let's go!...Wait! Wait!..." seems to be our battle cry. Add to that an unexpected flat at mile 0 and we didn't get to push out until past 8 AM. That didn't seem to be a problem as a whole lot of Mang and Trangko jack rabbits took turns leading the train averaging 22 mph towards Lynden chasing some sort of deadline. All that rushing was for naught as the line at the border delayed all of us by almost two hours! If you've done long rides before, you'll know that it actually gets more tiring to have to stop for so long with about 60 more miles to go. Pictures at the border crossing were mandatory and we got ours!
A sea of orange at the border, eh!
The ride towards Vancouver created several orange groups as everyone rode at their own pace and gaps were made bigger by traffic lights and speed preferences. Still, even though we were all separated into groups, we all managed to capture memories of our fun at the bridges, views, landmarks and interesting places along the way. We rolled into the Coast Plaza Hotel a couple of hours later than last year - around 4:30 PM - to party with the rest of the cyclists. No rush. Our two day ride concluded with more recalorization efforts at the Richmond Night Market.
Congratulations to all Team Mangs and Team Alings for another fun filled and memorable ride to Canada!
The words 'sprint' and 'attack' don't necessarily come to mind when you talk about MANG Jojie. But one thing you can be sure of when you ride with him is that you will get there eventually. Steady but sure would describe his riding style. No flash, no high tech gadgetry, just good old fashioned relaxed riding on a reliable steel touring bike. No ultra light carbon hooha for this Mang. For the second year in a row, he was the only Manger to sign up for and complete the Ride Around Washington or RAW for short.
Lots to see around Washington on a bicycle.
So how come only a few people sign up for this ride? Let's see... Who wants to ride around small towns and cities from Western Washington to Central Washington to Eastern Washington over mountain passes, long shadeless fields against wind and heat and alongside speeding cars? Who would want to travel from as far north as Skagit County to as far south as the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon border? Why would you want to ride almost 80 miles a day for 7 days straight, climbing almost 2,000 feet per ride in the middle of summer, finishing each day with a campfire, sleeping in tents and eating camp food?
Meeting friends along the way is part of
any ride
Apparently, MANG Jojie can and it's a different kind of fun. One of the nice things about team MANG is that we have respect for all types of riders and riding disciplines. MANG Jojie is one of our unique riders and we congratulate him for accomplishing a feat that few of us can even imagine doing. His finish reminds us that enjoying the sport of cycling doesn't have to be about racing to the top of the hill, reaching blazing downhill speeds, or getting to the end of the ride in record time ahead of everyone. For many, cycling is about enjoying the wind on your face, seeing sites you skip when you're in a car and most of all, hanging out with wonderful people while moving forward on a two wheeled contraption.
August 3, 2013 - Last "hard" ride before the Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP). Conventional wisdom states that you do a 65+ mile ride to prepare yourself for a century - so we did just that, going from the Ron Regis park in Renton towards Maple Valley, Ravensdale and Black Diamond where we stopped and ate at the bakery. We then moved on to Enumclaw and then back to Auburn through the Green Valley Road where switching pulls between Mang Ferdie, Mang Rene, Mang Bob and Aling Fatima got us cruising between 22 and 25 mph...And of course, Mang Jay pulled, too! A quick break at the meat market and then it was on to Lea Hill and into Renton's rolling hills coming back north towards Fairwood and back down to the park. With about 5 actual breaks averaging 15 - 20 minutes, that makes our total riding time around a little less than 5 hours. So our average moving time was about 13 - 14 mph. That's fine for a training ride. Here's some videos of the ride...
