Amtrak Century, September 6, 2008

(The Crew:Ray Payan, Mary Payan, Julie Hosea, Robert Hosea, Debbie Johnson)

Five club members (and a co-worker) did the Amtrak Century on September 6, 2008. It’s a point to point century ride from Irvine, CA to San Diego, CA put on by the Orange County Wheelmen. The return trip to Irvine is by private train. This is advertised as a great first-time century. It is a very easy mostly flat to downhill ride with a few climbs. Actually, I think the hardest part of this is getting registered. The ride is limited to 1,100 riders, 700 return by train and 400 are on their own. Registration opened at 7:00AM on Father’s Day and was closed within 20 minutes.

We all arrived in Huntington Beach on Friday afternoon. Ray and I consider a more local bike for the ride instead of our road bikes. We opted for speed over comfort.

We found our way to the Irvine Transportation Center early Saturday morning, dropped off our bags and coolers, and made it through the efficient check-in. We are given a route slip with way to many turns to memorize so we decide someone in front of us will know where to go. Someone overhears us and cautions us to make sure whoever we follow has a wrist band so we don’t end up at someone’s house instead of in San Diego.

We are finally off at 6:20. This is the first century for four of the tri club members in our group. It’s a little cool, not very light, and damp. The first 10 miles are relatively flat and traffic free. We make it over the first little climb and enjoy the long downhill through Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, and San Juan Capistrano to our first rest stop.

After a short stop it was back on the bike to Dana Point and our first view of the ocean. We rode through San Clemente and through a park/campground area and along a traffic free bike trail to rest stop 2. We were unable to ride through Camp Pendleton this year, so it was about 7-8 miles on Interstate 5; this was not the most enjoyable part of the ride. We finally get off the freeway and into Oceanside for lunch. Everyone is feeling pretty good after 62 miles and there hasn’t been any whining! We are right on my estimated time schedule and should make it to San Diego in time to catch the train.

Leaving lunch there is a pretty steep but short climb and everyone ‘feels’ their legs again. No one is talking about it, but we all know THE HILL is coming up. There is flat road, cool damp air, and beautiful scenery through Carlsbad and Del Mar before we get to Torrey Pines. Everyone makes it to the top and the final rest stop to enjoy popsicles and ice cream bars. After a short stretch through La Jolla and some more bike trails, we are in Mission Bay. Continuing south we find ourselves riding on what seems like freeways with the traffic and interchange ramps. We were slightly navigationally challenged through this section but managed to stay on the correct route somehow.


After regrouping it was an easy ride down Harbor to an uneventful finish. We were right on schedule; just enough time to grab our stuff, head to a nearby gym for a quick shower and then to the train. The train ride back to Irvine was a lot of fun – it was a party atmosphere.


This was definitely a great ride for first time century riders.