Record Ride!!

I'm taking a little break today but I think I've earned it. Yesterday I participated in my first long distance (at least for me) bike tour. My friend and I rode 62 miles and both set personal distance records on our bikes. It was an adventure from start to finish.

The ride was a "pick your distance" course so after looking at the map we decided to do the 62 mile route. The course was to take us by some of the country churches in the area and that distance took us by all of them. But my ride almost ended in the parking lot. I was checking the air in my tires when the valve core flew out. I didn't want to start with a risky tire and thankfully I had a spare tube, but my wheel wouldn't come loose from frame. I'm so grateful for the help of John W. for getting me fixed and ready to ride again. I felt so blessed that 9 riders waited for me to get up and running before they hit the road. What wonderful people!

We started our ride only 10 minutes behind everyone else and by the first SAG stop we were catching up to some of the slower riders. The going was pretty easy and we moved right along, even up the hills and over the brick streets of the first small town. At the second SAG stop we were feeling pretty good about the ride with 20 miles behind us.

 

The next 10 miles started to ware on me and by the time we got to the next town I was getting tired. But sitting in the shade of the church helped a lot. This was a lunch stop but I'm not a fan of peanut butter and jelly so I just ate some snacks and a banana. Big Mistake! Looking back I should have forced myself to eat more protein and gotten some electrolytes. I was drinking lots of water but not getting enough other things to keep my energy up. As a result I was out of gas and fading fast.

Also by then my feet were starting to give me problems. During long rides they tend to go dead and start hurting a lot. On the pain scale meter of 1-10 I would give them about an 8. The only help is to get off the bike and walk around trying to get feeling back in them. But we were determined to make our goal and what the heck, we were half way there. My friend Kate H. was a good sport about stopping when I needed to and slowing her pace to stay with me.

By then the temperature was over 90 and the wind had picked up. The next 10 miles took us into the wind to the little town of Schoenchen and a nice little church there. I was really questioning if I would make it peddling uphill against that wind. For a little while I really thought about calling it a day and having Kate ride with another group back to town and send a truck for me. But we sat in the shade of the church and rested with a group of riders and braced ourselves for the last third of our trek.

We went to the next SAG station and took a long break so I could gather my strength. We only had 9 miles to go and it was with the wind at our back and generally down hill. Halleluiah!

With stops at almost every three miles we made it back to the start with new personal records and pride in accomplishing something special. I won't say the last 1/3 of the ride was fun, but I now know I can push through adversity and finish what I start. I also learned that there are good caring people wherever you go and when you are surrounded with positive people anything is possible. I don't think I'm ready for a long ride again but I am proud that I tried something new. So I think I deserve a day off today but tomorrow starts week 4 of Tri-training. Woo Hoo!