Well, the ride is over! I was waiting to get some pictures from FM.. but I will post the pictures when I get them! :) I do have 1 of the 2 of us on day 1 at the first break stop.
So here is the abridged recap. I will leave the medical issues for each of us out of this telling. I hope FM does the same! :P
Day 1: woke up at 4:something am.. that is early! We ate breakfast, got ready and packed up our gear. We thought there would be some sort of a starting line or something... but people were just going.. so we got going at about 6:15ish on the ride. Right out of the parking lot, a hill that while not steep, went on for a long while. Someone was already walking up that first hill. I suspect she didn't do a lot of miles that day. The hills were HORRID... I walked up 1 because my hips were grinding... (ouch!).. but with those bike shoes.. I didn't walk any more. A couple of the hills made me want to cry when I would see them looming ahead - but I conquered them.... Slow and steady! You know it is bad when you have bottomed out your gears and are only going like 2 mph and still struggling. We did 67 miles on day 1. I think with those hills it should have counted for 167! The pavement was something else on a lot of the ride too! It had this gravel that had been put in for the last course and rolled in or something. I am not kidding you, I slowed down when going down hill on this stuff! I kept checking to be sure I didn't have a flat tire or sticking brakes. It was nuts! SOme of the pavement was really nice, I hit 39.4 mph on one downhill - THAT rocked. :) was trying to hit 40.. maybe next year. We sagged from the break stop at the 67 mile point to the end. Would have been 98 miles had we biked it all.
Day 2:
115 miles. We both did our first century ever on day 2. Somehow we hooked up with this group for 16 miles towards the end (up to the last 10 miles) that was going 19-21 mph and we kept up with them. Not at ALL sure how in the heck we did that! It was awesome though. This day was a LOT better because the hills were smaller. They were hard in the morning but seemed to get easier as the day progressed. We didn't sag.... well FM had to for a couple miles due to technical problems, but that wasnt her choice or her fault!
Day 3:
for reasons out of our control we couldn't/didn't ride. But that was okay. we were both REALLY REALLY tired..... Unfortunately FM left before meeting our wish hero Abby. She's a great girl that had a wish granted which was a week at Disney world, a princess experience! I am so glad that we were able to raise money for this amazing organization!!! I am going to do this again... FM - ummm probably not so much. Her husband is a farmer and this is not the best time of the year for her to be away.....
anywa I promise more pictures when I Get them!!
