Against the Wind

Last weekend, Jenni and I traveled to Oberlin to ride in the "Roast Your Buns Tour" set up by a cycling club called the Lorain Wheelmen. The day went like this:

4:15 am- alarm
4:15:01 am- SNOOZE
4:20 am- alarm and some grumbling but get up
5:30 am- on the road to Oberlin
7:50 am- get to Oberlin, and find the Oberlin Depot (An old train station along the bike path)
8:00 am- clip in and start the ride
8:03 am- It wasn't supposed to rain today, was it?
8:04 am- I think, it's a little chilly along with the rain
9:00 am- contemplate cutting 20 miles off the ride and just riding the 50 miler.
9:02 am- Isn't this the "Roast Your Buns" Tour, not the "Soak your buns?"
10:30 am- reach the half way point and discuss going into a restaurant where the other riders are going for lunch.
10:31 am- fill up the water bottles and keep pedaling.
11:00 am- I think I see the sun...
11:15 am- Yep, that's the sun, but I didn't know it came packaged with a nice wind.
11:30 am- 50 miles in, stop in a general store, inhale a sandwich and a liter of water
11:45 am- back on the road... stopping for even 15 minutes feels good on the saddle area, but bad on the rest of me because I stiffen up.
11:46 am- We make basically our last turn, and luckily enough it's directly into the newly blowing wind.
12:30 pm- quads are cramping, and the fronts of my hips are on fire, and as a bonus, I'm out of water.
12:50 pm- Pull into the parking lot and try to get my leg over the bike. 70 miles in the book.
1:00 pm- Wipe down in the McDonalds bathroom and get out of the cycling shorts, because really nobody wants to see me in that
1:15 pm- I think I deserve a milk shake for my efforts today.
1:30 pm- drive back home, looking forward to a shower.

This ride brings my miles logged since May to 521 and 33 hours and 34 minutes, and hopefully adding 2 more hours and 30+ miles to that after work tonight.

Overall it was a hard ride, but fun, with a lot of rolling hills. I think I would have felt better had I not tried to conserve the water in my bottles, and bought water at each of the places we could have stopped. For Pelotonia, I plan to have at least 1 empty bottle at each of the water stops along the route.

I have met my fundraising goal of $1500 for Pelotonia! Many, many thanks to everyone for supporting me. All donations now are just the whipped cream and cherry on top.