100 miles. SO MUCH SUGAR!
Whose idea was this?
Oh, that’s right, it was mine.
It was a joke at mile 41, at the I-80 rest stop, the one with the Lincoln Memorial at 8600 feet. A good majority of those 41 miles were directly into the wind.
Ouch.
With the cancellation of SuperDay, a traditional party in the park day for Cheyenne’s youth, that meant no Tour de Prairie this year. Registration wasn’t even opened.
My face after 100 miles. Exhausted, sticky, gross, but happy.
Before all this pandemic stuff happened, I was scheduled to participate in SuperDay for our company, so I wasn’t going to be able to do the Tour anyway. That bummed me out. I wasn’t able to do the full one last year. Well, I was, and I could have, but the weather was so miserable. It was cold and rainy, and it snowed on the summit, and my boyfriend’s knee hurt, and I was shivering for miles, and it just was not enjoyable. We ended up turning around at mile 64 and called it a day.
So I was excited to do it this year, and then bummed when I found out I couldn’t do it, and then even more bummed when everything was canceled. … and then, I thought, well why the hell not, let’s do it anyway!
Sunscreen makes everything stick! After a while, you stop caring, probably because you want to forget about how tired your legs are!
The weather was cool again, which helped solve the “will we have enough access to water?” problem. We had a chance to refill at Gowdy and at the rest stop, and that was plenty. We also had some amazing friends who volunteered to host a refill station, though we ended up not needing that in the end.
There were 5 of us total, a small group of friends. It was so much fun. We all fought the elements together: the cold air (at the beginning), the wind, the sunshine (at the end), the hills, the flat tires … it somehow felt different from an official “event” because we had more invested. It felt like more of an accomplishment, because it’s something we had chosen, not just something to do. (At least to me, anyway, I suppose I can’t speak for everyone else!)
All this is why I love riding. There is nothing quite like exploring the world on two wheels, in great company, just for the hell of it. It’s so beautiful out there. Pictures don’t do it justice, and they don’t even begin to capture the experience.
The smell of the fresh air. The hunger pangs that creep up on you, reminding you to eat. The burning legs after a long climb. The sweet taste of a Honey Stinger gel. The sticky pockets. The salty skin. The greasy sunscreen skin that you stopped caring about hours ago. The rock you just ran over, waiting for a few minutes to see if it caused you to flat. Getting home and cleaning out the pantry of all the food in sight.
I really miss events, just like the rest of you, I’m sure. But I am happy we made something good come out of it. I am happy for the sore, tired legs to nurse over the next couple of days as my body tries to find its balance once again.
We did not do the “official” route (which officially is not a full century, just to throw that out there). We didn’t climb the summit. We were tired of fighting with the wind. The miles we added on at the end were kind of weird. It was a tough decision on which direction to go because the wind was so bad. It blew you over going N/S, or just sucked to ride into going E/W. Ugh. But whatever, we still got the job done.
My quads finally fatigued at about mile 90, so I was starting to feel it in my left knee. That is always the one that reminds me that I’ve overdone myself.
I like how TrainerRoad sums it up: Endurance sports are all about managing fatigue. I have been getting better at reminding myself of this when I’m the last in the group to pull up to the rest stop. I don’t mind. We all have different levels in which we operate. And in so many ways, it’s a learning experience as I discover just where that balance is for my muscles, my lungs, my heart, my energy reserves, and my own will to push myself.
So, cheers to the first century of 2020! There will be more to come, but for now, rest … and lots of food!
If you don’t record it, did it ever really happen?
I tried to be more conscious about stopping the clock during rest breaks so I could get a more accurate reading of how long the riding actually took. We started a little before 7 a.m., and this was taken right after I pulled into the garage at the end!