I’m doing a solo post on my century ride because well its a big fucking deal! So lets back up to my night leading up to this. I know I touched on this in my last post but not to the full extent so you will get the whole picture of how my night ended, how my day started and how my day finished.
Last night I worked my second job. On my way home I hit traffic at 10:30 pm on a Saturday which infuriated me. I wanted to be home and why in the fuck is there traffic at this hour on a Saturday!?!? I was exhausted when I left work and couldn’t wait to just be in bed. I get home, change, brush my teeth and lay down. I laid there for about 30 minutes not at all ready to sleep. Time to try some things.
First I remembered my massage therapist sent me this Youtube of sleep delta waves that was supposed to put me to sleep. Listened to it for about 30 minutes and nothing. Then I tried progressive relaxation, breathing meditation, math (yes I do math problems to help me sleep), reading a book, suggestive other things, and stretching until I decided to just get up and get all my shit ready for my ride. I then proceeded to clean my kitchen, do laundry, wash dishes, took out my trash, took 3 shots of whiskey, took a Benadryl before finally writing a blog post that put me to the point of ready for bed. This all happened in a 3 hour window. I feel asleep around 2am and woke up at 6:30am. FML!
The morning was really fucking rough. I was tired and not at all in the mind set to do this ride but do I must. I got all my shit in my car and ate breakfast. A big thanks to JD for giving me all his food before he left for work, I had breakfast bake ready for me to eat first thing. I made the 20ish minute drive to my destination. I needed caffeine so I brought a travel mug and a regular mug of tea. I chugged both in that 20 minutes. I get to my destination, park and get my bike ready. I found my friend Roberto who I was riding with, checked in, said hi to a few peeps I knew and set out.
I actually felt really good to start out with. Roberto was a great riding partner (he’s a stronger biker than I am) but we kept a decent speed. Remember I have to average 14 miles per hour for 8 hours to make my 112 miles for my race. He didn’t plan on going super far. He had a cut off of being home by 1 so at some point he would have to cut off and head back. We mad our first stop at 17 miles in.
I actually met a good friend of his on the ride prior to this stop. Rachelle was super cool (didn’t get a picture) and she had done an Ironman so we chatted about that. We ate, refilled our waters and headed back out. Engrossed in conversation we came up to stop number 2. Feeling super good and proud of myself I was talking to someone about the century and my mileage and they told me that I missed my first turn off. This means I wouldn’t actually make 100 miles! I was super bummed. I set out for 100 miles and I was not going to accomplish this.
Not all is lost. I still planned on finishing the 100 route even though I missed the 18 mile loop. I would still go further than I had this season. Roberto and I continued on. We met up with some friends and I ended up meeting up with some other friend riders. About mile 35 Roberto broke off to go home and I continued riding with my friend Steve. He a much much more stronger rider than I but was a good sport and took my pace until he had to break off.
Alone I was and alone I was for about 15 miles. I made it to my 3rd stop (a sad fucking stop if you ask me) not support what so ever just a toilet. I had food with me so I drank and ate. A group of people showed up. I asked what their MPG’s where and then asked if I could ride with them and oh am I so glad I did. They were amazing. Supportive, encouraging, nice, friendly and so many more things. I was at mile 42 and they were at mile 60. This meant we all had about another 40 miles to go.
With about 25 miles left to go we were going strong. I felt strong. I felt better then I ever had at this point on a ride. Man my training is paying off! The mileage was going down and we were getting closer. When we finally made it it was fucking awesome! I felt great, the ride was great, and the people were great!!
I hope I meet people as nice as this on every ride I do up until my race. I know that on my race I won’t be able to do socialize like I did this day but still. People like this make everything worth it!!
katie palmer moore 