[bYuPride]

so let me tell you how i trained over the month leading up to my longest ride ever. i think it consisted of about 3 or 4 rides between 20-30 miles. Work had taken all my energy and motivation to ride. The last ride before the month leading up i did my longest ride of 35 miles. Needless to say, I was blindly optimistic for the 111 miles to come.

i picked up the team packets earlier in the week with our jersey numbers and what not, and remembered the night before ULCER that i conveniently forgot the packet at work. so at 5:15 am i had to call New York and tell them i was entering the office solo so they could watch me on the cameras during the non-office hours. i arrive at thanksgiving point shortly after 6 and meet Arch, Viking, and Big Piney. i see all the riders everywhere and start to get excited about what is to come. there were tandem riders (creekster would have dominated) there were bikes that had one ring... Viking called them a single speed. there were fat people and people that seemed like they were taking this ride very seriously..

so we line up in our chute and i'm taking the rear position. we start riding and i feel like my adrenaline is carrying me because we were passing other teams right and left. i felt like we were just flying. after about 20 miles or so i keep getting cut off and narrowly avoiding other crashes i don't see big piney's USA jersey anymore. i was probably frustrating the riders behind me because at every turn i was just grateful i didn't die, but i realized after the 10th sharp turn i was supposed to accelarate through the turns to keep up with the group.. i would guess around mile 30 i was starting to get the hang of the turns a little bit and then i see another crash... my stomach turned as i saw it was arch with big piney and viking standing there with other bystanders. another rider who was making phone calls to make sure we got the right people there to take care of arch said it was a very bad fall with arch sliding across the street. he said it was bad, but it could have been worse. i hop off my bike and my butt was already sore and numbing. arch's shorts were all ripped open and the back of his jersey was shredded. after arch was taken away in the ambulance viking gave me a shot block that i hoped would take away the butt numbness.

i followed viking and big piney for while, through provo and springville. the course wasn't marked very well because we got lost, found another team who was lost, but we found the other riders eventually and continued on. viking and big piney had to wait for me as i was already slowing down and the damn traffic lights weren't cooperating. soon after finding the rest of the riders i found myself alone going into the head wind.

at about mile 50 i'm riding by myself and experiencing the sleepy peepy mike warned me about, my butt is numb and my legs and feet are numb... then my bike starts to act funny and i look down and wouldn't you know it, i have a flat. so some guy stopped to help me and was cussing up a storm and trying to make me feel bad because he was making great time. he asked me where my team was and i said one was in the hospital and the others where flying. apparently that was an unacceptable answer because he continued to drop the f-bomb because he couldn't operate the C02 cartidges correctly. luckily some lady stopped in a truck who was there for the triathalon group giving assistance. she had a pump and helped changed the tire.

soon after i was back in business and i noticed my pedal stroke seemed off... i looked down at my seat post and noticed i was basically sitting on my top tube. a wedge piece that fits into the tube that holds my seat post in place had popped off and my seat fell down. so i'm already dead tired, and ticked off that i got a flat, my peepy is asleep and now i'm sitting on my top tube. not to mention i'm riding into ridiculous head wind. i found a fat lady and rode behind her for a while but that didn't seem to help. i kept telling myself that this was so stupid. cycling is stupid. i just want someone to pick me up because i have no idea why i was doing this. i was definitely losing the mental battle. at mile 67, there was a stop off for lunch in Goshen. as i'm entering the street leading up to the lunch area i see piney and viking. i'm wobbling in there with my eyes glazed over ready to pass out. i really don't know how i made it there. we talked for a second, but i was so wasted i told them to just go on and i'll see them never...

i go to the bike repair station and they recommended replacing the wedge with coca-cola cardboard cups and duct tape. so after i ate everything in sight and rested for a bit and thinking it would be a good idea to just ride in the truck with one of the volunteers because my body was already so sore i could barely sit down or make any movements let alone ride another 40+ miles. we put my coca-cola cup in my bike frame and duct tape it and i'm just hoping it would stay. i decided not to be a wuss and just ride. so back into more head wind and a 1/2 mile down the road my seat falls down to the top tube. after much cursing i see more fat people and decide to hide behind them. it just didn't seem to work because i felt like i was working too hard and the wind was still pushing me back even though i was just a couple inches from their tires.

we make the turn back towards thanksgiving point and to the finish and no more head wind. for whatever reason, hours into the race i seemed to have gotten a second wind. my pedal stroke must have looked hilarious but i pedalled on. i was actually passing people and was cruising along. after mile 88 there were some down hill stuff that really gave me hope that i would finish.

at the 5 hour mark of ride time i was just over 95 miles and i hit the century mark at 5 hours 13 minutes. I ended up finishing 111 at 5 hours 38 minutes and averaged 18.9 mph. so i learned to accelarate through turns, that i just need to put a pump on my frame instead of cartidges, i need to get extra wedges from kestrel, i need to prepare better, and work on my mental game. all in all it was a sucky day, but i'm glad i finished.

arch, viking and big piney were all great guys. it was good to meet them. arch's buddy same made fun of my COUGARS jersey at the starting line, but that's okay. it was good to have the Y represented even if it was by me. so that's my report. I'm open to questions and advice. now, my main focus is tailgating sept. 1.