When I got up at 5.30am to the sounds of Norm ‘fueling up’ that’s what I thought. The second day of the MS ride started out wet!! But before I start this commentary of this weekend’s MS ride let me make it very clear that I am a beginner rider. Anything over 20mph and I am tired!! Did I make that clear? Beginner. Me. Day one we rode the 75 miles stopping only twice, around 40 miles and then just 5 miles before the end. Luckily for me Willy and Norm had decided not to hammer it down to Key Largo which meant that I could keep up. Sure there were times when Willy and Norm had to express their ‘manly hood’ and take off to pull a group of riders….fast! And times when they had to exercise their testosterone by racing to red lights but overall they kept me on track and pulled me to the end. However, they didn’t pull me over Card Sound Bridge. Why didn’t I know about that bridge? It was definitely intimidating at first sight but I made it over while others ‘walked’ over. We spent the rest of the day sitting by the water, telling stories, eating ice-cream and basically doing nothing. So nice to do nothing every now and again isn’t it!!
Day two was wet. The organizers had announced in the evening that the ride was changed from a 75 mile to 35 mile route. I was bummed out. This was my first over night, back to back, ride and I was intent to cross it off my list! In the morning we cycled back to the camp ground only to find out that the ride had been canceled due to projected thunderstorms. How were we going to get back I thought? Willy and Norm said we should ride back even though we would have no MS support. What the…. in the pouring rain?! In the dark?! “Ok” I said meekly. We rode at a steady 19 mph hour pace, all agreeing just to get back safely. A straight shot. It turned out that the rain was not as bad as the organizers thought (no thunderstorms beating down on us, no dark clouds hovering over head, no lightening striking us at every turn). The only challenging thing for me was being pulled along with a constant flow of dirty puddle water thrown up in my face. Was really very nice....
Rain rain go away, nah just stay. Weekend was fab and I wouldn’t change any of it if I could. I had the best company and the best kit!! We got lots of compliments along the way so nice job Willy!
I learnt a lot this weekend; packing the right way for an over night stay (I brought too much crap so my bag was heavy on the ride to and from the camp), about my heart rate and how I should train using that (I was checking my watch more so on the ride back), lactate acid build-up and how to manage it (isn’t lactate something to do with breast feeding?), how to share a room with a man who is not my husband (only G2 cyclist see this blog right?!) and that Willy like Cookies n’ Cream ice-cream (a lot of it) and that Norm really shouldn’t really eat it ;-)
Thanks guys for watching over me. I really do appreciate it.
Didn’t achieve my goal of 150 miles but I’m just a beginner right? MS ride 2011 anyone?
Helena
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