Athens Twilight Wake n Ride

So last weekend in a continuation of my previous posting about the fun stuff that happened. We woke up early and drove to Athens to go punish our bodies. 5k run in the morning went faster than I thought despite the painful rain and stupid hills.

About an hour after this even was done we suited up and began our assualt on the 100k bike ride. I'm not much for long road rides. I usually like to dilly dally and just take my time. None of this pace lining and attacking business. I'm still a rookie when it comes to group rides, but I feel this even kind of helped me ease into some better road riding habits.

We missed the official start of the ride, but had already gotten our first cards of the Gambler ride. A poker run, where at each checkpoint one gets a card from a deck and the best hand wins a prize, supposedly. So I get mixed in with some other riders off the front as I'm feeling stiff from the run. I keep my team mates in sight, but soon they charge on ahead. I'm drafting slower riders and I'm trying to bridge the gap, but each time I pull to bridge a gap to the bigger group, no one follows so I'm out on my own. There was also a monster headwind. I did a lot of back and forth with some guys and ladies who didn't seem interested in helping get into the pack. I accepted my fate, and rolled back with the slower group and figured I'll ride with these 2 or 3 guys and if they want me to pull for a while I'll do it. They never do, so I ride a wheel for the first 5-10 miles to the first checkpoint. The checkpoint has cookies, hammer gels, bananas, heed, sandwiches and granola bars. I eat about 5 nutter butters and fill up my bottles. My team mates are there waiting on me. This time they leave with me.

I get into the pack. I have not done much organized road riding. I felt like I was at about 60-70% for the first third of the race. I let the stronger riders pull and once the head wind died down I took a short pull of about a mile or so. I am not much for a puller as I have a terrible sense of my own speed and have a tendency to burn myself out quickly. Luckily the wind had died down a good bit by this time and I made it up a fairly long hill while keeping pace with the 2nd guy pulling in the 2 line group. It felt good. We stopped and ate some more food and took some photos on a bridge. I had never really been across a wooden bridge and it was nice.

After the wooden bridge the rain started to pick up again. It had been sprinkling on and off all day, but it started to come down pretty good. The problem with riding in the rain is the fact that when you take a pull you end up with a face full of water from the rooster tail on the guy from behind you. Not to mention the skunk trail it leaves going down your back from your own rear wheel. Riding in the rain sucks. Luckily this was just a quick shower and did not last too long. This was around mile 20 or so. The next rest station seemed like forever away. I think it was around mile 40 or so, I can't really recall. Taking a break and eating some food helped lift my spirits. Our pack was pretty much down to 5 of us as people would leave aid stations slower or faster than us.

So me, Dan, Chris, Jim, and Jason all head out. We keep a moderate pace, which is nice. I don't have a real big ring so I can't hammer my face off on the downhills like some people like to do. It's not really a road bike anyways. I ride a cross bike with road tires. The geometry is super comfortable for long rides though. My saddle started to wear on my after about 40 miles tho. I felt my tail bones were getting a bit sore, but nothing too too bad. I trudge on through. I feel like I'm only putting out about half effort and soon I fall off the back. Chris comes with me. We take turns taking short pulls up and down hills; trying to work together in the crosswinds. Eventually we catch up to the group which has slowed to allow us to get on back. Dan and I did the same thing on a hill climb earlier that day. Dan is a helluva rider and did this whole thing on a tandem mountain bike carrying his son all day, who didn't really pull his weight.

At the last checkpoint I ended up with a Full House, 7's and 3's for my hand. It wasn't a great full house, but a full house nonetheless. So we carry on and hear distant thunder. We only have about 5 miles to go, or so someone tells me. I had a feeling this is where it was going to really start hurting. It did. The roads became much more populated and keeping pace lines together were difficult while dodging cars and pot holes. Soon we made it back to the edges of Athens and were slow rolling in possibly the worst rain I've ever ridden in in my life. To give you an idea of how much rain had fallen. I went through a few puddles where my shoe was totally submerged on a pedal stroke. It was crazy. Thunder, lightning, wind, and rain were beating our tired tired souls. I felt like stopping a few times cause I couldn't see very well, but stayed in my paceline with hopes the guy up front would slow up and call out things as he saw em. Eventually we made it within about 2 miles of the finish. We were weaving through a neighborhood and the rain was still coming down pretty good although the worst of the storm had passed. After a rolly industrial park we pulled into Terrapin brewery.

We all got our last card and signed in. I ended up with a 4 of a kind 7 high with a 3 as my hand. They said it was the only 4 of a kind so far that day. It as looking pretty good that I might win a prize. I gave them a number to contact me at. They told me "we'll call you sometime this week." Still no call. :(

Nonetheless though I completed the fastest mile since I was about 12 years old, the fasted 5k, and certainly the fastest 100k all in one day and in the rain. I felt pretty accomplished. It's good to know what you are capable of. I certainly don't have time to train for something or really get into a work out regimen, but I'm still a fairly fit and capable body. Next year I'll plan on doing the same thing. Maybe I'll get a sub 23 min 5k and a sub 3 hour 100k? Who knows. It was an awesome day.

Later that night after a tasty burrito and much beer we watched dudes who were much faster than us ride bikes in a circle around town. Then some girls, then some dudes in hand cycles then dudes again. It was neat. We left though in the pro race as more than 3/5 the field was eliminated with more than 40 laps to go. Only 30 something finished down from 150 and change. The conditions were horrendous. Rain and cold made us quit for the day, after being up for over 19 hours we called it a day went back to the hotel. We ordered a pizza and it was practically teleported to our door as they showed up 12 minutes after I called with it. Ate some pizza and passed out on the floor. I slept pretty well, but longed for more sleep but was hindered by sleeping on the floor and fucking sun. Bah... No hangover ftw though. Sore sore sore sore sore though.

It's now wed and I finally feel about 95% back to normal. Sunday and Monday were difficult to go up and down stairs, but I blame the run for that. Running might stick with me, but I really like riding bikes more(big surprise right?)