Poinciana was so much nicer this morning as all the a-holes were still hung over! It seemed like there were only about 10 groups with us on the 75 mile route.....everyone else opted to do the 50 mile route back. The first 20 miles felt like we were in air-conditioning as it was cool out and there was shade everywhere!

I lost Mike at the first traffic light with traffic. He made the light and I didn't, he turned around but then passed me silently and I pedaled along slowly waiting for him to catch up. When he didn't appear before the next major turn, I stopped at waited and eventually rode back to where I saw him last. He was doing the same thing about 3 miles ahead. Fortunately, because we had our team jerseys on....some of the riders figured it out and let him know up ahead that I was waiting back a mile and as I gave up to ride ahead, I ran into him riding back. Whew!

It was still cool as we approached the hilly orange groves and somewhat nice at the lunch stop (which was not quite halfway). There were a TON of people at that stop and it took us over 30 minutes to get some food and drinks. Hindsight tells me we should have blown past that stop and gone to the next one...we wasted a lot of 'cool' time here. It was pretty hot when we left and we still had many hills left to climb. Not too much to note until we approached the 75 mile turn-off. There was rest stop there and when folks saw us blow by to the 75 mile route, we got a lot of cheers....and that was the last we saw of people for a long, long time. Mostly what we saw after that was SAG wagons with bikes on them driving by.

Around the 50 mile mark, I was thirsty, tired, and really needed to blow my nose. I made us stop at a Circle K where I loaded up on Diet Coke and Ice! The convenience store clerk was very shocked when he asked me where we were head to.....and even more so when I said our starting point was Orlando!

The last 25 miles were pretty miserable. This was the hilliest part of the route, and it had rained recently....turning everything into a sauna. The SAG wagon kept circling by and once even pulled off the road to wait for us. I was miserable and pedaling 8 mph up hills and wiping my runny nose on my sleeve. That being said, there was absolutely NO thought of accepting a ride and we hollered out that we were fine and got a cheer from the SAG driver. We saw him many more times with bikes loaded on the back. We had 3 hours to go before the course closed and only about 15 miles left, but they were already taking down the directional markers. I don't know if it was the MS folks or participants taking them as a souvenir, but I was glad I had a cue sheet to follow. It was a little burdensome to hold it for the last few miles, but I didn't want to take the chance of getting lost and even riding an extra block by accident!

As we approached Bok Gardens, there was a GIANT hill ahead with 'Yes You Can' written in the sidewalk. I was determined to make it up without getting off the bike...but after 156 miles, it was really, really tough. I was grunting and spiked the highest HR of the day, but I made it up and had warm loving thoughts about my O2 bottle in the garage and how much I'd rather be doing deco at that moment. One mile left. The uphill through the park was easy after that climb and finally, we were there!

We were handed finisher medals and were routed to another transition area. At the food tent, most of the food was gone, but we got a barely warm Bubba burger as our reward. I grabbed a 2 liter of diet coke and sat and drank and drank and drank. I also found a ice pile on the ground and put my hot feet in it. Got really funny looks from the few folks that were still around and one cyclist chatted me up about getting shoes that were wider....since he saw me riding with my right foot on top of my shoe for the last 10 miles or so (damn toes keep falling alseep!).

I don't have any noble thoughts to end this report on, we were whooped. There was NO talk of doing those extra 2 miles to round it up to 80 miles . . and for some reason, all the restaurants in the world looked SO appealing on our long drive home. When we got home, we realized the DRIVE from Bok Tower was 76 miles....two less that the bike ride....but it seemed SOOO much longer!