First off, I cut the course by mistake hence my shorter mileage. I'm not torn up about it, it was still the hardest physical thing I've ever done. I made the mistake of following a big group of cyclists rather than just following course markings. Oops. I started alone and stopped to talk to Phil on the phone. While waiting Jon and Tony came by. Jon stayed and we waited longer, but since I was off course Phil never came so we moved on.

Jon was faster but he waited at the top of the hills, which was nice. The beginning of this ride is interesting. You hit a few steep, hard climbs, but are rewarded with some unbelievably long downhills so it doesn't feel that hard. The roads were challenging with a lot of loose gravel and twigs due to all the storms so you really had to pay close attention. As usual I was timid on the descents and lost a lot of free speed as a result. I'm just not ready to fly down a hill at 40+ mph.

Heading into the first rest area was a tremendously steep climb that is cruelly located just past a major intersection and railroad tracks so we had to stop and wait for a policeman to wave us through. Tackling this climb with zero momentum was a treat and to add to my fun, I dropped my chain. I nearly went down since I was only riding about 4 mph but somehow managed to clip out and get to the side of the road. I could not get the chain back on and was totally losing my temper. I screamed some colorful words and just at that moment, heard someone say my name. It was Whizzzzz (laura) and MissKelly (kelly) and they graciously stopped to see if I was ok.

We met up with Phil and Amy at the rest stop but Amy needed to stay for bike maintenance so just the three of us rode the next section. It was so much more fun having company and Phil singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall on a big climb was amusing!

The second section was much harder with a couple hills I swore I couldn't do. There was one in particular right before the second rest stop that looked as though it went straight up. It made me wonder how the ride organizer could ever look at it and say "I think I'll put this on my course." It was brutal. People were weaving all over the road in an effort to keep from tipping over. Many riders had to stop and walk and others stopped and just stood over their bikes trying to catch their breath. On climbs like this there was total silence except the sound of people breathing. You would ride right by someone and no words or looks would be exchanged, we were suffering too much for niceties.

We ran into Laura and Kelly at the rest stop and Amy's boyfriend Craig (firstnet911). I felt like we stayed there forever. It was so much fun and made us forget about the pain for a bit. Amy showed up and was riding with another friend, Robert (bertgwen), so for the final stretch we had a nice little group that would later make all the difference in the world. I'm not sure I could have done it alone. The last section was truly punishing with climbs that went on for miles and one so steep I had a hard time driving up it in my car. The sun was blazing, it was in the mid-80s and high humidity as well, making it physically grueling.

I've never done an event where you see so much defeat. People were dropping like flies especially as it got hotter and hotter. There was absolutely no shame in having to walk a hill or needing to stop and take a rest after a brutal climb. I told myself in the beginning it would be ok to walk so I wouldn't stress over needing to if it came to that. I miraculously managed not to walk any hills, but I had to stop at the top of more than a few to catch my breath and let my HR lower from the 180 BPMs it had reached. My coach gave me an HR strategy going into this ride which included keeping my HR below 155. Ha! That was absolutely impossible, the smallest climbs pushed me to that level even when I was in the easiest gear and pedaling as slowly as I could.

But on the flip side of the defeat was an amazing spirit of being in it together and dare I say - fun. Thanks to the friends I rode with, I laughed all day even on the most punishing parts of the course. If anyone had an issue, we all stopped to make sure things were ok and we waited for each other as needed. It made the miles fly by and made the climbs a lot more manageable since we were all sharing in the same pain, the same struggle and the same desire to finish. It's amazing the energy you can draw from others.

This ride was by far the most intense, most challenging physical thing I've ever done. I was more spent at 40 miles than I was after 110 miles the week before on a challenging course. I was fatigued to the core and was yawning despite my effort to keep the calories up. I was dehydrated and my nutrition plan went out the window, it was just too difficult to be disciplined during something so unusually hard. But the feeling of accomplishment at the end was amazing.

Maybe wear gloves. I don't bike in gloves anymore, but the amount of sweating you do makes it tough to keep a good grip.

As soon as I could muster the energy to get off my bike, I went straight to the Culver's tent for a big chocolate custard (kinda like chocolate milk, right?) and then to the New Glarus truck for beer! We found a shady picnic table and spent a few hours relaxing. Other BTers came - mndiver, schmize, tripletmom01 and maybe others (sorry, my brain was foggy).


HILLS!


I'll be back next year. This is too much fun to pass up!