So we lost Melanie right from the start. She didn't come as far back as Susan and I did into the peleton to start. We knew we'd find her eventually and stuck together. Made it to rest stop 1 in just about 45 minutes....walk to the portapotties, grab a snack from my jersey cause none of the offerings here appealed. Found Chuck, Melissa and Scott from my swim class. Learned that Chuck was one of many who flatted out in the first leg.
My cateye sensor is not picking up....I feel like I am clueless about how I am doing. Susan and I headed out and caught up with a good peleton that we kept up with for the next section, averaged about 18 mph from what the guys said.
Rest stop 2 we find Melanie so we hung together. Caught up with another group and stuck on their wheels as much as possible.
Hit the next rest stop and felt good, refilled bottles....a snack, a real toilet to stop at. More butt butter (so glad I found individual packets of that stuff!)
My sensor decided to work for this section to the turn around. Hot spots on my feet....take shoes off. Stretch, refill bottles.....eat something from the grocery store I have in my jersey pockets cause they didn't have much out.
Head back out and Mr Fucking Headwind decided to come out and play with us. Unrelentless. Unmerciful. Nonstop. Hit the next rest stop and Susan has started to cramp up. Dug through my pockets and gave her a packet of endurolytes.
We kept stopping for Susan, she's in bad shape. We limped her to the next rest stop and she got in the sag van at about 75 miles. Her muscles were contorting with the cramps, Not Safe. Melanie and I fueled up on M&M's, refilled our bottles and rode on.
My body is screaming at me. I am exhausted. THe wind is so unrelentless that I am unable to get my water bottle to drink for fear I will wind up lying in the road. Wouldn't have done me any good anyway, by now the propel in my bottles is warmer than piss and my stomach is refusing to take it.
Hot spots return, how long to the next rest stop? Maybe 2 miles. THose 2 miles never came. We missed a turn. Finally hit a road where we can pull off for me to stretch. Not a clue where we are, no signs. How do you know how to get where you're going if you don't know where you are????? THe van picking up the tables and tents from rest stops sees us and asks if er're okay. We explain our situation. He tells us we're on Rt 5 and if we stay on it we will get to Richmond in about 12 miles. Okay, we're riding this bad boy out.
We get to the underpass at 295 and I am almost in tears , the wind is killing me. Melanie tells me to get back on the bike. We pass a convenience store, would have had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get in and out of it.
Finally hit another store, I pull in. Melanie looks at me and asks why I am stopping. Must have something cold. Buy 2 bottles of water, drink them in about 5 minutes. THat was what I needed. Kept going. Only now the road is in the process of resurfacing so it's all ungraded and rough as hell. After a few miles of that we get back to smooth pavement. Finally see the Richmond skyline. I have never been so happy to see that skyline. Had I been on the ground I would have bent over and kissed it.
We made it in...ate and came home.


Not get lost
Learn how to fight 50 miles of headwind?

Mr Fucking Headwind


Losing the route sucked. Suddenly there were no little orangesigns directing our way. The people who told us how to get back to Richmond were awesome!!