Today didn't start well. I planned on getting up at 5, having a nice bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and arriving in Nixa well before the ride's 7am start time. Those plans fell apart when I jumped out of bed a little after 6, dressed as quickly as possible, mixed my perpetuem, made a cup of coffee, loaded the bike and was somehow on the road by 6:35. I arrived at the staging area about 10 minutes before the start; plenty of time.
There were TONS of people there for the ride and during the slow roll out, I met up with Dennis Rathke, spoke for a bit with Cale McAninch, and generally stood out being the only person on a mountain bike. I stayed in the lead pack for the first few miles but once we got on the rolling hills of the highway, I started drifting back. My legs weren't warmed up yet and I was feeling it in my hamstrings.
A little later I fell in with a couple other riders and was able to draft and build my speed back up. There was a rider that wrecked on a curve right before the second aid station. Dennis had stopped to make sure the wrecked guy was okay and that allowed me to catch up. I rode the rest of the day with Dennis. We'd pick up another rider from time to time, but we worked together and I had a really good time.
The ride took us to Aurora where we turned around and doubled back quite a ways before turning and going through Republic and back to Nixa. For most of the ride I had NO IDEA where I was, but Dennis has been riding those roads for years and gave me a heads up whenever we were approaching a sharp turn or big climb.
I got a great workout and we finished the 70 miles in just over 4 hours.
The post-ride Buckinghams BBQ was great and really hit the spot.
It was a beautiful day for a ride and I'm really glad I went. The aid stations were very well stocked and staffed with friendly, helpful people. Good job St. Johns!
Now I've got to put some knobby tires back on my bike so I can hit the trails tomorrow.
A&B is having a demo day and BBQ at Sac!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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We didn't ride that on Saturday (opted for a long run instead), but but if they used the route from prior years, there was quite a bit of climbing to be done. Finishing in that time on a mountain bike is pretty impressive!
ReplyDeleteGood job!