The Comeback Ride

After my bike crash the leading question after the initial "oh my gosh are you OK?" or "what happened to your face?" was "so, does this mean you're quitting cycling?"

Two weeks post crash I was back out on my bike with Erik for one heck of a ride. This ride takes the cake for the toughest I've ever completed. 73.1 miles and a whole heck of alot of climbing. Erik joked that aside from the 9 mile ride to the actual course there were no flats between mile ~9 and ~68. We were either climbing or descending the whole way and man was it tough.

I was feeling pretty darn good when we hit the half way point but after that things started to fall apart. We had left early in the morning but but 11 it was already in the 80's with 70%+ humidity and the sun was just killer. Sadly this route had almost no shade except for small little sections that seemed like forever and a day apart. Around mile 55 I had my "crisis" may have laid on the side of the rode in the shade while trying to convince Erik just to abandon me there. Honestly I think it was running low on sugar because after a handful of gummy bears I felt a whole heck of a lot better and by the next stop around mile 66 I was feeling amazing.

Erik's always joked about doing this course and I've always made every excuse in the book why I can't. I think part of the reason I said yes was because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Making the final descent from the last climb was so exciting and I was just so proud of myself for sticking with it and pushing through and finishing.

I'm quite thankful Erik has learned when I need a little extra push or tough love and also for the fact that he brought cash and was able to resupply our bottles multiple times that day! 

Now I just need to find a way to 'one up' this ride!