The Team Give Life fundraiser went well on Friday. Surprisingly, a woman came up to me and told me she wasn't an organ donor. She hadn't thought much about it, but she was weirded out that somebody else would have her organs. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to be living on in someone else. I hope and think I convinced her, but this just emphasizes the need for education and also that we haven't reached everyone yet. I was up at 2am to get ready for the 300km Brevet. The brevet was to start from Middletown, VA which is a little over an hour's drive from Herndon. Check-in for brevets usually starts an hour beforehand for a bike check, believe it or not, people try to get away with riding without lights at 5am. I guess they don't want to carry the weight. There were some old school riders out there, riding flat pedals and wearing street clothes. I saw a pretty spectacular crash in the morning as one rider, trying to read his cue sheet in the dark, ran into a roadside ditch and flipped over. The rising sun found us riding along a ridge line through apple orchards in full bloom. BTW, The setting sun also left me riding through apple orchards. We had a nice climb over Wolf Gap and we found ourselves in West Virginia on a long descent. The visibility was great all day, and we managed to dodge whatever showers there were. I had brought my Pearl Izumi Kodiak Jacket because it was in the 30's at the ride start. I later regretted the decision, because it got into the 60's. The jacket was too much for that temperature, and it was too cold for bare arms. I made it to the last control point a little after 8pm, the finish line was 26 miles away and it was pitch black. I think it took me 3 hours to cover that stretch. I had to stop several times to raise my bike up and aim the headlight at the street sign. I also had to stop and put the cue sheet by the light to read it. I tried putting my other light on, but I was fumbling with it in the dark and it wasn't going well. I've DNF'ed the 300k twice already, so it felt pretty good to finish. I was on the bike for over 15 hours and I took about 2 hours worth of breaks. There was around 14,000 feet of climbing in 186.4 miles. I felt better after this event than I did after the 200Km, however I was getting an upset stomach from the Perpetuem. I usually have powerbars to break up the monotony, but I had forgotten to pick some up before this ride. I was falling asleep on the ride home. I somehow made it to the rest stop on Rte 66 just east of Manassas. The rest stop is around 15 miles from my home, but even after a 40 minute nap, I still had trouble staying awake driving home. I got home at 2:15am. You might think I can't walk today. In fact, I was stumbling around and in severe pain, but I put the Compex on Active Recovery Mode this morning and my legs feel great.
"CatchUp"
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