It was so hard to get out of bed this morning. I knew the temperature would be in the teens and the high wouldn't get out of the 30's. Crista had planned "Unmarked and Unchained" for today, a nice little century that starts from Berryville, VA and meanders through West Virginia. My favorite part of the ride is a road (Butlers Chapel Rd) that overlooks the valley where you can find Hedgesville, WV. I took some time of the bike, and last week was supposed to be a century, but I took the shortcut and it ended up as an 81 mile ride. Today I was feeling better, but I was really slow. Early in the ride, I got dropped by the group. They stopped at a Sheetz around the 20 mile mark. The Sheetz was just past my turn, so I missed the bikes out front, and Steve jumping around trying to get my attention. At the official rest stop at the 27 mile mark, I stopped just long enough to defrost my camelback hose, which had frozen solid. My waterbottles with Perpetuem were frozen solid and there was nothing I could do about that without a microwave or a longer stop. Ed Felker (sans tandem partner Mary) caught up with me on Arden Nollville rd, just a couple of miles from the lunch stop, and let me know what had happened. I had thought I was dead last, so I was planning on skipping lunch, which would give me about an hour jump on the group. Gradually, everyone caught and passed me, but we were like 2 miles from the lunch stop. I ended up stopping briefly at lunch to defrost my waterbottle full of Perpetuem, then pressed on. The group eventually caught me again around the 80 mile mark, but I kept my stop short at 83 miles and was able to get nearly 5 miles down the road before getting caught again. I finished in a little over 8 hours. We did this ride in February and I rode from home to the ride start, did the ride, and then rode home, totaling 187 miles.
"Its so hard to get out of bed..."
No comments yet. -