When i hit 24th street this morning, it was like riding in a cloud. Which was cool at first, but riding in that and sharing the road with cars is kind of frightening. Wish i would have brought a camera, from the 16th floor you cant see anything. Outside its a wall of white.
I can stand again!
well, I didn't finish. I got 32 miles in and could no longer pedal or walk. Cramps abound. Thinking back, on the drive to Spearfish, i didn't even drink one full bottle of water. That was my biggest mistake. I will fix that next year.
Yep, I am already excited for next year. I can not climb a flight of stairs without pain or spasms, but i am excited.
The first 4 miles is the other thing that killed me. I will do that different next year. I was running a pretty easy gear. 32X20. So i was spinning my guts out on the first half-mile through town. then the gravel started and a 3.5 mile climb. There was no coasting, no rest, just pedal. This is something that can not be replicated in omaha. At one point, not knowing how long i would be on gravel, I stopped. I even called lynden and said i might quit.
But then something funny happened. This car stopped beside me. It was over heating. that is how this hill was, the car was over heating going up it. They needed me to move to turn around and go get their truck. So i slowly started pedaling and decided I would at least stay out 2 hours.
The people that turned around came back by in their truck and said that i am almost to the single track and that made me feel way better. I wanted off the gravel road.
Once i hit the single track i think it was 4 more miles of climbing. But, there where little breaks. like downs and some coasting. I was having a ball. It was after the 1st aid station and before the second that cramps started. So i just drank a lot of water and kept saying i will continue to try for 2 more hours. I lasted about 4 hours after the first cramps.
To be honest, i do not remember a whole lot. I remember falling over in a Cow pasture about 5 feet from a cow because both legs locked up. I remember going through the creeks. I remember "heart attack" hill or something like that. Old baldy. And I remember that i did not have my camera.
I took some with my phone. One of them is funny because other omaha people took one at the exact same place it sees like.
the creek about 50-60 feet below...
here is what i took...
here is someone else's from omaha...
I can say it was really fun. An 8 year old rode the whole thing. I will go up 2 day early next year. I was not ready for it. And I really want to do it again.
Well the 5o went about as I expected. My bronchitis/asthma kicked in about 3 miles into the
race and I was done. I was chugging along feeling good then all of a sudden, the oxygen was gone, and I was in real bad shape. I didnt have any buisness trying to race but Im so glad I tried. I dont know if I just didnt give myself enough time to get better (only a couple weeks) or its worse than I though and need to go see a specialist. But at any rate, Bob has a much better story to tell than I do.
