Endurance...experiencing the thrill again!
Well, it’s been forever since I wrote. That must mean one of two things:
1) life has been intense and too busy lately
Or
2) my knee has felt really good and there’s not much to say about it
How about both of those options?
Yes, it’s a bit of both for sure.
I had a really awesome weekend, though, and I just had to write about it. Mostly so I can get all of my memories in one place about a pretty special experience...
So a week before Mother’s Day this year, I was sitting at my Synagogue talking to some dads about (not) running and biking and how bored I was at the gym. I was likely whining about wanting to get into a ride or race but not knowing how, or being too nervous to try. I also had not been cleared to ride a bike outside yet, so I was very likely whining.
One of the dads (Rob, a man I had never met prior to this discussion) suggested that I do the Flyers Charity Classic race in July. He was probably just saying anything to get me to shut up, but I went home and looked it up and signed up! Again, I hadn’t been cleared to ride yet, but I signed up for a long-ass bike ride. Genius, right?
My theory: if I was cleared to bike by then, I would ride and do my best. I’d shoot for 100K, but could drop to 50K if it’s too much. I really just needed something to work towards and look forward to. I will be honest though and say that I forgot how quickly this was coming up though! All of a sudden I got an email about packet pick-up! I really wasn't sure if I was prepared physically. I knew I was not prepared mentally.
I picked up the race packet on Friday, and nearly burst into tears once I got to my car. I’m not even kidding, and I am fully aware how dramatic that sounds, but I had real tears over picking up a race packet. I always did love the packet pickup experience. Although I tended to go alone, I just really enjoyed the excitement in the air, the anticipation of the race, all of it! So I picked up my packet and to my surprise found that there was a race bib and safety pins and a timing strip inside...all things familiar from running, and things I didn’t even realize I missed. I never participated in a bike race before and had no idea what I was going to be picking up.
I then went home and started to plan for what I needed for a long/hard bike ride. It was SO exciting to open this drawer up! Needing something from this dresser drawer means I’m doing something special. Something extra. This is where I always kept all of my exciting/endurance running stuff. I cleaned out a lot of it before my surgery but kept what I could with the hopes of using it again sooner than later. I haven’t opened this drawer in a while, a long while, and again almost cried looking for things I could use for this bike race.
So I got up stupid early Sunday morning and ate and drank coffee and tried to get ready to ride.
Once I got to the start, I immediately noticed that there were a lot of people with very fancy matching everything (clothes/bikes/helmets/shoes...probably underwear too). They looked sleek and pretty and knowledgeable and I felt like an imposter (I used to feel the same way with running also). As I watched the guy parked next to me assemble his matching fancy gear with fervor, I wondered if I made a mistake and should just go home. Why does my brain do that?! Then that same matchy-matchy fancy guy came over and asked to borrow my pump because his wasn’t working. He was then confused about how to turn it into a pump for presta valves. I knew how to do this (I have presta valves but hadn’t used this pump yet so it was still set for standard valves) and I was able to school him on how to do it. Well well. Looks like I do know a thing or two!
This interaction felt worlds better than the time I was getting ready to start the half-Ironman and a dude informed me that my wetsuit was on inside-out...I wanted to crawl in a hole and die after that! This interaction at least gave me a bit of a confidence boost.
My goals for the ride/race (in this order):
Don’t hurt my knee
Have fun
Finish 100k
Finish 50k if 100k isn’t possible
Learn something about cycling
Don’t finish last
Don’t piss off any cyclists
Don’t get struck by lightning
Don’t crash my bike
So we started riding. I reminded myself to be aware of everything about the experience, the good and the bad, just be aware of it all. Enjoy it or hate it, be aware and open to it. The picture above is me at the halfway mark. The hills were SO hard, and I was a sweaty mess, but boy was I enjoying myself! As big as the up-hills were, the downhills were very steep, and I was somewhat terrified. I know I can use the downhill momentum to get up the next hill, but it is insanely unnerving to go straight downhill on a bike that fast. I just kept thinking how hard it would hurt if I fell. And at the bottom of some downhills were intersections!
*I might not have mentioned yet that this was all on open roads. 99% of which had no bike lane. Most were windy narrow blind turn kind of roads!*
So it was scary. I was ultimately very glad I decided to ride my new bike (it has wider tires)...I felt a little more secure on the road, at least while the roads were dry! I also learned a lot more about shifting and when to use what gears. Most All of my riding has been on flats so my gears are not used much. I also don’t know how to fix them if I screw them up so I tend to get them where I need them to be for flats, and leave them alone. Definitely could not do that for this race with the hills!
Just like with running, my favorite endurance snack for this ride was jelly beans. There were 4 rest stops. I stopped at 3. The halfway stop was the only one where I sat down and really ate. I will certainly get better at knowing when to eat and drink on the bike, but I still struggle with eating on the go. I felt like being on an open road was not the time to reach for a stroopwafel and try to eat it. There was only one point where I actually felt hungry but there was no way I was stopping at that point (read on and you’ll understand why).
Shortly after the halfway rest-stop (just as I got into Valley Forge), it started thundering.
This is when I added “don’t get struck by lightning” to my goals for the race.
And then it started raining. And then torrentially raining.
And I added “don’t crash my bike because of wet roads” to my goals.
It rained SO hard. Stupid hard. It hurt my face and eyes it rained so hard. And I very briefly thought about what a bummer it was that it was raining, and quickly switched to thinking it was hysterical because of how very hard it was raining. My padded shorts felt like I was wearing a wet diaper, I had puddles of water in my shoes, and when I breathed in through my nose it hurt because of how much water got breathed in also. And really once I stopped being afraid of crashing my bike on the wet roads, I enjoyed the rain. I laughed out loud at how hard it was raining. I was so concerned with how hot it was supposed to be, I hadn’t even considered the rain potential. I was grateful that I picked the wider-tired bike to ride, happy I wasn’t going to die of heat exhaustion, and delighted that I wouldn’t be sunburned. Terrible cool rain is better than 94 degree hot humid sun right?! I did not hydrate enough on the ride though because I wasn’t terribly hot once it started raining, and it was too hard at times to see, let alone try drinking.
The race went on, I kept following the signs (small yellow signs that told us when to turn and when to go straight...these were hard to watch for when it was raining so hard that I could barely see the road) and eventually wondered when the hell I would end up back in the city. And just like that, I made a turn (can’t even remember if it was a L or R) and I was on Main St. in Manayunk! At that point I thought “wow, no close calls with cars during the whole race” and then I thought "Sara, that was stupid, the ride isn't even over and now you will be hit by a car" and wouldn’t you know I was almost creamed TWICE by the SAME CAR on Main St!
Regardless, I was on the home stretch and powered back to the Wells Fargo Center for the finish. I met up with 2 other riders on Broad St. I was frozen at this point having been soaked for 3 hours and still getting rained on. I rode behind them (trying not to do anything that would be considered discourteous in the cycling world) and I felt a nice warm mist hitting my arms and face and thought briefly how nice and warm it was...until I realized it was spray from the back tire of the dude in front of me. The roads were sopping wet and I was getting sprayed with Broad St. grime....blech!
It was a little like a ghost town when we got to the finish. The 100K was the first race to go, and when I got back most (maybe all) of the 50K riders and all of the runners were gone. It was raining. No one stuck around. But I got my free beer and sat for a bit to enjoy it.
And I was NOT the last finisher by any means, so that was awesome!
By the time I got to my car I was freezing cold and even used the heated seats for the drive home!
This is the map and the elevation profile. It felt as bad as it looked! I walked the 3 biggest hills. I couldn’t stand up to power myself up the hills because of my knee, so I had to walk some. Maybe goals for future years will be to not walk any hills. Will certainly need more knee strength for that, but considering I’m 8 months post-op, I’m so damn excited about this!
A medal and a race bib. I never thought I’d get to have this excitement again!
Here’s Gemini once we got home. A little soggy, but no worse for the wear.
So how did I do for my goals?
Don’t hurt my knee
*knee never once twinged or bothered me. It feels tired today, but no pain and no swelling!
Have fun
*boy did I ever have fun! It was lonely because most of my riding was alone, but still a ton of fun!
Finish 100k
*done
Learn something about cycling
*I learned to use my gears better, and learned that more fancy equipment means that there’s more things that can break during a race, like the guy who’s clip-in shoes broke on one side and wouldn’t stay clipped in at the halfway mark. That makes for some hard pedalling, especially on the hills in the rain!
Don’t finish last
*done
Don’t piss off any cyclists
*i don’t think I pissed anyone off. There was a Jamaican gentleman who complained about me passing him on a few hills (as in “I can’t get passed by a girl”) but it seemed to be a joking response and I finished well before him, so, I’m ok with how that went...
Don’t get struck by lightning
*successfully dodged all lightning
Don’t crash my bike
*done, but funny story...after I got showered at home, I fell asleep on the couch and had one of those startle dreams where you jump or shake in real life. I dreamt that I crashed my bike after going straight down a hill and I startled so badly that I kicked my dog and fell off the couch!!! I guess my crashing fear is really a fear.
This was:
Amazing
Challenging
Fulfilling
Fun
Wanted
Needed
Perfect
The course was spectacularly beautiful but biking and taking pictures do not go hand in hand, and then once it started raining there was no way my phone was coming out to take pictures. I'm a little bummed about that honestly, because really I was in awe of my surroundings...but my memory will have to suffice! Thank you for reading and caring and encouraging me!
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