Sunday, May 17, 2009

2:43:46

2:43:46 is what is displayed on my watch as though it is the time, frozen in place. Still there because I am proud of our accomplishments, of what we were able to do yesterday. Tammy, Casey and I all rode the Huckleberry 3 times out and back which is 35 miles, in the above time. Funny thing it took less time for us to do three laps than the first time Tammy and I did one lap.

I know that Jessee and Elizabeth did a great job too on their 30 miles, but I was not with them so I cannot speak of their ride. So I'll pause here to applaud their wonderful job for doing what they didn't think they could!

As I have mentioned before the first time Tammy and I rode The Huckleberry it took just over 3 hours. It was funny, cause we calculated how fast we had been going on our regular ride at that time (which we now realize is mostly flat) and determined it should take us about an hour and a half. Well we headed out and made a wrong turn for about a mile, so we U-turned and got back on route. Just over an hour and a half from the start we arrived at one end. Proud, cause that seemed tough and it was further than we had ever riden at that time. We paused took a picture (that we take each time we cross) and headed back. It was dark by the time we got to the car and we were super tired, hungry and sore all over. I'll remind you at this point this was before we had coooshy bike shorts.

So we fast forward a few years, add a 45 mile Livestrong Challenge (www.livestrongchallenge.org) bike ride I'm training for, a friend and once again we are celebrating another distance achievement on the Huckleberry. It is amazing to see how far Tammy and I have come on our bikes! Glad Casey was there too! He has his own things to celebrate, he just made his 5K goal last weekend and also rode further than he ever has on his bike yesterday.

The three of us cheered each other on, laughed joked and pushed each other through an excellent adventure. The first two laps of course were easier than the third. The return trip on the last leg was slower than the other two. Changing gears seemed like it took effort and climbing out of the saddle to get up a hill did not happen. That did not matter when we crested that last hill with the grazing cattle, cause we were in the home stretch. A quarter of the way through the last mile I had a goofy grin I'm sure and started whooping at our fabulous achievement. We did it!!!

I read many cyclist say that cycling is a solitary sport. I must be exceptional, because I do not only have a fabulous partner there with me, but there was a whole wonderful group there to support my training efforts. They were there to achieve goals of their own.

Thanks gang!!! Who is up for a repeat performance June 13?

With sore muscles and abundant gratitude!
-Rhonda

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