OK, I've been remiss in letting you all know how things went, but the Death Ride did not go well. I rode about 7 miles out of the 130 total, and my bike broke. Specifically, the chain - not a great thing, but ordinarily something that can be fixed. However, I managed to also mangle my rear derailleur (the gizmo that moves the chain between different gears) and even ruined part of the frame. My day was done - and I hadn't even climbed the first hill yet. The picture at the left shows how it looked - and this is not how it's supposed to look!
Anyway, that ruined my day, but the rest of the team was still riding and still in good spirits, so I stuck around and cheered for them as they finished. I had mixed feelings, but was happy to see so many people that I trained with doing so well. As the day went on, I realized that it wasn't so bad - I had gotten into great shape, trained with a great bunch of people, raised some money for a great cause - and there will be another Death Ride next year.
On the way home, I ran into a Leukemia Society employee who rode with us (and did great), and she convinced me to sign up for my next cycling adventure - the Tour of Tucson. This ride is a bit different - 109 miles and flat. It is also timed, so I'm looking forward to a training season with a completely different emphasis (ok, it's still on a bicycle). Of course, fund raising is part of this as well. I'm off to a great start already, and will be trying to use special events to raise the remaining funds. Everyone was so generous for the Death Ride season already, so I will try to make this a much lower-key fund raising season.
In the meantime, I had my bike repaired and I rode in the Tour of Napa, a 100 mile ride that had some climbing. This felt really good, and it was nice to ride with some friends and teammates from the Death Ride season. The ride felt great, and got me interested again in riding longer and harder rides.
See you on the road soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment