Why can't 30 be enough?

The curse is broken.

I did an organized ride on Saturday and DID NOT SAG. Whoo hoo. I was 2 for 2 for 2012 (Cinderella and Tierra Bella respectively) on SAG rides so was unsure if this was the new norm.

The ride was the Folsom Powerhouse Century. I found it randomly online and did it with my friends whom I did the Seattle to Portland ride with. One of my friends lives in Sacramento so I decided to make it a weekend. It was nice to reunite the STP wolfpack.

We woke up at 4:45, ate some oatmeal and eggs and drove out to Folsom. Like most of the things I do--the ride didn't go totally as planned.

 It was a small event (I think they said 110 people were signed up for the 65 and 100 mile option, not sure how many did the 30 miler). The check-in was chill, which was a nice contrast to the crazy insanity of Cinderella. (Though I was lucky this was NOT a Sag ride because the cue sheets read, "call ted if you need SAG." As in: ONE. SAG. DRIVER. eek.) The route sheet was printed landscape format so I had to do a little origami to make it fit in my route sheet holder.

I have come to terms with something: my route sheet holder, crazy pink bike with silver handlebars, 3 water bottle cages, and bento box really make me a big old bike poser.

And I am totally cool with that.

So we head off and follow a woman starting the ride. We were on the American River Trail. We rode about a mile and thought it was strange there weren't arrows yet. We pulled over and checked the route sheet. yeah...we weren't supposed to get on the trail. Oopsie. We headed back. I tried to keep a positive attitude and thought, "yay! This means we are way more hardcore and are going to do 102 miles instead of  100!"

We finally got on the real route. I stayed with one of my friends (the other was fending off a cold and opted to do the 30) for about 7 miles and then we went our own pace (she is faster and when our wolf pack is in training mode we have a mutual agreement that it's ok to have different paces and we don't have to ride together the whole time.). At mile 12 there was a mini rest stop with water and a limited amount of refreshments. I filled up my water and ate one of the fig newtons I bought at the grocery store the night before. I bought the organic kind that are in bulk in bins, not really thinking that things go kinda stale in bins. I bit down on the newton and it was like eating wood. Eek! I grabbed an orange slice and brownie bite from the rest stop and headed out.

At this point I was riding for almost 90 mins (the getting lost part added to time on the bike). I looked down at the ground and saw written in chalk:

"30 mile turn around."

"Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "Why can't 30 be enough?"

I mean, seriously, a 30 mile bike ride is still a significant ride. Why couldn't that be enough for me, why do I sign up for these looooong events? I mean, I could have, like, a whole day to take care of stuff if I was cool with riding only  30 miles.

Hmmm...perhaps that is the reason why I do these long events so I don't have to the other things.Like clean my car out. Organize my kitchen drawers.

The next 20 miles were beautiful: rolling green hills, babbling brooks, empty roads. There was a slight climb for awhile (at this point I was by myself--the riders were very spread out). I made a left turn at a stop sign and I was flying! This side of the mountain was much steeper so it was a fast downhill. I hit the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. You could go right or left. However, something was missing.

Arrows.

Hmmm...well THAT could be a problem.

I studied the route sheet and wasn't quite sure where I missed the arrow. I turned around and started riding.

Oops. What goes down MUST come up. That fast hill I sped down meant it would be a grueling climb. I went a few hundred feet and noticed more riders flying down. Maybe I was originaly going the right way. When it was safe I headed back down and followed two other riders who made a right at the stop sign. I caught up to one of them and asked if they were doing the 100 mile or 65 mile option.

"Uh, we are just riding on our own. Is there a ride today?"

Um, eek?

One of the riders was wearing a Death ride jersey and was a local and was nice enough to tell me which way I need to go.

"Yeah," he said. "You have to turn left and go on Chili hill. Which means you'll have to go UP that hill."

"Hmmm," i said, "Well I am training for death ride, so it will probably be good for me."

"Yeah," he said, "You can't really skip the hill parts on the Death Ride."

So I headed back and saw a couple riders at the bottom of the hill scratching their heads (well, their helmets) examining their route sheet.

I asked if they were lost. They said yes. And then I said in a peppy cheerleader voice that was totally lacking sarcasm, "Follow me! We gotta go UP that hill. Whoo hoo!"

Maybe they slipped something in the water? No clue where that enthusiasm came from.

We chugged along up the hill. We found the place where we were supposed to turn and got back on the route. Then we climbed another hill. I ate some jelly bellies and drank some water and wondered what kind of delicious treats would be at the next rest stop.

I was about a couple miles from the rest stop and spotted my friend riding on the other side.

"Hey!" She said, "Turn around and ride with me."

"How was the food at the rest stop?" I asked.

"It didn't really have anything."

So I turned around and joined her. We shared our ride experience. She too had missed arrows. Thank goodness for route sheets. There were some riders stopped on the road confused by the route. Apparently the rode we were on was not on the route sheet but there were arrows on it. In a couple minutes suddenly there was a big group of us on the side of the rode trying to make heads or tails of this ride. We finally all agreed to just keep following the arrows and hoped they were for our ride.

At around mile 60 there was a water stop. Just water. No bathrooms. Actually only one of the "rest" stops had restrooms, which is a little unusual for a 100 mile ride. I tried to maintain my good attitude and thought to myself, "It's a small ride. It's for charity. It's hard work to organize events. I am not
 going to complain."

Then we hit a hill. A 3 mile hill. Whew! This is hard! I was definitely feeling all the training from the previous week and was getting a little tired. I wondered if anyone had ever fallen asleep on a bike before.

We FINALLY hit the downhill and followed the arrows (kinda dicey with sudden left turns with oncoming traffic. eek). We finally hit the rest stop and...well, it was a wee bit sad. I mean the trail mix was good, but where are the sandwiches? I think I was spoiled by the spread of some of the other events I have donw. And after 70 miles of riding, REAL food just tastes amazing.

We headed back out and stayed together for about 7 more miles and then the wind in my sails kinda died down and she got ahead of me. The last 10 miles were brutal. My body was hurting. I was getting hungry. At about mile 98 the route sheet said to go over a bridge and then turn left  (you go over a river). The road was very busy and I didn't see arrows nor the name of the street to turn on. I rode another two miles and didn't see ANY arrows.

That's when the grouchiness was finally released. I just wanted to be done and didn't know how to get to the finish. I pulled over and got directions off my phone, turned around and 15 minutes later I was finally at the finish. My friends and a few other people were there. I ate an incredibly delicious veggie cheese burger and felt relief. Relief to have real food, relief to finally do a 100 miler and relief to not SAG.

We headed back to my friends house and I had the best shower ever. It's funny how even the small things seem amazing when you beat your body up. We chilled out a little and a couple hours later headed out for sushi which was DELICIOUS. We were going to meet up with some of my friend's friends, but were ready to just chill in our jammies. We got dessert at the grocery store and netflixed Limitless. An hour into the movie I passed out. Not even Bradley Cooper's beautiful blue eyes could keep me awake. I slept hard that night.

I headed back home this morning and somehow convinced hubby to do a recovery ride with me. I was a little nervous about the pain of getting in the bike seat. About a mile in we hit a stop sign and I said, "BABE! My it doesn't hurt sitting."

"That's awesome," he said, "That means riding every day is working!"

So, even though it was a kind of loosey goosey event, it does feel nice to have the 100 miles under my belt and to not be in total pain the day after it.

The next challenge? Next weekend's Wine Country Century. Will be interesting to see what two 100 mile rides in a row feel like for me now.

In the meantime, I am gonna keep on keepin' on.