Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Space Race

I didn’t get much sleep on Saturday night because of my lovely upstairs neighbor. I have had issues with this woman before but Saturday was the last straw and after the ride on Sunday I put in a complaint. So far so good. Hope it stays that way.

Needless to say I was rather tired for the Space Race, but the course was flat so all was good.

I met up with another TNT tri participant (Casey) and we started the ride at 8:16 am. We were late so we had a lot of passing to do on the way out. At first it was just the two of us, but as the miles progressed we ended up with a pace line of five individuals trying to get by all the slower and less experienced riders. Did I just say that?! Less experienced? Slower? WOW!!

Riding in those conditions did give me a little insight as to what the MS150 will be like. But the MS150 will consist of 13,000 riders not just 3,500!! It is going to be CRAZY!!

Anyway, back to the ride. It was so so. A few of the roads were really rough and I thought there should have been more police out directing traffic. There was lots of SAG support though (cars and motorcycles). The route was marked okay. At one point – around mile 50 – some kids out on their BMX bikes kept asking us if we wanted to trade bikes. Typical kids, no harm right? Then one of the cyclists in front of me commented "Hope they didn’t decide to move the route markers!" Had me wondering for a little while until I saw another set and knew we were on the right path! Thank goodness, I did not need any bonus miles!

My only real complaint about the ride was one of the rest stops. Couldn’t find it! Casey and I passed up RS1 at mile 10 to get away from the crowds, plus we didn’t really need it. RS2 would be good. Well, never saw RS2! By mile 27 I was getting peeved. By mile 30 I was out of water and Gatorade and getting really ticked off and starting to swear!! At mile 32 was the RS! It wasn't just us, lots of people had missed the second stop – you had to make a turn and go down a little street to get to it and it was obviously not well marked that you needed to do this! At least I now know I can make it 32 miles without stopping! Thank goodness it wasn't hot out (temps in the high 60's low 70's), there might have been some serious problems then.

After we refilled our bottles, had a banana, cookie and part of an orange it was back on the bike. That is when Casey told me his knee was hurting. So we stopped at the next RS (mile 37) to get some pain reliever. He drafted off me for a while until the drugs kicked in then he was gone!! I was pretty tired by then and not able to keep up with his aero pace (have to get me some of those aero bars!!). So for the last 15 miles or so I was pretty much by myself. And at mile 55 I took a break to answer my phone!! Then it was on to the finish line!

Sorry to disappoint you, Cagey – but Sunday was not a good day for after ride food. They had water, oranges and luke warm Mickey D hamburgers. There were a lot of fun toys for the kids to play on though. I am sure it was a great time for them! Casey and I wandered around a bit while I choked down a hamburger and then it was time for home where I did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day!

I was a little sore from the rides and fall this weekend – my butt knows that I did hills on Saturday!! But overall I feel okay. I am starting to feel like I can actually do the MS150 and survive. I might even do the Bechtel Challenge Route on day 2!

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