Nanci, how was the brevet?

[Lise]

Eagerly awaiting ride report, when you've rested up, snuggled the birds, etc. Lise

[Nanci]

It was so fun and easy! I want to do another next week!

Bwwwaaaahaaaaahaaaaahaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

It's going to take a couple days to get the mental energy required for a report. I still barely have the energy to eat. But, luckily, I do have the energy for Bald Eagle watching at work!!!

I'm still mulling the whole thing over. It was a big deal that I never thought would be possible, and I just ended up there through tiny steps, and now I sort of feel like, how is this meaningful, who can even understand the depth of it, but also, at the time, all I had to do was just keep going...

Nanci

[Surlygirl]

Girl, you rock. Can't wait to read about your ride.

[Lise]

Aaaaah! You had me going there for a minute!

Rest up. Ponder. We'll wait. L.

[jobob]

I'm watching this space. (tapping foot)

Only kidding, Nanci ! Take your time. Rest up.

The important thing is to know that you survived, which apparently you have.

Way to go !

[Nanci]

I feel like, ok, if _I_ can do it, age 47, grandmother, 30# (or more!!) overweight, never been an athlete, then _anyone_ can. Just wait till you see the pic I took of myself at 300 miles, you'll see what I mean. So, then, if it's such a big deal to me, such a _huge_ thing, so unimaginable in January when I was looking on the RUSA website for the definition of brevet and so unfamiliar with metric conversions that I needed a calculator to figure out how far 600k _was_, and then thinking, that's impossible, those people must be crazy! then finding out there were people who are finishing what took me 37 hours in less than 24, and people who have done this distance, not to mention twice this distance, for years and years and years in a row...But then, it's really _not_ impossible, just hard, really all you have to do is show up and don't quit-and I'm not ready, right now, for the next step, but it's out there, somewhere, looming. I just have to live by the words of my literary hero, Mike Magnuson, I guess : "You can't stop participating in a sport because there are professional-level people who can obliterate you at it. A sport is about a lifestyle, about health and fitness and happiness, and you want to try hard, of course, you want to do your best, but you'll have to accept that other people's best will frequently be better than yours." It's like an onion, you keep peeling back the layers: Century, that's the first big one, then 200k, 300k, Double Century, (the first time I passed 200 miles I was so distracted by pain I just really didn't care- at least I took the time to commemorate 300 miles with a photo) 400k, 600k, Furnace Creek 508, 1000k, BMB, PBP, RAAM- where does it end? Is there an end?

Nanci