A newbie does 45 miles!

[Over50Newbie]

If you look on the "Northeast" thread you will see a post from me about wanting to do a 40 mile tour yesterday. Now, the farthest I've ever ridden so far is about 25 miles (I only got my road bike a couple of months ago). So here is my story...

I did it!
I did it!
I did it, did it, did it!

BTW, did I say that I DID IT?

First of all, the scenery was magnificent. This area is a beautiful part of CT, and I have never had the pleasure of seeing it up close on a bike. Many parts of it were actually meditative (especially the hills). I worked really hard on staying relaxed, which was harder and harder to do as the day went along.

The weather was not great. It rained (not hard, but a steady sprinkle) for the first two hours, so everyone was wet and cold. Then the rain went away and the wind came up. I ended up changing my clothes 3 times throughout the day just to stay warm and dry! Because of the weather, over 120 riders started the event, but only 28 finished. I was one of them that finished.

And, boy, was it hilly. The course actually ended up being 45.1 miles, not 40. I was on the bike for 4 hours and 30 minutes - an average of 10 mph. With stops, the whole event took me a little over 6 hours.

I have been working on this one specific hill in my bike training - it is short and very steep. Every time I trained, I went over and tackled this hill. At first, I couldn't even get up it, then I could get up it, but had to get off my bike and rest at the top, and just last week I got up it and even though I was pooped, I was able to continue biking. So I knew that I was slowly progressing.

Not one hill on this tour was as big or as hard as the one that I have been training on. So, at least psychologically, I was ready to tackle all of those hills (and there were lots of them). I kept telling myself that if I could do my "big hill" in training, then these hills were definitely doable.

Once again, I was the very last one to finish. So what else is new? Maybe my goal for one of my future events should be to not finish last? LOL. They sent out the "sag wagon" to see if I wanted to quit, but I was fine, and told them "No Thanks". I guess that they aren't used to having someone take that long to finish the event. Oh well, they better get used to it, because I have no desire to quit doing these type of events!

I am pretty pumped up right now - my legs are a little sore, but not bad. The area between my shoulder blades is quite tight and sore, though. I guess that is from leaning over the bike handles for such a long period of time. Other than that, I feel great. A little tired, but great!

My friend stayed with me the whole way, but something pretty scary happened to her at the end - she bonked. I don't know if anyone has ever experienced this, but it is when your blood sugar gets so low, your legs cramp up and they can't support your body weight. You just crumple to the ground and pass out. She didn't pass out, but that is only because there was a doctor there that immediately came to her rescue. If he wasn't there, I'm sure that she would have passed out. She is fine now, but it was pretty tense for a little while. I hope that never happens to me!

So that is pretty much it. Thanks to all of you wonderful women for all of your support and knowledge. I would never have been able to complete this without you.

P.S. Now I am going to have to start thinking about clipless pedals. I have been reading all of those postings and I am almost ready to take the leap.

Over50Newbie