Birthday Ride

[JanT]

Yesterday was my 52nd birthday, and after reading on this forum about someone "riding their age," I decided to go for it. I just bought a road bike about a month ago, and have been gradually increasing the length of my long ride each week, so I knew I could do it. I headed out about 5:30 am, riding east into the sunrise. Every hour or so, I got off the bike for a bit and stretched, drank some gatorade, a couple times nibbled on a Clif bar. I stopped twice at parks to rest a few minutes, called my family to let them know my progress. Four hours and forty three minutes later, I was home again with 52.9 miles on the odometer. I feel great, not tired at all. The only thing that really bothered me was my upper back/shoulder area. I'm going to have the LBS switch the stem to the shorter one that they didn't have at the time I bought the bike, and if that doesn't fix the back problem, I'll have to fine tune my positioning.
Thanks for reading about my adventure, and thanks for all the inspiration you all give me with you posts.