24 hour charity ride--want to form a TE team?

[owlice]

Yes! I did sign up! If anyone wants to sponsor me (or other riders), please send me a PM and I'll send the link!

divingbiker, I'm really glad you brought this event to my attention; thank you! And thank you, Catriona, for putting me in touch with a team looking for riders!

[Cataboo]

Given the weather, I'm glad I didn't sign up for this.

Owlice, I hope you're staying reasonably dry.

[owlice]

I did not stay reasonably, nor even unreasonably, dry; I was completely soaked! Someone somewhere has a picture of me wringing out one of my socks.

I have GOT to get at least a waterproof jacket; the little windbreaker I had on definitely isn't waterproof. I was so wet, the water I was wet with had water on it!

But it was worth it. I didn't ride nearly as many miles as I'd hoped -- next time, I'll check out a course before pronouncing my lofty goals for it! -- but I did get in a solid 66 miles, and will go back to that loop and ride another 34, by God and kittens, I will!

Here's part of the email I sent out to those who sponsored me:

There is a saying: Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. I have found this to be true (yes, even when riding in the dark in a cold rain). I have often put it this way: It's impossible to cry on a bike.

I was wrong, however. One of the things I learned during this event is that it is, indeed, possible to cry on a bike.

The route had some people along it cheering riders on; these cheerer-on-ers were all near the start/finish point, most notably on the hill leading to the start/finish line. The rest of the route was devoid of cheerers.

Except, here on my fourth lap for one set, I saw a man on the other side of the loop standing on a corner, holding a handwritten sign which said, "Thanks for riding." Since I ride slowly enough to have whole conversations with people standing by the route, I said, "Thank you for being here." He held out his hand for me to slap as I rode by, and that is when I noticed the text in orange below the "Thanks for riding." The text in orange -- the Booty event color -- read "Son has leukemia."

And that is how I know that it is possible to cry on a bicycle, for I did so the rest of that lap. As I do now, remembering this, and wishing now, as I did while I was riding, that I had a tissue handy and more importantly, a cure for leukemia.

[Cataboo]

Owlice, you are a much stronger woman than I.

I was sitting at home looking at the weather with the bf, and we were saying "oh crap, do you really think they're riding in this????"

He was hoping you guys were all huddling in tents, since he had a couple of friends from work riding.

I'd've lent you a rain coat if I'd known.

[owlice]

Thanks! A raincoat wouldn't have helped, though; see this account of the event by someone who was trying to ride the whole 24 hours and couldn't because of the cold and wet. (But wow, his mileage puts me to shame, to shame!!)

I did not camp out; I came off the loop just before 11 PM and went home to take a hot shower (I was shivering so much when I walked into the house, I couldn't even feed the poor starving beasties until I'd gotten warmed up), which I wanted to stay in WAY longer than I did, dry stuff and wash stuff, and then sleep.

By the time I got to camp the next day, the clouds were starting to break, and most of Sunday was fine for riding, even sunny for some hours. And then clouds rolling in again, dark clouds, and there were just a few raindrops on my windshield as I drove away -- I rode right up to 4 PM, when the event finished -- but other than that, I didn't see rain that afternoon. It had clearly rained hard at my house, about 25 minutes away, though, for it was very wet when I got home.