Lots of firsts today! some good...some not so good!

[copperlegend]

I'm not sure how many of you participated in the Trek Breast Cancer Awareness rides that occurred all over the country today. My LBS was running one. It was my first ride with more than 2 other people (approximately 30 showed up). I had an absolute blast for most of the ride. The route was a bit more 'traffical' than I would've liked, but it wasn't bad. Perfect weather for it. The sun came out right as we left, and it was a crisp 55 degrees. I opted for the 25 mile ride at the encouragement of my friend and co-worker who was doing the ride with me. Everything was finally clicking with my bike, my cadence was spot on, and I was feeling good! I should have turned off with the 10 mile group

Here's where the not so good part happens. About half a mile after the 10 mile group turned off, we hit a particularly busy intersection with a stop light. I don't know what happened but I couldn't get unclipped. I have Speedplay X5's and they're great. Clipping in and out has become natural for me. I couldn't so I panicked and of course tipped over to the right and fell. Thankfully the support vehicle saw me and laid on his horn to alert other riders and surrounding cars that something was wrong. A woman in an escalade was a foot or so away from hitting me. I hopped back up, assessed the damage (minimal, thank goodness! just a little road rash and no blood), and decided to continue on. After what seemed like a million "yeah I'm fine, really!" we moved on with the route.

After 3 more miles, I just couldn't go any more. It was a mix of not being in well enough shape, being utterly exhausted, and just not feeling comfortable in all the traffic anymore. Thanks to the wonderful support crew, we had my bike in the van and me sipping a cold bottle of water in minutes. The support guy gave me a pep talk which made me feel a little better. It's still so embarassing. Sometimes I feel like such a noob This is my first year riding a road bike and it's very different than tooling around the trails behind my house on a Huffy mountain bike. The friend that encouraged me to do the 25 mile ride kept apologizing for pushing me.

Anyway, that's my story for today. What they say about a fall always being in front of a ton of people is so true.