First of all, I am so proud of everybody out there actually attempting such self-torture. Wasn't it GREAT ?!?!?!?!?!
I began the ride in a paceline of WUS's. After 5 miles, I realized that they weren't joking about their 21-22ish pace. What the hell did they have for breakfast? I thought we all ate the same scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy (some of you would be SO PROUD), as well as the good stuff: OATMEAL with raisins. So I dropped off the line, knowing that Tonto and my dear Lamb Chop would be coming up from behind. Their pace of 18 mph was sounding really good to me. And it looked really good too as I saw them zip on by me as I was standing at rest stop 2. Oh well. There's always plan B.
I regrouped with WUS's at stop 2. I was so happy to finally locate Reena and Kris as they had been lost in the early crowd of 8500 riders. Some of us made a pact with each other to ride sanely. Everything went very well from there. For a while, anyway. We discovered to our delight that we were local heroes. At one of the rest stops nearby the NATCO building, we were approached by very excited volunteers who were so happy to see NATCO represented in the ride, and so they spoke to us for a while and took pictures of us and thanked us for being there. It was great. But guess who still made the front page of next morning's paper? That's right. West U Schwinn! Our own Reena and Kris can be spotted clearly in the mass of riders.
Somewhere around mile 65 things turned ugly. The hills and wind and heat began taking their toll. I started having to struggle a bit. Some guy borrowing our paceline commented on how serious we were. He said it looked like we were riding to a funeral. (Actually, this was already happening around mile 50-55) I thought, WHAT?!, he doesn't recognize who we are! (the most spirited team, of course)... on our way to our funerals. (Did you guys notice how many cemeteries we passed?!?!?) Back to mile 65...Reena and I were struggling hard to make it to the next stop, Steve Upperman paid us a visit on his bike to piss us off, so we chased him away like a pestering fly. This is when my head starting acting FuNnY. I was becoming cOnFuSeD. I couldn't ThInK straight. It progressively became worse. But I was tough. I rode on.
By the time we approached mile 85, I was singing my own little dirge (do any of you know the church song that is sung on Good Friday, "my God, my God, have you abandoned me? That was my song on Saturday to keep me going. That worked for a while. At the 85-mi rest stop, I was feeling very, very loopy. I was kind of enjoying it actually. Then I discovered that I had a flat after parking in a ditch of burs. I became even more determined to finish, so I changed that F#$%^&g flat and got back on the bike to finish the ride.
I slowly disintegrated until mile 92 when I could no longer go on. I was feeling dizzy, nauseated; I was getting chills...feeling weak. Dawlett deserves a year's worth of daily full-body massages for taking such good care of me. We chilled out at a convenience store while I tried to eat a Popsicle, drink V8 (THAT'S what I was missing!!!), PowerAde, water.... But I could barely move. There were many cyclists there taking a rest at a table where a community food pile was building up from previous riders. A bag of salty chips was wide open, but I could barely touch it. That's where I finally gave in and made the call to Brian, our wonderful sag driver, to come pick me up. So Dawlett left to catch up with the rest and finish the ride.
Bill needed 2 liters of IV fluid after the ride, recovered beautifully, and everybody else seemed okay. Few people had muscle cramps. The food provided by NATCO was excellent, but I could barely touch it. I was still trying to recover at the time. I sat for an hour and a half and could only drink half a dr. pepper and take 2 Advil.
Now I feel GREAT. It was a great experience. Horrible experience. Great experience. Let's do it again next year!
No Pride,
No Shame,
Little Bo Peep
A reply from Slick:
I enjoyed reading your recollections of the HHH (Good). I too started hurting after making our second stop at around Mile 50, half way (bad - should of started stopping more often earlier). Dave S. (Mr. Poppins), my cycling buddy had the strength to pull me on down the road (good), even though I was definitely going down hill on energy at about Mile 55 (bad). Rest stop at Mile 60 did me wonderful and we kept the stop fairly short (good). Half a dozen 16-oz PowerAde glasses (bad - tasting) and cold water to the head (good) and we were back on our bike. Wind in our face (bad) we caught onto various pace groups (good) and struggled to keep up (bad). Now we were into making every rest stop (good) for loads of PowerAde (still bad- tasting) and cold watermelon (good). The heat of days was extreme (bad), but my strength now seemed to be stabilized (good) at an acceptable level. Dave, my buddy, now started to falter, just a little (bad). I went ahead (away from Dave) to the next stop so he would ride his pace and avoid "keeping up" (good). Dave pulled into the stop, maybe at about Mile 80, and just laid over his handlebars (bad). I invited him into the food tent for refreshment (good), but he just spoke of "shoot me" or "sag me" or some other mumble (bad) which I knew he must just be kidding (good). No, I think he was serious (bad)! Anyway, showering over the water hose, PowerAde gulps, ice towels, and a sit on a cot brought him back to life (good), although the crimson face didn't look too good (bad). Heads down and pedals cranking, we finally made it into the finish and glory (good). Getting off the bike was not pleasant with cramps and just plain weakness (bad). The spray fountain helped get my core temperature down (good), but the water seemed to kill my cell phone (bad)! Several gallons of tea, water, beer, piles of food, and being able to tinkle the next morning made me know that I had survived (good)! Thinking about repeating the ride next year - good or bad? Give me 11 months to decide (good).
