The Ride

I'm not exactly sure how to start this post.  Should I start by describing my feelings at the start line?  Or maybe the night before?  Well let me start with a description of the ride from their website;

The Gran route is a 103 mile amazing journey of grandeur amongst the towering and enchanted forests that flank the base of King Ridge. The route climbs out of the depths of the town of Cazadero into one of the most breathtakingly beautiful expanses of terrain with incredible rolling ridgetop views of nearby mountains, ridges, valleys and, of course, the vast Pacific Ocean. After cresting King Ridge Road, Gran riders are in for whipping descents and the rolling profiles of the coastal roads until you make your way back towards Occidental via Coleman Valley Road. From there, it’s smooth sailing back into Santa Rosa.

 In the description they fail to mention the 9,201 feet of climbing...I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but that's a lot of climbing for someone who doesn't climb...

So the night before I was reading about the ride and I over heard a lot of people talking about the epic-ness of this ride.  I got a little nervous - maybe I wouldn't be able to do this ride - maybe I went all the way to the other side of the country to fail -  Dangit, I wish I had trained for this ride.  So I asked Seth my trusted truth teller...because he will tell me how it is even when I don't ask him - I asked him if he thought I could do the ride.  He said I could absoultly finish the ride.  Enough said I will conqueror this beast!


And conqueror it I barely did...no seriously...barely.

Okay I will do a quick breakdown:

First 20 miles: fun and fast
Last 20 miles: fast and enduring
60 miles in between:  gorgeous and hellish

Not much more to say. The 60 miles in between the easier stuff was hard.  Really hard.  The climbs lasted forever, they were steep and demoralizing.  Honestly at one point I wanted to get off my bike so I could talk myself out finishing the ride.  I was so slow it was painful! Had I ridden this last year I would have done such a better job because I was in great shape.  This year not so much.  I think it was hard for my pride to get passed by all of those people, at one point I was convinced I was going to be the last one to cross the line. I wanted to have a sign on my back that said "Just had a baby" or something like that.  Even though it was hard, there would be moments when the scenery around me was so gorgeous that I couldn't help but smile even when my legs were shot and every time I turned the cranks over it felt like a miracle.  It was a long ride that would best be described as 'Epic'.

When I crossed the finish line I can't say how sweet it was to see Fisher there cheering me on.  In a way I do it for him.  My Mom later told me I when I crossed the finish line I looked like 'hell', thanks Mom.  I did.  But it was kind of funny as soon as I crossed the line I hurried over to Roen so I could feed him. Ha, I kind of laugh about it.  It was a get back to work moment, I had my fun but Ro-Ro's hungry.  Seth told me later that it was my pride and stubborn ways that made me finish that ride...and like always he was 100% on mark.

Side note: Broken foot be damned, Seth still rode 65 miles. Why? Because he wanted to see the ocean.  How cute/crazy is he?