Ride Without Limits - Tampa Bay
Charity ride benefiting United Cerebral Palsy. I did the 62 mile (100 km) course. They also offered 35 and 100 mile courses but:
(a) My longest road bike ride to date had been 43 km, and
(b) I'm doing a 30 km trail running race tomorrow.
Well-organized event. We met at Crews Lake Park - a mysterious-looking place for a Canadian. I kept expecting a dinosaur to stroll out of the woods.
Breakfast was provided by the International House of Pancakes then we lined up at the start around 7:30 a.m. Nice temperature. I actually wore arm warmers for the first 15 km, which I hadn't expected down here.
It was my first experience of riding in a "peleton" on the road. Very fun and cooperative - lots of hand signals and shouting out important info. "CarrrrrUP!" "Slowing!" "Railroad tracks!"
Note the great bike club name - Grupetto. Motto: "No one left behind." They were actually good riders.
The point of this trip is to get some good training in so I hammered to stay with the front group. By the 30 km mark, there were just six of us. At the 50 km aid station (the only one we stopped at), three of us left together and rode as a group till the end. Pete and Alan are strong bikers who made me work. I took my turn pulling a few times but they were merciful and took much longer turns than I did. I was paranoid that I'd touch one of their wheels while drafting so I didn't get any pictures while riding with them. In the last 5 km, they could smell the finish line and were holding 38 kph at times but when I started to fall back, they kindly slowed down.
As we entered the park, the guys insisted that I ride up front so that I could cross the line first, hence "winning" the 62-mile charity ride. I told them that as an adventure racer, I'd rather cross the line with my team but they made me do it! "Not many women can hang with us." (Not that I actually could, since they could have dropped me easily if they'd wanted to.)
Really nice post-race pasta lunch with Caesar salad and garlic bread, catered by Carrabba's Italian Grill. Little kids gave us medals with artwork hand-drawn by kids with CP and thank you cards signed by kids with CP. That was pretty touching but I saw the best thing as I was leaving - a young boy with a huge bouquet of flowers standing at the side of the road holding a big sign that said, "THANK YOU, MOM". Gulp.
I'm pleased that my back didn't hurt any worse for 100 km than it hurts for 25 km - in fact, maybe it was a little better. And my new bike seat rocks - very comfy.
Average 30.8 kph in the wind. No wonder I'm tired now!