Bike to Beat Cancer

For the most part I have continued to feel better mentally and emotionally since pulling out of IMLOU, however, last weekend my depression came back for a few days and it was pretty tough to find the motivation to do much of anything. I missed yet another race, the OKHT bike ride for which I had planned to complete the 50-mile route. I had good intentions as I loaded up the bike the night before, laid out all my clothing, and went to bed at a decent hour in preparation. Unfortunately, morning came and I couldn’t muster up the emotional strength to get myself out of bed. The fact that it was seriously chilly out as well (50-something degrees) didn’t make it any more appealing. Of course, as usual, I felt uber-guilty for having missed it and seeing everyone’s pictures on FB only fed into these feelings.

BUT…..

Over the past week I seem to have redeemed myself a bit and am feeling better than I have in a long time. I managed a 15-mile bike ride AFTER my 60 minute OTF session on Monday, followed by another OTF workout on Tuesday. The 5-mile run I did on Wednesday was the best I’d had in a while, which was followed up by yet another OTF session on Thursday. Friday was supposed to be more of the same, but since I had to pick up my packet for the Bike to Beat Cancer dead smack in the middle of rush-hour, I opted to save my time and energy for today’s bike ride instead.

It was perfect weather for the bike, which was a great surprise since they had been calling for a 30% chance of rain all week. We took off about 8:15 a.m. and I had truly planned on this being a nice, leisurely little pedal throughout the city – not only because I didn’t mind taking it easy, but because the start of the ride was pretty congested and I ended up finishing that first 5 miles in about 23 minutes. Once it broke up however, my mind and body had a different plan and I started to push my pace a little bit.

It was a fairly scenic ride for the most part, with a few rolling hills during the first half of the course that called for some quad engagement. Once we got into The Parklands I was surprised to see that I had finished that first 15 miles in under an hour – I must’ve been hauling butt for the previous 10 miles! Unfortunately, in order to leave the park we had to go up one monster of a hill, and I wondered if I would have to get off and walk the bike up (fortunately, I did not).

Not far ahead I came upon a woman who had JUST went down on some gravel. Me and some other cyclists stopped to help her out, and it appeared that she had knocked the breath out of herself as she complained about not being able to breath. Fortunately, her husband wasn’t far behind and he was able to take over and comfort her as they waited for professional help to arrive. Luckily she didn’t look to be too bad off, but it still reminded me to take it easy and watch myself on some of the more treacherous parts of the course. Away I went once again, and a few more rolling hills lead me to the third SAG stop where the 65 and 100 mile folks split off.

Up until the first 20 miles or so I had considered doing the 65-miler instead of the 35. I told myself leading up to the ride that I would wait to see how I felt half-way in to make a decision. Since my legs were already starting to feel it, and it looked like some clouds were rolling in, I decided on the 35 mile-only route and headed off with a small group of guys for the last 10 miles.

We stuck together for a bit until one guy had to stop to fix his chain. Not wanting to be “beat,” by these men during the last portion of the ride, I left them behind and kept a pretty decent pace for the remaining 8 miles or so - ending up with a 15.6 mph moving average – my fastest pace ever besides Muncie in July. I must say, I was super surprised by this considering Monday's ride was a mere 14.2 mph. But, I guess the adrenaline as well as the competition (at least, in my mind) gave me enough “umph” to get it done as quickly as I did.

I would definitely suggest this race to others. It was very well organized, the feeling in the air was extremely positive and supportive, and the SAG stops were wonderful. The pretty scenery was a definite plus, and the course itself was just challenging enough that you felt like you were accomplishing something, but not unbearable enough that you're hating life. I've already signed up for next year when, hopefully, I can step it up to at least that 65-mile route. Next up - Harvest Homecoming 25-mile ride next weekend.