Sunday, June 21, 2009

Pumpkinvine Ride

Well, gentle bikers and kind readers of this blog, that is all you will be doing on this blog entry - reading. I forgot to take my camera with me on the Pumpkinvine Ride Alex, her sister Brooke, and I did yesterday in Goshen, IN.

I would paint a picture in your minds of the beauty we saw yesterday; if only I had a better command of the English language. Instead, I will be brief and suffice to say that we had a great time. Alex and Brooke rode the 26 mile route while I rode the 104 mile route.

I actually rode the 116 mile route because I missed the first loop to Middlebury the first time around. Fortunately, after 6 miles, I realized I missed the loop, and rode back to pick it up.

It was great to see so many people out yesterday - there were over 1,000 riders. Lots of kids, the future of our country - on bikes. Lots of older folks. I saw two gentlemen that could not be a day under 90 years. One elderly lady could barely walk, but she could pedal away on a recumbant trike.

I rode for a while with a couple from Columbus, OH, who recognized my TOSRV jersery. I could not keep up with them, but I caught them at several SAG stops. They started calling me "tosrv-guy", and would say, "hey, there's the tosrv-guy" as they zipped past me several times.

The ride ended in classic style. The final 30 miles of the route steered us directly into a strong northwest headwind. Just before the final SAG stop was a long, long hill that got steeper near the top. Add the headwind, and it was a killer. I managed to reach the summit at 9.5 mph, but there were several riders stopped at the top wondering why they hadn't yet reached the final SAG.

I'm getting a lot of satisfaction in biking this year. This ride epitomized my biking experience: we don't know what we can accomplish until we are really tested. But if we really work at it, we can overcome that summit in the headwind. I hope all of you have great rides and are challenged regularly.

Keep on riding!

4 comments:

331 Miles said...

Congrats on finishing 116 miles. One of my favorite quotes: "there are NO easy centuries".

Big Oak said...

Thanks, 331. That is right, not easy, but it was fun! I'm especially happy since I'm not sore today. Will be ready for my commute in the morning.

Mike J said...

you got that right, there are no easy centuries. Way to go on the 116 miles. I bet you were cursing your wrong turn at mile 110.

Big Oak said...

Actually, Mike, I began cursing my wrong turn at mile 91 when I started to feel really, really tired. After 3 cookies at the last SAG stop at mile 105, I felt much better at mile 110 - plus the end was in site.