Tour De Donut 28 Mile Ride Report

Here is the ride report I have been slacking off on posting. I think it is just cause I am a little down about being sidelined for a while, but I digress that will follow on another post. After my 5K on Saturday I came home and washed my bike so it would be all pretty for the ride. Goofball I know! Loaded it up and made sure I had all the supplies I needed, and headed out to some friends house in Katy. They spoiled me so much with a great dinner and awesome margaritas. Ahh, is this not the way all events should be preluded? We hung out, watched a DVD, followed by spectating a game of Halo 3. I can see where I could enjoy that game. Note to self: never buy a XBox unless I want to sit on the couch forever! We than set three alarms with the time change thing going on we did not know if any of them would go off, and out of three alarms one woke me up. We all headed out to the ride site. It was so awesome of them to get up early with me and support me. Thanks you guys, love you bunches!! I unloaded my bike, went to go grab my shirt at packet pick up since they did not have them available at early pick up, annoying. The line went out the door after being there twenty minutes, I picked up my chip and headed back out to the car to find my friends and grab my gear. Here is where the problem came, it was eight minutes till start time and when I looked out it was a sea of bikes, cyclists, and cars with bike racks. Everything and everyone looked like the next. I walked around, rode around, screamed out in a panic, and finally I saw Ana. I ran to her in my cycling shoes (which means on my heals) like a lost three year old who just found her Mom after being misplaced for a bit. I threw everything in the car pinned my number and headed to start line. I was wondering how that worked out, if we all got sent out like a pack of wolves in search of prey or they spaced us out. I was glad to know they spaced us out in groups, so my being five minutes late to the start line made no difference since I would just wait for another ten minutes to ride off. While waiting they kept telling us to put left foot down on the starting mats to pick up the chip. Great, I always unclip right foot first like a habit to prohibit me from those fun falling off the bike while barely moving events. So, as I am lined up back there I tried unclipping left first. Yea, bad idea totally fell over! Huge nasty bruises all over my left leg and instantly sore. *Tip: If you wanna part a sea of cyclist, fall off your bike before the race starts and they will avoid you like the plague the rest of the ride. Finally, I was off and the first 5 miles were pure torture. There were kiddos almost falling in ditches. There was unpredictable riders who did not say the good ol' polite on your left so you could move over or how about a shout out of debris when there is a dead fucking pig on the shoulder!! Nothing, It took five miles to weave in and out of other cyclist and find a happy riding place. I was feeling good miles 5-10. .

The course was really flat, and kinda scenic if you like flat hay filled land. We had the first pit stop at mile 10 and there were so many people I spent fifteen minutes waiting to get in a port a potty, but devoured a donut while I waited. After all, five minutes off my chip time for every one I ate. I should have eaten 3 to knock off my bathroom break but oh well, I am trying to lose weight here. I was back on the bike with a smooth comfortable ride till the next stop at mile 20. I got off there grabbed some oranges, walked it out and I was back out. I went all this past week without jumping on my bike or mixing in a spin class, but I was sick so whatevas! I was paying for it now though, I could not feel my booty! I got back on the bike sipped some Gatorade, and kept looking at my cycle computer as I felt every mile from there on out in my left leg. At mile 23 I had to cross over I-10 with a nice steep overpass, oh, and don't forget a huge 18 wheeler on my ass with no shoulder for me to get in to. My nerves were shot, and I am telling myself BPMS150 not in my cards maybe ever. Once I was on the side shoulder I pedaled my heart out hitting 21mph on the flat road trying to get back to the finish line as soon as I could. Soon, after that I was crossing that finish line with a huge smile cause I could not get off the bike fast enough! Cycling is definitely my cross training tool, but I will do it again cause the competitor in me has to beat this two hour time.