Goldilocks Century

What a weekend I had. I completed my 1st cnetury ride since having Fynn. It was quite the trip. Where do I begin?

Well, let me start with last year. I had drama with the girls that I had gone with to ride in the Little Red Ride. And my friend Candice couldn't come with us. So this year when she asked me to do Goldilocks with her than I felt like I owed it to her to ride with her. Which I was really excited to do. Especially since it would give me something to train for. 

As the event grew closer I was feeling bummed I hadn't spent as much time in the saddle as I needed. But I knew that I physically could still ride due to the cross training that I'm doing everyday at the gym. I just knew that my butt would be screaming at me by the end. And I know I could finish because I'd done it before. 

My friend wasn't feeling very prepared either, but I think it was mostly her nerves about the whole thing. She was worried about the weather. she was worried about disappointing me and so forth. But I told her not to worry.

Thursday I got the news that her friend Lindsey had invited herself. Registered for the ride last minute ad borrowed a bike from a friend. Haha. This girl had never ridden before and she was up for the event. 

After staying up too late we were up early and ready to get to the starting line. They told me the night before that they weren't going to do the full 100, but I still wanted to. So I wanted to get to the starting line as soon as we could. 

The plan was to get there by 7am and start by 7:30. But we didn't end up getting there until 7:30am. Which was kinda stressing me out because I still needed to pick up our packets, get all my bike stuff ready to ride and get going. They werent in any hurry so they just told me to start without them So finally a little after 8am I wa on my way. Alone. I told myself that I would have to be tough and that I WILL finish no matter what. It was my goal to finish and I wasn't about to not reach that goal. 

It was raining. Dang it. But I came prepared for it. So it really wasn't all that bad. I actually was overly dressed. At the 10 mile stop I pulled off so I could get my arm warmers off because my arms were too hot. Once they were off (which was really tricky might I add) I got going again, I came across this girl that we just stayed by each other because we were the same pace. And we just started talking and became friends instantly and wanted to ride together. 

We hit the 21 mile pit stop and refueled on some snacks.  

From that point on my Century Friend, Katie and I bonded. She was a great rider and I learned so much from her. And I didn't know at the time what a blessing she would become for me. We shared stories together about our lives and I was so grateful to have her with me.

The rain didn't really stop until about mile 50ish. But that's ok because it wasn't raining super hard. Anyway as we were coming up on 50 miles we were hoping to see lunch because we were starving. But nope. For Little Red Ride they have it at 50 miles and it's perfect. So then we thought for sure by mile 60 ish stop. Still nope. Just the snacky foods they had had at all the previous stops. Which is great, but when you're burning calories like we were, Real Food sounds so much better.

I started not feeling so great. I started to wonder if it was my lack of training was why I was feeling yuck. And the thought of 40 more miles sounded daunting. I mentioned to Katie how I was feeling and she asked if I was "Bonking". And that's exactly what was happening. She told me to go grab a handful of Swedish Fish (which I didn't think to do because I didn't think that I needed that kind of stuff for a ride) and that she would give me some pink salts. So I did as she said. Ate the Swedish Fish and she gave me 3-4 tiny pebbles of this pink salt to suck on. And then put a few more in my water.

By the time we got going again, I couldn't believe the difference that Salt made. I wouldn't have believed it unless it had happened to me. But I literally felt like I just started out fresh again. It was AMAZING!!!

The next 25 miles were awesome. It was uphill but evenually made our way through some small town with all the orchards and stuff. By this point we could see the blue skies peeking through the clouds and the sun was out. Hooray. And I was feeling great. My heart felt very full in that moment in gratitude to my Heavenly Father for sending Katie to me. I was feeling a little emotional while riding but didn't let it over take me. I didn't want to be crying and have to explain my emotional self. I simply kept it to myself and thanked God in my heart for being involved even in a bike ride.

Going back to the lunch thing we didn't get lunch until mile 86. Gaaa. I was a little bugged at the moment because I really wanted food earlier, but I"m over it now. The people did their best with what they had.

Mind you this whole time I've been riding I was getting texts from Candice wondering where I was. They apparently started the ride a little bit after I did. Went 20 miles and called it a day. So the rest of the time they drove the whole route trying to find me. But they had no luck. So they just stayed at the lunch stop and waiting for me to arrive.

When we met up they mentioned they wanted to tag along. But they didn't have their bikes ready when we wanted to get going. So they didn't.

I was thinking we would have 15 more miles to go. But it ended up being 20 more miles to go. Which gave us a grand total of 107.7. Wahoo!!! It felt so good to accomplish what I was out to do. And I couldn't have done it without God's divine help. What a blessing to have him so woven into the details of my life.

I felt great as we finished. And I just had to get a finishing picture with my new found friend.

And then of course a finishing picture with my support crew. Haha. 

We got all my stuff loaded up in the truck and changed my clothes and then we headed home. For just riding 100 miles. Well 107.7 miles I was surprised how good I felt. My legs felt great. My butt was pissed, but that is to be expected. As was my neck. But I can deal with that. 

Got home and watched a movie with my little family and Jesse commented to me that I was a freak. Why? I guess because I was all chipper and happy after just riding that long. Shouldn't I have been just dead to the world by that point? Thankfully not. 

Despite the drama from the start of the trip I had a great weekend. And would do it all over again.