A day of firsts with lessons learned...

Yesterday I woke up at 5am to a monsoon of a rainstorm which was a bit of a problem because I was to complete my first 100 mile bike ride. I shuffled around in the dark, half asleep, while I got all of my stuff ready. I packed as if I was going to ride for a week. Between all of the food and clothing options that I packed I would have been able to survive for a quite a while if I happened to get stranded on my way to Brentwood. I ate breakfast, took a quick nap on the couch and then put my bike on the back of the car in the pouring rain. With all of my provisions and clothing in hand I headed to Edwin Warner Park around 6:40am. I was meeting up with Kathleen, Bert, and Julie to knock out a long day of riding. Julie had her high school reunion to go to that afternoon so she did a long brick of 50 miles on the bike and a 6 mile run. Kathleen, Bert, and I were doing 100 miles. Luckily it wasn't raining in Brentwood so once I got to the park I got my bike all set up, the correct attire for the weather put on, and all of my food packed up in my pockets and on my bike. I started with 7 mini Baker Breakfast Cookies, two 10 ounce flasks of Hammer Gel, two full bottles of Gatorade Endurance, 1 bottle of water, and 3 bags of Gatorade Endurance powder to mix on the road.

We headed out for our big ride around 7:30. We went south to Lieper's Fork and stopped at Puckett's then to Fly (my favorite) and then we jumped on the Natchez Trace. The toughest section was the Trace. We had to do 20 miles out and back on the Trace and I didn't know that Kathleen got a flat tire behind me so I just kept going...luckily Bert was near her to help out. Since they stopped to change her flat I ended up pretty far ahead and all by myself. It was very lonely and at one point I think I went a little crazy because I was talking to myself...out loud...ha. I stopped at a rest stop and refueled and waiting for Bert and Kathleen. We finished up on the Trace and headed back to Fly, Lieper's Fork, and our lovely cars!

Our ride was pretty uneventful until a huge scary dog came charging at us and I thought we were dead meat. Luckily he stopped right at the street but it certainly got our adrenaline flowing. I also had my first spill on my new bike. We were about 6 miles from our cars on the way home and I hesitated while crossing a big intersection...lesson learned: don't hesitate. There was a car coming and I had an option to get run over or to fall over. I chose to fall...good choice...except I ended up with a bruised butt, bruised thigh, cut ankle, and I was pretty embarassed since I fell in front of quite a few people and stopped traffic in the process. My Gatorade dumped all over me as well so I was so sticky which was the most annoying thing of all. Luckily we were almost back to our cars.

When we got back to our cars we knocked out a 1.5 mile run and then colapsed. Ha...kidding. Actually considering the 101.5 miles we just covered everyone felt pretty good. Another lesson I learned was that if I start out wearing arm warmers there is a pretty good chance that I will eventually take them off...which means I should apply sunscreen on my arms. I'm a bit burned to say the least.

Today Kathleen, Bert, and I met at Percy Warner Park to run. Bert and I ran 10 and Kathleen ran 8. I had a good run but I'm officially tired from this weekend of training. Put a fork in me. I'm done.