Buffy’s Race Report – Real Ale Ride (May 22, 2010)
Okay, this wasn’t an actual race – it was an organized, supported bike ride. It definitely deserves a “race report” though! Actually, I’m glad that it wasn’t a race. It took me quite a long time to finish and I hung out at every rest stop. I’m not sure that I would want to know how I finished compared to all the other awesome cyclists out there!
I did the 65 mile ride for this one. It was the longest that I’ve ridden to date. I did a 55 mile ride the weekend before, which was a good lead up both for distance and for learning a bit about my nutrition on the bike. That 55 mile ride definitely helped me improve my fuel intake practices and helped me not bonk on the Real Ale 65 mile ride.
So, I got up at 4:30am (ugh, too early) and got all my gear and my bike in the car. Then I headed out for the hour long drive to Blanco. I got to Yett Memorial Park a bit before 6:30am and I started to get ready. I ran into Carol and Natasha, two of the Red Licorice Brand Ambassadors, and chatted with them a bit. I walked around checking things out and then headed back to my car to get ready. Here I started to get nervous. I’m not very good on the bike. It just isn’t a strong event for me, but that is part of the challenge, right? I got my fuel all loaded up, got my shoes and my favorite Injinji rainbow striped socks on, and then sunscreen-ed up. I am very, very pale and suffered a brutal sunburn at the Champions Triathlon back in March, so I’m trying to be very good about using the sunscreen (and I did not burn at all during this ride). I went out and found Carol and we hit up the Nuun tent for some pre-race hydration. I was instructed to mix together the Orange Ginger Nuun and the Banananuun (my two favorites anyway). If you haven’t done this – do it. It is awesome.
We hung around in the Ronald McDonald House VIP area for a bit. The breakfast items looked great, but I was too nervous to eat “real” food. I managed to get down half a Clif Mojo bar (a pre-race staple for me), and then it was time to line up. Carol and I got started on the ride together. I was super nervous since it was pretty crowded at the start. I don’t ever want to crash, but that is usually not my biggest fear. I worry most about crashing and taking someone else out with me, so large crowds of cyclists freak me out a bit. Eventually, though, we started to all spread out. Carol and I got separated during this first part of the ride. I got totally smoked by a guy riding in cut-off denim shorts – skinny jeans looking cut-off denim shorts. Not great for the ego to get blown past by a hipster in cutoffs, but I did enjoy thinking “I totally have to remember this for my race report!” And, if you are comfy riding in denim, and that works for you, good on you! I got up to the first rest stop, and it was packed with people. I momentarily panicked because as I was trying to come to a stop a group of people were heading out and I did almost hit a girl’s front tire. But, we avoided catastrophe and I was off my bike. I noticed during this first leg of the ride that the winds were pretty strong. I love a nice tail wind, and I can power through a head wind, but those cross-winds downright scare me (especially while going downhill). So, it was nice to have my two feet on the ground for a moment. I ran into one of my favorite yoga instructors (Kim S from Yoga Yoga – she is great!) , and chatted with her and her riding buddies for a bit. I saw Jennie (one of the girls that I see at Pure Austin Coaching classes often) cruise through the stop, too. I was getting worried about Carol, but then I heard her yell my name from the SAG wagon. She had gotten a flat and needed a new tube and a new tire – poor thing! She encouraged me to go on without her while she got her bike tended to (and she made the awesome comment that maybe it was more a day for beer than a day for riding for her). So, I headed out again.
The middle of the ride is more of a blur for me. The winds decreased so I was much happier overall. I saw Jake North ride by on the back of a motorcycle taking ride photos (although I do always think my cycling photos turn out goofy looking – that is me though, not Jake!). I saw a couple very large snakes squished in the road, which I hate to see. I don’t like to see snakes – dead or alive. I did have a very scary moment where I saw a sign coming down a hill that said “Caution – water over road”. In normal circumstances, this might just worry me a bit, but last weekend I rode through water on the road and crashed hard enough that I cracked my helmet (note: I crashed hard enough to crack my helmet – I will never ride without a helmet…and neither should anyone else). I was super nervous, but there was an awesome volunteer standing there telling everyone to slow way down, and there wasn’t too much water to go through. I went through it at a snail’s pace, and I managed to stay upright.
I really enjoyed the next rest stop where Corina, another Red Licorice Brand Ambassador, was volunteering. I chatted with her and her son for a bit. He laughed at my name a ton (they have a dog named Buffy) which I thought was hilarious. At this stop I also talked with the gentleman who was riding with his dog. Did anyone else see him? It was a crazy set-up! He has a poodle (I think, I’m not good with knowing dog breeds) that rides with him. I think he was on the 65 mile course, too – I saw him at almost every rest stop. Anyway, he wears a harness that connects around his chest and then around the dog’s body. He has foam taped to the frame of his bike that forms a platform wide enough for the dog to stand on during the ride. It was crazy! But that dog did look like he was enjoying himself.
I headed out from that rest stop and got going again. I took a wrong turn, but luckily, I was flagged down as I was turning so I was able to get back on track swiftly. In the middle of the ride there was this awesome long, but not too steep, hill. Going up hill wears me out, but I can do it. I am slow on flats and down hills. If there is any place I can pass others it is going up hill though. I got through this hill and felt tired, but good. The next rest stop was at the top of that hill. I felt even better when I heard a bunch of other cyclists talking about how that hill was difficult – made me feel better that I wasn’t the only one that felt it was hard! I got some food and drink in me and headed out again.
Immediately, I could tell something was wrong as I headed downhill. I looked down and could see that my front tire was completely flat. I hopped off my bike and headed back to the rest stop. On my walk back, a sweet little couple drove past and stopped to ask if I needed any help. I encountered a few jerk-y car and motorcycle drivers during the Real Ale Ride, so it was really nice to have these people concerned that I was okay. I let them know I was fine and then headed up to the rest stop. The awesome folks from Bicycle Sports Shop were there and changed my tube out in seconds and had me back on my way. I’ve only had one other flat before that day, so I’m glad I had them to help (and by “help” I mean “do all work”…I just stood there and watched). It would have taken me an hour to get that done by myself!
I was back on my bike, and thinking about how much fun I was having. Then I realized that the wind had drastically picked back up and I was back to being super freaked out going downhill with the cross winds. I very clearly remember on one downhill thinking “I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.” I also frequently thought “Don’t crash, Don’t crash, Don’t crash.” Happily I neither crashed nor died.
I had a great time at the last rest stop talking to a guy about how his 12 year old son was thinking of doing the Jr Varsity Triathlon next month (he noticed my Red Licorice gear I had on and was asking me about it). I still think this is awesome. I didn’t even know what a triathlon was when I was 12. Too cool.
I finished out the ride next to a girl named Erin. Turns out she was parked right next to my car and we both were going to try to get in a short run after the ride (we both also left our running shoes in our cars instead of staging them by the bike racks in case we ended up changing our minds about running). We headed out and got in around a 3.5 mile run and then it was over.
Carol found me shortly thereafter – she was waiting to make sure I finished okay (how sweet are you, Carol, really?). I assured her that I was fine, just slow! I headed off to find the rest of my Red Licorice buddies to help teardown the event. After a super quick teardown I hopped in the car and head home.
Once home, I felt guilty because my training plan had me scheduled to do a 6 mile run that day and I had only gotten in 3.5 miles before time to teardown. I put my running shoes back on and headed out for another few miles, and then finally I unpacked my car and all my gear. After that I discovered that my refrigerator is magical. You see, I didn’t end up having a beer at the event. Once home, I remembered that we only had a random variety of unappealing (to me) beer in our refrigerator left over from a party. I opened it up to choose from one of the not great varieties of beers and there sitting on top of all the other beer (we keep our beer in the vegetable crispers) was one of my favorite bottles of beer. I will swear to you that that beer magically appeared just for me in that ‘fridge. Magic.
Author’s Note: I asked my husband to read over my race report before I posted it. This was his response, “Well done! You sound a little bipolar at times, going from ‘awesome’ to ‘I'm going to die’ and back, but I think it's kind of charming.” I thought about re-writing it to avoid sounding bipolar, but I think I’m going to leave it as is – bipolar and charming!
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