Sunday morning, I woke up to find liquid sunshine falling out of the grey skies onto the already sopping wet roads. I was nervous, as I always am before a long ride, but there was so much energy reverberating around the place that nerves were giving way to excitement. Sitting in the lobby of the hotel, we donned the last of our rain gear and waited. And talked. And laughed. And waited. And took pictures. 6:00 rolled around and we headed outside to go to the start line. We were all together, talking and laughing as we joined the rest of the Team in Training group (from all over the U.S.)
The first 9 miles were nice and slow-a good flat area for a warm-up. Around mile 9 we started climbing our first small hill, and had to stop for the check station. Here, they checked for a bracelet, our event numbers, and a sticker that we had to have on our helmets. For this section, they closed the road to traffic so that it was safer for the cyclists. Coming up was our first big hill, which included 4 switchbacks. The safety speed for cars was 10 mph around these curves, so you can imagine how tight they are. As soon as some cyclists rounded the first corner, people were jumping off their bikes to start walking up the hill. At this point, I was starting to breathe deeply. Half way up, the first though of getting off my bike and walking crossed mymind, but I kept telling myself that I CAN DO THIS!!! I DON’T HAVE TO WALK!!! About .75 of the way up, I noticed a funny noise and, realized it happened every time I inhaled. My throat was whistling! I contemplated pulling over for a few minutes and then started thinking about what I had been told about going up hills. Sit up straight. Relax the shoulders, neck, arms, hands. Breathe deeply. Then I realized that my throat was tight, so I relaxed that a bit-and opened it wide up and interestingly enough, the whistling stopped. The heavy breathing didn’t. I was sucking air and was desperately hoping that this was the hardest part of the course. Because if it wasn’t, I thought I might die. When I got to the top, Brad (coach/friend) and Becky (Team mate/friend) and Julie and Heidi (friends/cheerleaders/encouragers) were waiting for me up at the top of what is called Inspiration Point. I stopped, caught my breath, and gave hugs.
We continued on and had nice flats and down hills. There were several areas where I would have loved to bomb down the hill, but the roads were so wet, that I decided to keep my speed in check. One thing I noticed is that every bike was shooting out a rooster tail of water off of their back tire. If you got too close, the dirty road water would spray you. The faster a cyclist would go, the longer the rooster tail.
We turned to start our out to Truckee and back portion of the ride, and the rain stopped, and the roads actually started to dry out just a little bit. When I got to the Truckee Rest Stop, I called Heidi and Julie and they didn’t answer. We stuck around there for a little while, eating, resting, using the facilities, and filling our water bottles. I took off my rain pants and my middle layer so that I could cool off a bit. Brad was wonderful to carry my middle layer for awhile, and I rolled up my rain pants and shoved them in my jacket pocket. I never did find Julie and Heidi at this rest stop. Apparently they didn’t see me either, because they hung out, posted on FaceBook that they lost me, and then headed on to the lunch stop.
On our way out of Truckee, the biggest, blackest clouds started gathering overhead. A bit of a wind picked up, so I tucked in behind Brad. Then the rain started falling. And the rooster tails started flying. At this point, my glasses were getting splattered with mud and water, which impaired my vision, and water ran down my nose. As the rooster tails started to fly, I got sprayed in the face, up the arms, and, of course, up my back. The cloudburst lifted and we saw blue-sky overhead, when we rounded the north side of Lake Tahoe. The water would change from green to blue to grey,depending on where the clouds were and how the sun was hitting. SOOOOO pretty!
Next stop, Kings Beach. We rounded the corner and there was Julie, standing out on the curb with a mass of people, cheering the cyclists in for lunch. When I got stopped and put my bike down, Julie took a photo of me and posted it to FB stating that she and Heidi found me, “and my 5:00 shadow”. I looked like I had been dirt biking. I filled up my water bottles, ate a couple of red potato sections, an orange wedge and then we headed back out. We didn’t eat too much because we knew what was coming up. We were at mile 70. Mile 80 was at the bottom of a 6-7 mile climb. Off we go. (We picked up Allison at the rest stop and rode with her for nearly the rest of the ride.)
I think it was somewhere between the lunch stop and the climb, Becky must have sensed that I was getting discouraged. She said, “Julie! Whose pictures are on your back???” I yelled back, “Phyllis! Isaiah! And Randall!!!” Becky asked, “Julie! Who are you riding for?” I responded with tears in my eyes, “Phyllis! Isaiah! And Randall!” That was enough to keep me going the rest of the way and stop thinking about my discomfort. (Thank you, Becky!)
We started the climb up Spooner, and I was pleased to see that it wasn’t a solid 7 mile climb. It gave a couple of reprieves, (Up, up, up, flat here, up, up, up, up, a little downhill there, up, up, up…). There was a rest stop half way up. Just before I got there, I saw A.J. coming down the hill. I sat up straight, smiled and waived. He said, “JKDowner!” crossed the street, and rode up the hill with me. When we got to the rest stop, I re-filled my water bottle and decided to keep on moving.
When we got to the top, there was a sweet patient honoree cheering us all on. She must have been about 11 or 12. She had a gorgeous knit hat on her head with pretty little knit flowers, and she was just smiling. Another reminder of why I was riding that day.
Then, DOWN HILL! WAHOOOOO! The clouds were gathering, but the road was dry, so I let myself bomb down this hill. After 7 miles of climbing? OH YEAH! But much to my chagrin, there was another up hill, and another, and another. Allison and Becky had gone on, but Brad was still with me. So I was talking to him about how these hills were beginning to really make me mad. He said, “Good! Kick their butts!” I was feeling like they were about to kick mine, when there were only 2 more hills. We rounded a corner and there was Becky, waiting on the side of the road. From this vantage point, we could see our hotel. When Becky saw our hotel, she decided that she wanted to cross the finish line together. So we prepared, and Brad led the
way, up to a point.Then he said, that there was one more hill, finish strong, this is it. I turned the corner, and started running on my bike up the hill. It was SO good to be done. The Boise team who had gotten there before us were there waiting, and we waited for all of the Boise team to get in. (This is us doing our BBQ Chip Toast.)
What an amazing experience! I have never felt better at the end of a ride, physically, or the day after. I don’t know if it was the energy, the excitement, the fact that I had been training for a year, maybe a combination. But even though the weather could have been better, it could have been worse, too.
On the way out of Tahoe the following day, there were 3 inches of snow at the top of Spooner. It didn’t snow on Sunday. There wasn’t much wind on Sunday. All we had to contend with was a little rain and grime. And in the process, the 15-1600 Team in Training members that participated in this “little” ride raised 6.8 million dollars for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. Just that much closer to finding a cure! That was a GREAT day!
