The Best 100 Miles I ever rode!

I was a bit apprehensive heading out to Tahoe, but the training was so thorough that I believed my coaches and my teammates that we could do it!  We met at the airport at 6AM, which meant a 4:40AM alarm -  the beginning of the sleep deprivation!  About a dozen of us were on the flight out, and we landed in Reno and took a bus up to Tahoe without much fuss.  Our bikes had been shipped ahead of us, and we would pick them up Friday evening.

Our first view of the lake from the bus to Tahoe from Reno!

So, it snowed the week before we rode - take a look in the background!  That's not very far away!  Fortunately it was beautiful all weekend, after a little rain cleared out on Friday afternoon.  The air smelled fresh and like pine trees, the sky was blue and the temperature was crisp.

The hotel we stayed at was "all suites" which meant that my friend Diana and I each got our own room and bathroom, and the room had a kitchen and a living/dining room.  Tahoe is a ski resort town, so it's set up like a little ski lodge.  Of course the pool is probably closed in the winter..

Right next door was a little mall with restaurants, Starbucks, jamba juice, a grocery store and a bike shop.  What more could a girl need?  We stocked up in general, and for ride breakfast and of course, bananas.  I don't know if I could start a long ride without a lucky banana in my jersey pocket now.


So we picked up our bikes, catching up with lots of teammates who were trickling in on different flights, and went out to dinner with few of us at the Riva Grill, right on the lake. We ate out on the deck, beautiful.

Saturday was the day for short ride to shake out our legs and make sure our bikes were working after their trip west.    I think we were all a little apprehensive to get on our bikes - for me, it made the event seem so real!  Here's my riding "sister" Carrie as we get ready to go on our test ride - she is way more excited than she looks ;)

 Diana looking oddly sunny - I guess it's because she's about to work out!!

The good news, is that it felt great to be on the bike, and our little ride to Zephyr cove was uneventful, except for a massive amount of pictures taken!  Once at the cove - Carrie and I were mentally ready for the big ride!  Note the helmet "toppers" - with over 60 TNT teams from across the country, the toppers helped distinguish where riders were from.  Yep, that's the capital dome - no Washington monument comments, please.

And the team looked awesome.  Really, we were kind of big deal, ahem. I'm in the front row, third from the left, helmet off.

One the way back, I practiced the bike-riding self portrait with the iPhone.  Practical and effective:

The afternoon some folks were headed for a drive up to Emerald bay, one of the two big climbs of the ride - and I recalled the advice I got from a teammate that his one regret his first year was driving up to Emerald bay before the ride and psyching himself out.  Decided to stay in Tahoe and do some shopping instead :)


That night was the inspiration dinner - part of any TNT event.  We were cheered on our way in my staff and coached from all the teams, which was completely overwhelming - it felt like a hero's welcome.  In fact, the 1200 TNT riders at the event raised over SIX MILLION DOLLARS for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society - that was definitely something to be be proud of.

The food was OK, but the company and the speakers were exceptional.  One of the teams' honored teammate was training with their team, but passed away two weeks before the race.  He was just 17.  His parents were there, and it broke my heart to hear their story.  On every table were orange bracelets that read WILL POWER.  We didn't understand until that moment - their honored teammate's name was Will.  His parents had brought them as a tribute to their son. We all put them on.


One last team meeting back at the hotel, and there was nothing left to do except set the alarm clock for 4:45AM to meet the team downstairs at 5:30AM.

At the start line, we waited under the marquis, the sun was coming up and we were excited. The forecast was great and the morning was beautiful.  I'm on the far right in this pic(behind #670's right arm) please note the lucky banana.

So Carrie and I had agreed to ride together - start to finish.  As slow or fast as we felt like.  I think I've said it before, but knowing we would be riding together was a huge comfort - a great part of being on the team is finding someone who's about your pace - the bonus for me was Carrie's awesomeness.  


And I needed her awesomeness since I started off the day with a migraine on top of the little bit of nerves.  Fortunately, it wasn't enough of a headache to keep me from riding (that would have been terrible) but just enough to throw me off a little bit.  

Emerald bay is the steepest climb - take a look at the elevation map - at mile eleven, we started climbing and it was a steep two miles.  I found my lowest gear, and dug in.  After what seemed like a very long time, my legs and lungs were begging for a break - we were at about 6800 ft - so we pulled over and I caught my breath.  Little did I know that we were less than 100 yards from the top!  Argh!  I could have made it!

So, over the top and down the hill (and up the hill, and down the hill) to our first rest stop at mile 26.  I was not feeling all that spectacular, and hoped that some food and drink would perk me up.  I got ride of some layers as it was starting to warm up, had some food and we celebrated finishing 1/4 of the ride:

Next stop Truckee -  a 23.5 mile out-and-back spur off the lake to make the ride hit 100 miles.  I was still feeling sluggish so Carrie went on ahead to meet me in Truckee - but as I rode along I felt better and better - and cruised into the Truckee rest stop feeling pretty darn good. 


Another group shot with Carol, me, Carrie and Lilian.

Headed out of Truckee, back to the lake is not considered a highlight of the ride. Gently uphill, with a headwind and indeed, it was as promised.   The slog was interrupted by Carrie getting a flat - John, Nikki and Jess were riding by and stopped to help.

In about 20 minutes we were rolling again.  Easy peasy.  Right about the time we got back on the Lake Road (ah beautiful again) I started to feel amazing.  AMAZING.  I don't know if I needed a 60 mile warm up, or maybe it was the banana but suddenly I felt strong! We cruised into the lunch stop at mile 72 at Kings beach and I was elated.  Check out the proof:

Sandwiches, chips and cookies for lunch and another group picture!

I think we stopped for about 30 minutes all told - we ate, we sat, we gazed at the lake and a total stranger offered me watermelon.  It was awesome. Plus we were nearly 3/4 done! But with one major obstacle in our path...Spooner Hill (da da DA!) 


Spooner Hill: From mile 80 to mile 87, about 800 feet of gain, and in the hottest part of the day.  This is the one where alumni will tell you to get in your lowest gear, spin, take lots of breaks...there's a water stop in the middle of the hill for pete's sake.


Turns out Spooner's not the only hill in the last 28 miles, but that map sure makes it look like it is.  As happens often on our rides, Carrie's mojo had faded as mine came back - she was feeling the miles more than I was at that point, and there had been plenty of them.  


We stopped for a picture before Spooner at what had to be the most beautiful spot on the ride - or maybe it just felt that way after the hill out of the lunch stop...and even took off our sunglasses for the picture. 

And then Spooner.  Cue dramatic music... except that it wasn't that bad, in fact, it wasn't really bad for me at all.  And it's not like it wasn't a hill:

I just got in my low gears and pedaled, and time passed, and the hill went on, and up we went and up we went.  The picture above is at the water stop, but it's pretty emblematic.

And then we were at the top - and the descent was the most amazing one ever.  7 miles down a wide road with sweeping corners.  I think the self portrait is fairly early in the descent but really, it's one glorious blur.

And then we were heading past Zephyr cove and it was almost over!  95 Miles done.  Carrie and I almost couldn't believe it. We hi-fived.  Several times.  We had come so far, trained so long, met so many fantastic people, and so far surpassed our own expectations, that we were quite literally giddy.  There were tears in our eyes, and it wasn't just the last hill at mile 98 that brought them on.


The finish line was uphill into a huge lot behind the hotel where we started, and it was packed with people cheering us on.  We raced up the hill and crossed the finish line together - I know this sounds crazy but I was almost sad it was over! After 8 1/2 hours!  What an incredible feeling!


We went to the TNT tent to check in, got our medals and took some pictures!

After a flurry of phone calls, we waited for our remaining teammates to finish, cheered them in, snacked, drank a ton of water, and finally went to bring our bikes back to the truck to be shipped home.  Let me just say that this was, hands down, the most painful part of the ride.  After standing around for 45 minutes, my legs and and my butt were outraged that I was on the bike again.  At first I thought I'd stand the whole way since it hurt too much to sit, and then I had to sit because it hurt too much to stand.  


We celebrated with the Team that night, and it was bittersweet.  So great to be done and to hear everyone's stories of the ride, sad to know that we were almost at the end of our adventure together.

I can't thank enough everyone who made such a difference along the way - Coach Bill and Coach Ed from whom I learned an incredible amount.  My mentor Lisa, my buddy ride partner John, Karen and Rob, Kirk, Terre, Joan and all the teammates who took me under their wing and everyone who made the miles pass and the rides fun.


And all of you!  Everyone who sponsored me, encouraged me and were so proud of what I was doing, I literally could not have done this without you.

And for one last 2010 time - Go Team!

What an awesome day!

Full update soon, but it was a great weekend, a great ride and a great day!

92.5 miles and still smiling

Well, now that I did it I’m smiling. 

Things I heard about the final 92.5 mile training ride out of Middleburg:

1. After this ride, Tahoe will seem easy. (How is THAT comforting?)
2. It’s kind of a combination of parts of all the rides we’ve done before (which parts? The hard parts? The rest stops? The part where I ride my bike?)
3. Just get in your (really low) granny gear and spin up Mount Weather, you’ll be fine. (My bike doesn’t have a “granny” gear)
4. Mount Weather is from about mile ten to mile twenty. (I’m sorry, what was that now?)
5. Most people training for a 100-mile ride only train to 70-80 miles. TNT over trains you! (Argh! Why am I riding 92 miles?)
6. There’s no dreading allowed in Team in Training! (well, I’ll just keep it to myself, then)
7. Just make sure to eat pasta for dinner on Thursday and eat really well all week. (because the weight I gain will anti-gravity me up the hills?)

My riding buddy Carrie had a wedding on Saturday so wasn’t going to be able to ride with me. This was a bit of a bummer - we ride at the same speed, and the comfort factor of knowing that someone will be there the whole ride is enormous. Riding alone is harder in so many ways, mentally and physically: it’s boring, you have to make extra sure not to miss the turns and get off course, there’s no one to compare your suffering to, no one to draft with and no one to share the experience with. But amazingly, the day before the ride, my mentor Lisa emailed and offered to ride with me. She’s stronger than I am, and when I said that I didn’t want to hold her back, she said she’d been feeling a little off all week and was happy to ride a bit easier. She didn’t have to offer twice!

Friday night I went through my checklist the night before, and prepared my food, clothes, bottles, directions, gear, sunscreen and breakfast (I read The Checklist Manifesto near the beginning of the season. Short answer: Checklists are awesome.) I had a solid dinner of steak and pasta, and lots of water (hydrate hydrate hydrate) and tried to get to sleep early.

Because this was such a long ride, we met up at 7AM to ride out at 7:30AM. The meeting place was a school in Middleburg VA about an hour from my house. My alarm went off at 5:30AM, I fought the urge to stay in bed, then the urge to bag the ride. I had ridden 82 miles already – more than most people ride to train for a century. Carrie was riding 60 miles the next day –I could just ride with her. In the end, I reminded myself that it was just a bike ride and kicked my own butt into gear. I was out of the house by 6AM but feeling oddly nauseous. I get migraines a few times a month, and had one the day before. Best guess was that it was a migraine without the headache (seems random but it happens). I took some migraine meds in the car and kept on driving. The sky was grey (rain was forecast for the afternoon) and I was tired but damn it – I was going to ride the longest training ride! Bragging rights were at stake, I wanted to be really ready for Tahoe and plus I’d told everyone I was going to do it.

I arrived, checked over my bike, loaded up my pockets with lots of bars, gels and other snacks, clipped on the cue sheet (92.5 miles!) and geared up with a light vest over my Team in Training jersey. It was muggy, about 70 and rain was threatening – too warm for a rain jacket, and hopefully I’d be near the end before the rain started.  While we went over the cue sheet, I checked to make sure I had everything I needed, and went back to the car to get my sunglasses -  gotta keep the bugs out of your eyes! 

 
So the ride started off climbing, and kept climbing pretty much through to the first rest stop at 26 miles. Some were little hills, but Mt Weather was big. Without a granny gear, there’s only so much incline I can manage before the hill beats me and I have to walk. The mountain was pretty much made up of two big climbs. The first, at about 9 miles, I got in my lowest gear and kept riding (just keep swimming, just keep swimming) after what seemed like a really long time, I turned the corner on a switchback and the road just leveled out and then came to an intersection. I stopped, huffing and puffing and did everything I could not to throw up. Somehow I managed and we kept riding.

 

We made a left turn across a 4 lane divided road and hit the main part of Mt Weather. Straight ahead, and straight up. So I got into my lowest gear and started climbing, and climbing but I could feel that the first climb had taken it out of me.  About halfway up, Mt. Weather kicked me in the butt and I got off and walked the rest of the way to the top.  It was exhausting too.  At the top, some teammates were waiting and cheering us on, and taking a few pictures.  I stopped.  I breathed.  And then, because we were only at about mile15, I got back on my bike and started riding again, because we had another 75 miles to go.  Those of you who have been following the rides may remember Karen (and her husband Rob) from such rides as The Hidden Amish ride in Southern Maryland.  Karen met me at the top of the second big climb on mt weather and rode with me the whole way too.  Lisa was a bit ahead of me at this point, but found me at the first rest stop.  But I get ahead of myself.  

At the start of the ride, Coach Bill mentioned that we should look for the sign on top of Mt Weather.  So every time we crested a hill, I looked for a sign that would be in some way entertaining or meaningful.  I saw a lot of signs, none of which were either. But we kept going up and up and eventually we were descending (which was awesome) and we were past Mt Weather..  The sign will remain a mystery - at least until next year.

More rolling hills until we hit the first rest stop at 26 miles - it took us two and a half hours. Much longer than usual before getting a chance to stop.

As I said, Lisa was waiting here and after some food and drink we took off - Lisa, Karen and we also picked up Kirk and Joan with whom we rode for most of the ride.  They introduced me to the delights of having candy in your pockets along with the energy bars and gets.  They had red vines and those chewy Life Saver candies.  I've picked up some candy for Tahoe.

The rest in bullet form, because I'm not being paid by the word and you have a life to get back to.

 










 

 

• More rolling hills.  All the time.  Hills hills hills.
• Headwinds too, but with 5 of us we were able to draft.
• It rained.  Then it got sunny.  Then it clouded over again.
• Second rest stop came really quickly after the first, despite being about 18 miles down the road. It was poorly marked and a few folks missed it which would have sucked.

• Third rest stop took forever to get to.  I think most of us rolled into it feeling pretty well drained.  We had "lunch" - turkey sandwich fixings - and it really helped, as promised by Karen.
• Apparently I can eat a turkey sandwich and then ride another 20 miles. Now I know.
• The ride was long (the long long ride) with many a winding turn.
• Some of the scenery was totally gorgeous.  Horses, cows, farms, fields, low stone walls, green woods.  
• The last 10 miles it rained.  Real raining rain.  Fortunately, I had my vest and it was pretty warm.  Two words though: soggy shorts.

And then we were done.  We pulled back into Middleburg and into the school parking lot and I was beside myself with happiness.  I had done it!  92.5 miles - a personal best to be proud of.  We took some photos, and then joined the BBQ.

I had a recovery drink, then a  burger, chatted about the ride, the rain picked up and I was done. Left to right below: me, Karen, Lisa and Joan.

The most important lesson I learned on this ride was that I could really tire myself out with hard climbing, but then recover, keep riding, and find the strength in my legs again. This is a very big deal.

So after all my pre-ride concerns and (oddly enough) while the ride was hard and at some points seemed like it would never end, it never broke my will. It seemed about as hard as the rides before, which were hard but shorter, but just kind of went on a long time.  Eight hours and forty-five minutes to be exact.  My watch said 4:30PM and 4500 calories when the ride ended.  I credit the good ride to a season of training and to riding with a group - I can't thank Karen, Lisa, Kirk and Joan enough - they really put the "Team" in Team in Training.


And now, Tahoe.  We leave on Friday.  My bike is on the truck heading out west, our bon voyage party is tonight and surprisingly, I'm not too nervous about the ride.  I really feel like I'm ready and I can do it. It snowed in Tahoe last week, but the long distance forecast is for a low of 45, and a high of 71.  Looking forward to the beautiful Sierras and seeing my bike again.


GO TEAM!

One more picture from Saturday :)

I do believe we're getting ready to roll.

Davidsonville 80 Miler

It seems weird to say that I had a great 82.5 mile ride...but I did.  The trick?  I ate more than I ever had before.  I added Hammer bars to the mix this weekend, and the extra calories seem to have made the difference, no fuzzy fading feelings.  Now, I was tired and the hills still hurt, but it wasn't a particularly hilly ride and we finished strong.  Carrie and I rode together the whole way as we have the past couple of rides, hopefully we'll do the same in Tahoe.  We're pretty evenly matched and boy is it nice to ride with someone.

This is us at, our third rest stop:

It's 64 miles and we're doing just fine.  Maybe it was the pie, this was the same place we stopped many weeks ago on our first ride out of Davidsonville.  I must say, the roads felt flatter this time around :)

Here's stop two - at "The Beach".  It's a little beach community on what looks like an inlet from the Atlantic ocean, I wish I knew more but I pretty much just followed the cue sheet.  That's me in the center of the picture getting ready to head out.

I took a moment to take a quick arm picture, first time I've had the motivation to get my camera out and snap a photo.  Of course it was a nice day (finally!) and a beautiful spot.

Had to include a picture of these two dogs.  I can't imagine the humiliation they must be suffering (actually they looked cheerful).  Please note that one is wearing a grass skirt, the other an aloha shirt and both are wearing flowered leis.  You know the owner made them on her sewing machine...you can see her doing it, can't you?

 Anyway, after marveling that we had a day with a good temperature, no rain and no headwinds, the second half of the ride the wind kicked up and we fought it for most of the last 40 miles.  And then, one rest stop at a time, one turn after another, one mile after another, we were done.  82.5 miles.  Carrie and I agreed that it seemed ridiculous to us that we had biked that many miles.  I can't explain it other than to say we focused on the short goals and after 6.5 hours, we were done.  

Sunday I went out for a recovery ride with my friend Geoff (who's riding my old Trek bike which he's named "Purple Rain") and for some reason rode another 25 miles through rock creek park.  By the end, everything hurt.  My knee, my backside (despite the expensive shorts) my shoulders, my neck.  I got home, showered, ate and then spent the rest of the day on the sofa.  Exciting weekend eh?  Ice, Advil and rest.  Repeat.  I think the miles caught up to me, I've been pretty tired the past couple of days.  I guess it didn't help that I woke up at 5AM on Sunday, for no good reason.   My legs are OK, not too sore thanks to the recovery ride, but being in the saddle for almost 108 miles this weekend has left its mark on me.

Next weekend is our last training ride before we ship our bikes off to Tahoe.  It's 90 miles in Middleburg VA, with Mt. Weather at about mile 20.  A climb of like 10 miles or so. Alums say it's a hard ride, and it sounds silly after all these rides but I'm a little apprehensive.  90 hard miles sounds...hard.  Apparently it's "a little bit of everything we've done so far this season".  What the heck does THAT mean?  We're meeting at 7AM, which means I have to leave home before 6AM.  Trying to get to bed early this week.

The good news?  It's a harder ride than the Tahoe century.  Which will be great news sometime Saturday afternoon!  We're having a BBQ to celebrate the end of the ride, celebrate indeed. I heard again that after all our training rides, Tahoe is a good time.  Looking forward to finding out for myself.

Go Team!

Naked Mountain - and more!

Another two-fer this week, since I didn't update the blog after last week's ride.  

Last Saturday we rode from Thurmont Maryland and up through Gettysburg battlefield.  Our first warm day!  Shorts and shirtsleeves. Very pretty, rolling hills, nothing too awful, about 62.5 miles.

Here's all of us going over the cue sheet before we took off from Thurmont.

Mount St. Mary's College, very gothic.  We had bets about what it was until we got to it and saw the signs.  Lots of farm country.

 

This is what a lot of the roads we're on look like.  We try to stay away from traffic as much as possible, although we do end up on some pretty big roads for short stretches.

This was some kind of miniature horse gathering.  Lots of trailers, lots of very small horses.

Also known as the covered bridge ride - we went over or past 5-6 of them.

Tuesday after work we rode the Great Falls loop, which although I was apprehensive, was wonderful.  Here's the map: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/md/bethesda/346127301774198028 
Apparently as much climbing as one of our earlier rides, which totally shocked me, since that ride felt so hard and this one so delightful.  I felt very strong.  Rode right up the big climb and pushed all through the last part of it.  Felt like a rock star.

Saturday May 8th was scheduled to be a relatively straightforward 70 miles, part of it on the W&OD, which I would have been well familiar with. The coaches decided to change it out for the "Naked Mountain" ride out of Gainesville VA described as "more challenging, but you're all able to do this ride", from what the alums said, Naked mountain was about in the middle of the ride, and a really hard climb.  The start was about 45 minutes from home for me. I was apprehensive before the ride (as usual) but motivated myself be thinking about people going through chemo and how they must feel waking up to that prospect.  I was choosing to ride, and seriously - a bike ride compared to chemotherapy?  Come on.  Get your butt out the door, Phyllis.

Here, I'm going over the cue sheet before the ride. The forecast was 20-30% chance of thunderstorms and a little windy.  Not terribly exciting for riding weather, but that's 70-80% chance of no-rain, right?  Most people didn't take a rain jacket, since the window for the storm was short, and the weather was pretty warm.

A cool picture of all of us riding out from the parking lot - most people wore their team in training jerseys for the day.  I think that might be me to the left of the tree, but it's a bit hard to tell, what with everyone wearing the same thing...

And here's the sky we rode into within the first few miles.  Ominous to say the least - note the substantive dearth of rain jackets.  Anyway, about 5 miles in, it started to rain.  And then rain pretty heavily, big fat drops.  I had to take off my sunglasses to see, and then had to squint the rain out of my eyes on the downhills.  It would have been pretty grim had it continued, but after about 15 minutes, we rode out of it, which was AWESOME!.  At that point, however, the wind picked up :) Who pissed off mother nature? Seriously!

One of my more experienced teammates commented as we were getting ready to ride out that the 72.5 mile ride was really more like an 85 mile ride because of Naked mountain in the middle.  Since 72.5 already seemed like an awful lot of miles (10 more than last week) I tried not think about the bigger number.  When the wind started up, I just had to laugh, because after hills, nothing makes a ride harder than riding into a headwind (except for perhaps temperature).  We were going to earn our stripes on this one.  On the plus side, despite the wind, the temperature was really nice, and the wind dried us off pretty quickly (glass half full, glass half full).  The first SAG stop was at 26.2 miles, I had been feeling great for the first 20 or so - the teammate who I was riding with was feeling a bit sore from an earlier workout and we had decided that we were going to go easy at the start of the ride and pace ourselves, since no matter how great our starts were, the ends were always a grinding slog.

The wind took it out of me a bit, so I rolled into the first stop, had a bunch of food and filled up my water bottles.  The alums pointed out that that the next stage of the ride was the most difficult by far, and to pace ourselves.  The tried to describe Naked mountain, the steepness of the top part, but when they said "there's no shame in walking" that really kind of made the point.

OK, Naked Mountain is a stern climb, and the top gets really steep.  The particularly hard part (much like Sugarloaf) is that you climb gradually all the way to the start of the mountain, so one you get there, you're already kind of worn out.

We got to Naked mountain.  I started to climb.  I suddenly couldn't move my feet anymore and had to walk up the first bit.  Once the grade leveled out, I got back on and started riding again.  I got into a good rhythm, and started feeling like I was going to conquer the mountain!  I saw my teammate(s) up ahead get off their bikes as we got to the steep top part of the mountain, I stayed on the bike...kept riding...and just kind of hit a wall as it got steep.  At which point, I walked.  To the top.  Which was harder than you might expect, my calved burned and I huffed and puffed and then we were at the top - and I was deeply relieved.  Our honored teammate's father was a SAG volunteer for the ride, and was waiting at the top of the mountain to congratulate us and refill our water bottles.

He told us that that this was pretty much the hardest ride he had done when he was part of the team, and one of the all-time hard climbs.  And then he said what everyone else kept saying - after the training rides, the Tahoe ride will be great.  Well, then I'm looking forward to Tahoe.  After the ride he sent us a video that his teammate had taken when they rode Naked mountain in the fall, and noted that at 1:15 the mountain starts, and they walked from there...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2VdILSLfqw

So that was about mile 46 out of 72.5.  Still some miles left to go.  They were hilly, they were rolling, they had some sweeping downhills, and again, I didn't eat quite enough (I'm amazed at how much I have to eat, I think it's because the rides are so long) but it was beautiful.  About 10 miles from the end, though, I just felt the energy drain out of me.  I stopped and ate a bar and perked up.  Pretty clear what was going on.  Lots of wind and a bit of an allergy attack, but two more SAG stops (every 20 miles or so) and riding with my teammate(s) made it pass by without too much suffering.   And the last 5 miles were awesome (mostly) downhill with the wind at our backs, for what seemed like the first time all day. 

We rode into the parking lot feeling good! I was incredibly glad to be done, but if there had been more miles to go, I think I could have done them.  Slowly ;)  It took 6 hours and twenty minutes.  The lead group finished in about 4:45, the last people rolled in at least 45 minutes after I got back.  Happy to be in the middle, happy it was a good ride, happy to have it behind me.  Next will apparently seem easy compared to this week (now that would be fantastic for an 80 mile ride) and then our last ride is in Middleburg, it's 90 miles and is another hard one.  The last photo is with Rob, a team alum in the lot after the ride.  In the car on the way home, I heard all these weather advisories - high wind!  Trees came down all over the area, and the winds were fierce on the drive home. What a day! 

And that's it for this incredibly long post - go team!