Over the past few weeks you have probably heard me whine about my upcoming bike ride with my dad. For Dad’s birthday we (as in my siblings and I) signed Dad up for a 62 mile bike ride. You read that correctly–62 freakin’ miles! (He really likes bike riding.) It turned out that he did not want to do it by himself, but he wanted me to sign up for it also. That was ok with me until I got an email saying that he had registered me. :-) So… the last time Diana and I were home I got Dad’s old Cannondale to take back to New Orleans so I could “train” some. That was two weeks ago. I actually got out and was riding about 14 miles or so each day, and then last Sunday I set out to do 24 and I conquered that, but I was still nowhere close to 62 miles.
Well, today was bike ride. It was on of those Ride Yellow rides for cancer that benefits Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong foundation. Dad and I were riding in memory of Mrs. Carly’s husband (Mom’s aid on her school bus) who recently passed away due to cancer. We got there about 7:00 am, just in time to get at the back of the pack before the ride started, which was good for us because we stayed back there the whole ride. Surprisingly, the ride was not too bad. We got to the 10 mile mark and I was feeling good, then we got to the 30 mile T in the road and we had to make the hard decision “Do we want to go big or go home?” (You had the option of riding a 36 mile route or a 62 mile route, and mile 30 was where you had to decide.) We decided to go big. Unfortunately, after making that decision we realized that the next ten miles were all uphill. Around 45 miles a storm came up and we ended up at one of the rest stops taking shelter in a church for about 30 minutes or so. After the storm passed we only had about 15 miles left and it was the LONGEST 15 miles of my life! We ended up not being the very last ones, but we were pretty darn close! :-)
Over all it was a fun day for a great cause, and now I do believe I am hooked! That means another expensive hobby for me to buy into! Below are some pics of the event.
Hurrying to the starting line.
Getting started.
62 miles later…about to cross the finish line.
Proof. That’s the odometer from my bike.
Well, Jake, expensive hobbies are always the most fun!!
How many expensive hobbies do I have??? Do I include my 3 girls as “Hobbies!?!” :) If soooo, I think I’m gonna have ya beat! BTW, Nice yellow shirts and great job on finishing the race. My first 60+ miles was killer too. Of course that was almost 20 years ago!!
COngrats Jake!! Looks like you guys had a lot of fun!! Dad’s need stuff like that every now and then!!!
I can’t believe you finished! I am so proud of you and dad. I bet you hurt yesterday!! Dad sure was!
No, I didn’t get to go to New Orleans, only Brent went. But you better believe if I wind up in New Orleans you will be the first person I call!!! :)