Tour de Paws

Mike is writing on the blog (I know real shocker). Last Saturday 9/7/13 I rode in a charity bicycle ride for the Humane Society of Spartanburg. I had been approached by one of my teachers to ride in it and he signed me up for the 62 mile course. The ride had three distances to choose from 28, 48, and 62 miles respectively. Of course I didn't want to seem weak to my teacher so I chose to ride the longest distance. Granted I had never ridden in a group of cyclist before the race and my longest ride to date was only 55 miles. I knew I could do the distance because the route was relatively flat and I knew that when drafting off other riders you conserve much more energy.

There were over 310 of us at the start. That included all the riders doing each of the three distances

 It started out going fast and it took me about 12 miles to get into my rhythm so that I didn't burn myself out too early. It was an interesting experience riding in the larger groups. You really don't have time to look around and see the scenery because you are so focused on the wheel 8 inches in front of you out of fear of smashing into the back of them when the whole group suddenly slows down for no apparent reason. There was only one instance that I feared for my life when we had a quick left then sharp right hand turn. We did not expect the right hand turn to come so early so we all slammed on our brakes and my back tire broke free but luckily none of us made contacted with each other. I later let that group speed off and found my rhythm again. It was a very pleasant day so I just spun my way through the course grabbing on to someones wheel whenever I had the chance. At about 35 miles I came across Nicole's doctor who I knew was riding in the race as well. It was great pulling for each other and working together for about 10 miles until I cracked and he left me in the dust. I really hit the wall at about 48 miles but I was able to muscle my way to the finish. I finished with a time of 3 hours and 22 min.Great time for someone that has never ridden 62 miles. I was very excited to see that Nicole was there to cheer me in! She is the best! Great opportunity and awesome people to be around. I hope to continue riding and my next benchmark is to ride a Century (100 mile ride).

Coming across the finish, Nicole was there to greet me :)

All finished and ready to collapse. Don't be fooled by the smile, I was hurting something fierce.