What an Ordeal

Ran my "longish" run yesterday. Glad I don't have to do it tomorrow. And this is why ...

I stashed my phone, my camera, a credit card, a banana and a handful of Quaker granola bars in my back pocket and headed SE. I met ...

Tom, Darrin, Jeremy, Scott, Mike and ...

Joe for a century (100+ miles) ride this morning at the Ewen's home at 8 bells. Six guys on tri bikes, 5 of them training for Ironman Wisconsin in Sepember and one gal on a road bike. Yikes. What was I thinking? I planned to hang with them as long as I could hoping to get to 100 miles.

Our planned route took us through Eyota, Elba, Altura, Utica, St. Charles. We headed out toward county 9 on the bike path behind Mayo HS.

We turned south on highway 42 and rode south until it intersected highway 52 where we took a fuel break.

It was drizzly/foggy/rainy. We turned around and retraced our path back to Eyota where we stopped at the Cenex/Eyota Market.

Note: They sell Gatorade only in 32 oz bottles there and have no energy/granola bars. Only candy bars. We then rode back to county 9 and headed east. At about 35 miles ... in the rain ... a flat rear tire. DRAT! So I stopped, took off the wheel, got out my tire lever and spare tube and changed the flat. Want to be intimidated gals? Change a flat rear tire in the rain with six guys watching you! One of them even wanted to time me. Not. So. Much ... thank you! My little hand pump just wasn't putting enough air in the tire. Thank you Mike for the CO2 cartridge. I'm going to get one of those now. Along with a couple more tubes. Three, actually. It was quite the day ...

So, we continued east in the rain/spray and turned north on 10 and then east on 2. I believe it stopped raining somewhere in this stretch. We stopped in Elba for another fuel stop after a nice long downhill into the beautiful Whitewater Valley. Note: Very good selection of energy bars/granola bars/Salted Nut Rolls and cold 20 oz. Gatorade here.

Less than a mile outside Elba, Mike flatted. Front wheel. Lucky guy. Much easier and cleaner than the rear tire. Also, no rain at this point.

Feeling like I wanted to get a head start up the long hill so as to not hold them up, I said I'd get going and meet them in a few miles. I made it up the hill, through Altura and down across US 14 and hadn't seen them yet. Well, I'd apparently glanced at the map too quickly as I continued straight across 14 instead of turning right on 14. I got a few miles down then road and was then heading east but I knew we should be done heading east. So I checked my map again, determined I was off course and rode back to 14 and then into Utica. By this time (60 miles) I was losing some mental toughness and wanted to be done. I'm not familiar with these roads. I checked the map and it looked like county 9 kept going east and was called "Bethany" back where it crossed 33 so I rode back to where I'd come from looking for it. Found it, but it was gravel and a dead end. DRAT. So I headed back to Utica AGAIN. I really wanted to be done. Eric was bringing his girlfriend down from the cities for dinner (for us to meet her for the first time) and I wanted to get home. So I decided to just ride back to Roch on US14. Not a great decision. There's a lot of fast traffic on that road, and a lot of junk on the shoulder even though it's a nice wide shoulder. I also had 25 continuous miles of head winds in front of me. Losing more mental toughness at this point. Just west of Chester Woods Park, at 90.66 miles, the rear tire flatted AGAIN. DRAT.

Out of tubes. Thought I had a patch kit, but didn't. Called Matt. No answer. Called Eric. They were in the middle of Oxbow Park (where he used to work) on a gator, but yes they could come rescue me. I also posted a photo and my plight on Facebook. Thank you to all of you that responded and called. Thank you to the 4 motorists who stopped as well. A big Thank You! to Peg, Wally and Dan for driving all the way out there to rescue me too. Eric had more room in his vehicle so he took me home. Those of you that know me well know I'm pretty determined. So when I got home tube number 3 went on the bike and off I went to Salem Corners (almost anyway ... top of the last hill) to finish up the century ride. 103.10 miles.

Third century ride this year (112, 100, 103). What an ordeal. Glad to be off the bike. My bike is a muddy, dirty, sandy mess (which makes me crazy). And it's time for bed.

BTW: I really like Eric's girlfriend. If I get permission, I will post a pic.

Good night .................