October 26th, 2007
Livestrong Challenge Day 3 Part 2
We spent a little while at that rest stop as we were all tiring out and Paul seemed to be feeling the effects a little more than most. Other than my knees I recovered fairly quickly with each rest stop, a side benefit of all my training this year I suspect. After each stop I was good for a few miles before the hills really started to get to me again. Now that I had caught up with them we decided to stay together. Or rather Ron and I decided to stay together. Paul would get bursts of speed/energy and head out in front of us for a ways on his own. He never went fast or far enough to get out of sight but he would stay out on his own for a while before gradually drifting back to us. Ron and I just maintained a constant speed together enjoying the scenery and taking it nice and easy. As usual Ron could’ve taken off because he’s always been in better shape but he was content to ride along with me now that I had caught up with them and he knew that even if he moved up to ride with Paul they wouldn’t have gotten far enough before I caught up again to justify heading off on their own. I appreciated the help as he would pull me up the hills and let us draft off of him in the few and far between flats.
At about mile 70-75 the unthinkable happened as we were climbing a long gradual hill. Ron turned to me and said that he was tired of climbing. The course had finally broken him too, though it never slowed him down, it was just a mental break that he was tired of the hills. Since he’s always thrived on hills around town and bounced up them every year in Austin this was quite an admission on his part. It made me feel a bit better to know that if someone who loved climbing hills on a bike was toasted then I wasn’t that bad off overall. It was about this time that the winds kicked in and we started pedaling into constant headwinds. I think it was punishment for me remarking to Ron that the winds seemed a bit better this year. It was tempting fate and we got punished for it. We cruised into the next to last rest stop all together for a quick recharge of our water bottles and a bite to eat. We knew we were coming into the home stretch and asked one of the volunteers what the rest of the course was like. He told us it was all downhill and we’d be going down an average 10% grade for the rest of the course. While it sounded great we were a bit skeptical which turned out to be justified.
Within half a mile of the rest stop we get to the steepest hill of the entire course. One of those kind that you have to lean back in your saddle to see the top of. If we hadn’t all been so miserable at the thought of climbing the hill we would’ve laughed at the 10% downgrade comment earlier. All i remember thinking is “10% my ass”. Each of us just beared down and started climbing which seemed to last forever as we slowed further and further. Ron and Paul made it to the top pretty quickly with me bringing up the rear yet again. At this point the downgrade actually did begin thankfully with only a few light uphills the remainder of the course. There was only one more steep climb which was relatively short in comparison to the others and knowing we were near the finish helped make it easy to climb.
It was about this time that I had a bee fly into my helmet which caused me to slam on the brakes and jump off the bike to get it out. Ron stopped with me and luckily I wasn’t stung before getting it out. We started back to find Paul had taken off ahead having not heard me asking to stop, he had already pulled ahead of us again with another yo-yo effort breakaway. I told Ron he could go ahead and run him down if he wanted but he said no that he wanted to ride together which i appreciated. We had gone a mile or so with still no sign of Paul when we saw the strangest sight of the afternoon. A rider ahead of us stood bolt upright on his pedals, gave a little yell, and fell over into the ditch. We got up to him and hopped off the bikes to see if he needed help and his legs had completely cramped up from dehydration. I gave him some of my salt tabs and water and eventually he was able to get up. He told us he’d be fine and to go ahead that he was starting to loosen up and knew the finish was within 10 miles. When we got to the next rest stop we finally caught up to Paul where we took our last rest stop and rested up for the final push.
The run in to the finish was a short uphill then a sharp dip onto the highway for the final miles. The highway was nice and flat and we got a good pace going knowing that we were almost done. We decided as we got nearer that we would cross the line together as a team since we had done it all together. Also there was the side thought that we would get some awesome pictures of all of us together coming down the finish chute and crossing the line. It turned out that the strategy worked great as there are some outstanding pictures of the three of us on Kreutz photography’s website. I told Ron that I was planning on holding up three fingers for the picture to signify my three consecutive rides and he liked the idea and held up four fingers to signify his fourth ride. Unfortunately we thought of this during the time Paul was out on his own so he didn’t get in on the numbers game.
We racked up our bikes and got out of our gear and headed over to the food tent to eat and relax for a few minutes. It felt good to get out of the cycling shoes and walk normally again though walking was pretty painful in itself. As we sat down to eat my knees stiffened more and more now that the constant pedaling had stopped. By the time I stood to throw away my plate my knees felt like they were made of broken glass and I could barely walk to take a picture of the flags at the finish to show how stiff the winds were. We headed over to the beer tent to get our free beer, Paul had already gone and gotten one while Ron and I were in line for food. I ended up tossing half of mine so that we could get back to the van and then the hotel faster. The ride back to the van was excruciating on my knees and I was glad that I wouldn’t be back on a bike anytime soon.
We spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the bed, taking showers, boxing the bikes, and generally relaxing and recounting the days ride. That evening we headed out to Texas Land and Cattle to eat some giant steaks, potatoes, and nachos. Our next stop was Six in downtown Austin. Each year we go there and down some margaritas and rum and cokes. After burning so many calories all day it doesn’t take many before we’re blitzed. Six is a rooftop bar so getting up the stairs was a pain but I self-medicated with multiple margaritas which made the trip back down bearable. We saw Lance’s friend college at the bar, which College also owns. It turned out that the LAF volunteers were all there celebrating the ride and we got discounts on the drinks all night once we told the bartender we had ridden the ride. The next day we found out that Lance had also been in Six that night. Whether he was there the same time we were, we can’t be sure but we never saw him. I suspect we had just missed him due to eating dinner. Oh well, maybe next year and hopefully at the Ride for the Roses if I can qualify.
