Wonder woman

Yesterday was the Wonder Woman ride.  My sister talked me into signing up for the century a couple of months ago.  I said yes.  However, I am secretly scared of my bike.  I told myself I would go on a couple rides before the race....that never happened.  I am scared I'll crash or get hit by a car...really.  So much so that I did not go on one ride before this race.  That is not an exaggeration.

It came down to about a week before the race and I told my sister I would come to the race but act as if I was a pacer for her.  I would go until I felt done and then I would call the hubby and he would come pick me up.  I  know I am in shape but when you are doing something new it always works different muscles than your used to so I thought for sure I would be dying by mile thirty.  I made a goal in my mind to do at least fifty miles.

My pre race fuel.  Oatmeal with almond butter, bananas, and pecans.

 We got to the race and my sister called our friend who was also doing it.  Well she ended up being with three other ladies who are "bikers."  They know all the biking signs and lingo and I am a retard at all of that.  I was freaking out because I did not want to ride with these people and be left behind or "in the way" somehow.  They were all really nice ladies, just a lot more experienced than me.  I'm thinking at this point....dang, I should have trained.  So now it is not just riding with my sister but with a lot of experienced bikers.  Poo.  This is one conversation that went down about mile nine:

Experienced lady: "So Lyndsey, do you pace?"
Me: "I don't even bike."
Experienced lady: "Well, stay in the back then."
Me: "Gladly."
I didn't pace then, but I sure do now!

Getting ready to start...not wanting to get out the car in the freezing cold!

 Miles 0-32  We start out and my quads start screaming at me like what the crap are you doing?  I'm not kidding...ten miles in and I was done.  I wanted to quit.  I was well behind the others although I could still see them.  My sister was feeling bad for me.  I was cursing myself for not training.  When I thought we had gone almost thirty miles I asked my sister how far we had gone.  She says thirteen!  Thirteen?!  I'm thinking wtf are you guys thinking?  I was dying and they still had 87 miles left to go?  I told myself I was going to call the hubby at the twenty mile stop and be done.  Well, we made it to the stop and I was feeling a little more warmed up.  We had a twelve mile loop that ended back at that same spot so I told myself I would those twelve miles and re-evaluate how I was feeling.  I got a little caffeine in my system and kept going.  By the time twelve miles was up I was feeling a lot better and keeping pace just fine.  I told myself I could do fifty.
Miles 32-55  These miles flew by and I felt great the whole time!  I'm thinking to myself, "wow...maybe I just needed to warm up."  We got to go through a beautiful canyon and this was the only place on the race without a horrible headwind.  I am not kidding.  The whole race was headwind central.  Pretty soon we were at the lunch stop.  After the lunch stop was a fourteen mile loop that brought you back to that stop...so we did it before lunch and got it out of the way.  We stopped and ate, and ate, and ate.  I ate two sandwiches and so much fruit.  Oh man...just what my body needed.  We took forever at lunch though!  We were stopped for almost an hour and I was worried my body was going to cool down and not want to get moving again. I just wanted to go!  By this point I was half way....so c'mon, calling the hubs was out of the question.  I was finishing this thing.
Miles 55-70 I kept feeling great.  I was really surprised actually.  We had another stop int his section and I just wanted to keep going but we ended up stopping.  I really just wanted to finish this dang race and fast.  My sister was having a great day too and didn't feel tired in the least so the next time we pulled ahead we didn't stop and wait.  We just kept riding.
Miles 70-100  We flew those thirty miles.  It was just me and sister so we got to talk and take turns drafting off each other.  We didn't have to stop for stuff we just rode hard.  The last ten miles I think there were three hills.  Nice.  And a super strong headwind.  Nice.  However...in the last ten miles we passed 12 people and no one passed us.  We were on fire.  I was proud of myself.  I was proud of my sister.  I'm glad I got to finish with her by my side.  I might have teared up just a smidge.  The other 4 ladies came in about a half hour after us.  You bet we were there to cheer them on. 


Am I sore today you ask?  No!  Which is crazy sauce cuz I totally expected to be.  My knee is a little stiff and so are my hips but muscle wise I'm good.  I just have old lady joints.  :)


Ps.....I will post more pics when my sis emails them to me.  Christy????  Email me the pics.