200miles in ONE day

that tiny dot @ the top is where we came from

kay and i at the rest stop @ the top of cheaha-mile 114-just over halfway :o


saturday, april 4th, 2009 my buddy kay and i took off at 5am from the colonade in b'ham for our biggest adventure yet. we participated, with 17 other crazy people in the heart of the south 200. a bike ride of 200miles with mt. cheaha (the highest point in alabama) at mile 100! it was dark as we started out, which really added to the adventure of the whole day. it's amazing how it being dark makes even a familiar road, a new experience. we started the day with 5 guys from indianapolis that had even brought their own sag car! kay and i have to work on this for the next adventure, anyone interested?

it got light an hour and half or so later as we were just getting into unfamiliar territory with a bunch of rollers. as expected, we lost our indy friends here (boys on rollers=FAST). it was just after this that it really hit home that we were pretty much out there on our own: 2 oddly dressed women in redneck land= kind of scary!

there were all kinds of ups and downs for me during the day. i've told several people that the hardest part is wrapping your mind around the idea of how many hours you will be moving. at about 10am i was thinking about how i'd been on the bike for 5hrs and that i would be on the bike for 8 or 9 more hours! unfortunately, this occured to me at about mile 75 which is a usual low point. i'm fairly unhappy for about 15miles every time i do a century (100miles). that's part of the strength it takes to do something like this. you just have to keep going and telling yourself it's going to get better!

part of the nerves for the day came from mt cheaha looming at mile 100, elevation 2,400ft in about 14miles. cheaha is at the southern end of the blue ridge mountains. i was relieved to begin climbing cheaha bc i was sure i would be so relieved once this was behind me. the problem with cheaha is, though, there are enormous rollers. you climb a hill and as you're descending down the other side, you can see the next climb looming up ahead of you. the further down you go= the further up you will have to climb on the next. it took what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time to climb cheaha, but once we were there....AMAZING!! we found out, at the top, that one group of indy boys was about 15min ahead and another just moments ahead!

it took all of about 5min to descend what had taken about an hour and 20 to climb. the pic across the lake is at the bottom of cheaha. then there were miles and miles of small rolling terrain. not bad on the legs, but a killer for the behind! the wind we had was no fun either, but we just set our sites on the next rest stop. thank goodness for the two men working those, oj is a must and we stopped at a couple of stores for cokes. one awesome thing is that i never eat candy bars, but felt free to have a couple of snickers that day, mmmmmmmm.

another mood elevator, was finding out that we were not last. there were about 5 bikers behind us. i don't have to be first at these kind of things, but it's very disheartening to be last. at the rest stop in talladega, we were at mile 145 and the miles after that to the familiar intersection of 25 & 43 seemed to take a lifetime!

once we were at the base of coosa mt.(known to us as the long side of 25) i was so relieved. it was 6pm, we'd been going for 13hrs & still had this mt. to climb, but i was soooo happy to be on familiar ground! i felt like a million dollars on that climb (mile 180). helped i'm sure by the coke and snickers i had 3miles before! i usually like to fly down the steep side of 25 (about 42mph) but was afraid to because i thought my exhaustion might make me unsteady. probably one of the few times in my life i've excercised some common sense!

it was just getting dark as we crested the hill on zeigler rd, the last bigger hill of the day! so, we came home like we started, in the dark. on rex lake rd and sicard hollow, i thought my left foot would explode and my right shoulder had quite a zinger in it, but knowing we were almost there made it all ok! we pulled into the parking lot 14hrs & 45min after we left--13hrs & 10min of pedal time (15mph avg). just as we'd hoped! a little anticlimactic with the 2 sag guys and 1 other cheering for us, but awesome to know WE HAD DONE IT!!

200miles in 2 days

Kay, Kale & me- Rodney calls us the stay @ home mom's...lol

Me, Kay & Justin gettin ready

Me, Kay, Kale, Justin, Marcus, Jonesy and Michelle--Rodney is takin the pic

Last Friday night i would have said it was impossible. the forecast was for severe weather going in the direction we were going to head. we were making our annual trip anniston to atlanta on the chief ladiga and silver comet trails. we met at the cracker barrel in leeds to eat (and i really thought, to go back home). but, being the crazy riders we are, we decided it didn't look that bad (and it was fine in alabama, but they were predicting severe weather still in atlanta in the afternoon). we started in anniston about 11:15am (temps in the upper 60s/low 70s) and only had about 10min. of sprinkles all the way to about 10miles out and then just mist. it was pretty uneventful except for all the mud/water. it was a long day of dodging spray from the guys in front (always try to pull when it's wet!). we stopped for lunch in rockmart and then finished up as it was getting dark in atl. we did have to find a hose behind the hotel bc we and our bikes were so nasty!!! we had some pizza, beer/wine and lots of water and hung out for a bit before all passing out (from exhaustion of course!).

We decided there was no reason to hurry out the next day as we were all tired and the front had brought cold weather with it, we were now looking at starting in temps of mid 40s! many of us were glad for the dry roads, but would have gone back to dodging spray instead of freezing to death (amazing how a change in one day can leave you so intolerant). day 2 really proved that i am not made for long flat rides, but my riding buddy kay was in her element. she just loved looking back at me and telling me to come on....kind of what happens when we're hoofing uphills at home. she motored along with no problem and i struggled to keep up. an excellent lesson in how it sucks to ride off the back! i couldn't have been happier to make it to cedartown (about 60miles out of atl) where we stopped for lunch. we were all more than ready to make it back to our cars and their heaters! so, kale, kay, jim, justin, jonesy, marcus, michelle, rodney and i all came back, no worse for the wear.

maybe next year we can have the sense to not go when the weather has such potential to be cold or when it's blazingly hot!(last year it was 101 on the way home).

as i write this, all that seems a long time ago and an easy ride. 2 days to ride 200miles and it much easier with a big group of friends. i'm focused now on this weekends attempt at 200miles in one day with just me and kay (none of our other riding friends going with us....one even called us crazy "witches";)