Day 2.
Woke up feeling great, had a Nutrigran bar breakfast, hurried to the starting line.
Retrieved my bike , filled my water, and had my tires pumped up . I was early, but it's never early enough. Making my way to the starting line I notice the numbers of riders has diminished
and the remaining crew are the "in shape" serious riders. I'm honored to be in this crowd no matter how slow. I move toward the front to get a good spot to start from, I run into Jonathan my bike mechanic, he's ready, he's rested and pumped up. 8:00 AM sharp, the gun goes off,
I start in the first third, feeling good, I stay with the crowd out the Park, about 2 miles, then
tapered off a bit for the first set of hills, after that the road flattens out for a while, it was then
started overtaking riders, not sure why, I was pacing about 15 miles per hour, feeling good and developing ideas that didn't make sense. I stopped at the first stop, grabbed some water and
went on, feeling better and better mile by mile, Day 2 the hills are in the beginning and wane as we near the finish. My legs pumping and pumping relentlessly, feeling no fatigue, no failure I started pushing harder and harder faster and faster. Stop 2 , not stopping I have water and food in my back pocket. I seem to be riding with the elite speedsters, we're averaging 20 miles per hour, hill or no hill, it's like I'm in a Alfred Hitchcock movie.. Suddenly I'm going faster, 30 miles an hour, I think I'm in the front of the pack, leading the breakaway, way ahead of the peleton, how can this be, is it a "dream?", some "magic beans?" I found yesterday, a "genie?" in my water bottle or has "Big Foot?" from yesterday given me talent and skills I didn't have.
Seeing the heat rising off my tires I stop at stop 3 to have equipment checked out by Eric.
He's in disbelief, my tires are worn and smoking from the heat , he hurries and throws on
a set of tires while I refill my water and food. Eric checks out the entire bike and gives me an OK to push it. He tells me I'm near the front but I take it as a joke . Not a lot of riders at this stop, I must be in between groups. I jump back on the road, onto lunch, noting the lack of riders around me, but then being in the rear usually I'm alone. I approach King Kong Hill and scurry up without even changing gears, I shoot down the other side at about 50 mile per hour.
What's going on . No one is passing me. Why?
I cruise into the lunch stop , only a handful of riders there , no one's eating much lunch just a bite and on their way, I follow suite, grab a bite and on my way. I'm now averaging 35 miles per hour, I'm passing skinny riders on skinny bikes. There's Jonathan up ahead, as I pass him
he starts to say ,"hey Mr Gary", but I'm to far gone to reply, he's just a outline in my rear view mirror. I've got 2 waters on my bike and 2 in my shirt pocket, no need to stop anymore.
I pass a few more riders then see something blue coming into view up ahead. could it be, yes it's the lead motorcycle, I get alongside and start to pass, he accelerates to keep ahead of me and we're off to the finish. Passing up stops 5 and 6 put me on the home stretch, the hills are behind me now and I approach Hammond. With a personal escort I zipped through town and approached the finish line in disbelief, I was first in, it's not a race so no one wins,
but someone is first in , it was me. The crowd cheered, camera's flashed, congrats everywhere .
Next year I'm riding again, thinking of a team, Elvis, Elmer Fudd, Miles Standish, and Ravi Shankar.
thanks for your support.....
later
gary
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