Let me start with a recap of the past week...
Saturday, Kaia woke up with a fever, which turned out to be swine flu. I found this out after checking text messages during my ride from Stillwater to Lake Hefner. So, not much I can do 70 miles away on a bike. My throat had been hurting but I attributed it to sinuses, and went about my way.
Did the OKC ride in six hours. Had some Mexican food then Cory drove us home. Stilly to OKC is a great ride, but lots of hills. Oy.
Monday we took Kaia to the doctor. She still wasn't eating and had a slight fever, but nothing too bad. She tested positive for the flu, so I stayed home with her Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Figured my sore throat and slight fever was probably the flu too, and figured I'd miss out on HHH but I actually felt fine by Wednesday.
Thursday morning, I got up and drove to Tulsa for a two-day workshop (for work). I stayed in Tulsa Thursday night at the Doubletree, then left the workshop early Friday so we could leave for Wichita Falls. Cory's parents picked up Kaia around 5:30 and Cory & I hit the road.
The morning of the ride, we got up around 4:45 and drove to WF from Lawton... joined up with four friends who were doing the ride and Cory went back to the car to get some sleep. :) (Thank you to my great and supportive husband!!)
Usually, we start the ride ahead of the masses to avoid chaos. This year, they had lots of signs prohibiting it. There were over 14,000 cyclists this year and we got stuck starting smack in there with them all. Less than a mile in, a couple RIGHT IN FRONT OF US went down. The woman swerved, her husband tried to keep her up by grabbing onto her, but he went down and flipped onto his back. OUCH. LB swerved just in time to miss running over the guy, and we kept on pedaling...
A few more miles in, we see a young woman lying on her stomach completely still, her arm and shoulder twisted in such a way that it did not look right. My stomach flipped, I wasn't sure she was even conscious but BW said she was, that she was just lying there crying. The ambulance was there already, I think, and another one coming close behind.
Less than 10 miles into the ride and we've already seen two bad crashes. In all the rides I've done, I've seen one guy flip head first over his bike, but Cory did that once too so it didn't scare me like this did. By the time we hit the half way point, I think we had seen 5 crashes, or the end results of the crash. I was a nervous wreck for about 60 miles.
A couple of times, the masses had slowed so much for whatever the reason may be, that we had to get off our seats and "tip toe" our bikes forward because no one was going anywhere. And of course, that meant plenty of time for the men to stop by a hay bale and pee. If I would have had my camera out, I totally would have taken a picture because it was hilarious to look to your right and see a line of men at a hay-urinal.
---
I felt pretty good, the weather was good, but the wind, inclines and rough road were slowing me down. LB and BW went on ahead and I did the last half solo. I was kind of glad really (no offense LB) because I always try to go faster than I am really capable when riding with my fit young friends! When I do my own ride, my own way, I know I can go any distance. If I had tried to keep up or if they had slowed down for me, I would have stopped. I'm about 30 pounds heavier than when we rode together last, so I tried to cut myself a break about being slow. :)
I was afraid I wasn't going to make it to the cutoff in time ("Hell's Gate") so I texted Cory and Diane and told them that. Then the next thing you know, I see this:
Hell's Gate is actually "guarded" by a giant red inflatable hulk, by the way. I should have taken a picture of that instead but I had already put the camera away (and no, I have no idea who is in the picture but I didn't want to wait until everyone was outta the way).
I talked to lots of interesting people along the way, and saw a kid who was probably between 12 and 14 riding with his parents. Actually, he was ahead of his parents because he told them at a rest stop he was going on because he'd been "waiting forever" at the stop. LOL. It was so inspiring to see, esp. given that most kids these days are overweight or obese. To think a kid that young could stay motivated and focused to ride 100 miles is amazing. Here he is flagging down the 'rents:
I snapped a really quick pic, I didn't want to look like a perv. :) I talked to his parents briefly, I should have asked them how old he was.
At about the 92 mark, there's a Miller Lite rest stop. I forgot about this, and passed by the stop because at this point I was sooooo close to being done, I just wanted to get it over with! But then I decided I needed a little break, so I stopped next to a guy under some shade and said, "mind if I share your shade?" and in a peculiarly stoner voice he says, "naw man, come on in. I'm just finishing my beer. 'Never stop at the bottom of a hill, and always finish your beer. That's my philosophy...'" then he turned and grinned at me like he just ate shit. Creepy. It wasn't until I passed an empty can later on that I remembered the beer stop. I honestly thought some guy was crashing the ride drunk off his arse.
So anyway, I have some weird itchy bite on my foot, I'm sunburned (despite being felt up by a volunteer putting sunscreen on me), and my butt hurts, but I did it. 102 miles.
OK he didn't really feel me up, but I kept thinking, "geez, isn't it rubbed in by now??"
I'm done with HHH because of all the crashes though. That seems to be my method anyway... complete the century, find a new event to do. So next on the list...? Who knows. Something closer to LB and BW. They've come down for HHH three times now. It's our turn to travel. :)
(BTW, if you ever do an event, be sure to thank the volunteers. I don't know how many HHH has, but they are always so nice and gracious. Some farmers just threw out some tables and cut up tons of watermelon for us, they weren't even an "official" rest stop. People are just that nice. Think about being out there all day long, serving or driving or directing traffic or picking up all the trash... it's a lot of work for nothing)
---
So sometime after we leave, we are going to OKC to La Luna with friends to eat when I get a text from my sister. My mom's in CICU in Tulsa at Saint Francis. She had chest and jaw pain on Saturday morning and has been there ever since. She really seems to be doing well but they can't keep her BP elevated enough to do any tests without medication. So until her BP is stable, we really know nothing. I assume she probably had a mild heart attack. Anyway, keep her in your thoughts. Today is the first day I've been home to sleep in my own bed since... Wednesday? Oy. Off to nap.
