Bike MS: Ride the Riverside

*Disclaimer: this is a long one! You might want to read half and come back later ;) *

I have to begin this story on Friday, if you don't mind. 

You know when you have one of those days where everything that can go wrong does, and you feel like you should just stay home in bed so nothing else happens? 

That was Friday.

It all started when I left school at 4:30 to head into DC to pick up my team jersey for the race. 

I only had to go near Farragut West, not far into DC, so figured I'd be okay. It took me over 2 hours to drive the 2 miles off Route 50 to K Street through Friday afternoon DC traffic. It. was. insane. I watched stoplights turn green, yellow, and red while I sat not moving. I asked a guy in the car next to me if this is normal and he said yes, he does it every day. In. sane. 

Then the lady that was supposed to be available anytime from 4-7 to run down from her office to give me the jersey, not only gave me the wrong phone number, but also emailed me at 4:54 to tell me that she'd be in a reception from 5-7 so could I come after 7. The world is not friendly to people without smart phones. 

So once I finally reached her office at 6:30, I had to sit, illegally, while getting yelled at by cops, and calling her incorrect phone number, until she mosied on down after her reception. 

3 hours after leaving my school, I had my jersey (actually I was wearing it over my dress), and continued on to National Harbor to pick up my packet. 

It took me 7 minutes to walk from my car to the hotel, pick up my packet from the race staff, and walk back to my car. I know this because it told me on the Pay to Park machine that then charged me $11 to do this because it was after 6.

Then as I was driving home I saw a flash, the kind of flash that is normally not right above your car while you are driving, unless you get caught by a speed camera for going 11 miles over in a 55.

Then I get a text from my Sunday Bike MS 100 mile ride partner that reads, 

"Funny story. I have strep throat." 

It was at this point that I began watching the sky, sure that something was about to fall down on top of my car. 

(Huge bummer that Heather had strep and couldn't bike. I am not heartless, I did feel very bad for her. I saved the cue sheet for her and she is going to bike it with her boyfriend another weekend.)

Luckily, my brother, Jason, and his friend, Ty, were doing the century the next day, Saturday, and I could bike with them. It was already 9:30pm on Friday night and I was planning to prep for Sunday on Saturday, so I had some work to do. 

I returned home, announcing my terrible mood to everyone in my path. As I was laying out all my gear, packing my food, feeling pretty defeated and worn down, I got a text from Jason's girlfriend, Stephanie (who I love), who I had no communication with that day, was in Fairfax at her house, but was clearly in constant contact with Jason, that read, 

"Tomorrow will be a better day."

Which totally reminded me of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes, about a little girl who has a terrible day and feels like the world is against her and her teacher is so patient and encouraging and hands her a note at the end of the day that says simply, "Tomorrow will be a better day."

And it was!

Bike MS was totally awesome, it was beautiful out, and I felt great the entire time (which I still cannot believe, and am unclear who exactly was on my bike for those 8 hours, but it wasn't super hilly and we trained for super hilly so that was definitely a huge helping factor).

So here is the story.

We woke up at 4:15 and left at 5:15. Can you just imagine for a second, waking up at 4:15 and thinking, "Wait, why is my alarm going off this early? Oh right, I have to get up and bike 100 miles." I was not excited at first! But then it got better :)

Clothes laid out...

Bike washed and ready...

Parked at National Harbor, noted the Mile 0 on my odometer...

Got to the starting line...

We basically rode south from National Harbor, all the way down and around the perimeter of Maryland and back up.

2nd rest stop...one of the only times we saw the river during "Ride the Riverside" ;)

It was high 80s most of the ride. It got up to 92. It definitely could have been worse, it wasn't too bad. If I could have asked for anything, it would have been to have A cloud in the sky. There was not one. We rode under some trees for about 2 miles and it was glorious. We carried sunscreen with us and reapplied every rest stop. I still have some pretty awesome tan lines that I've been fighting all of Spring.

Almost half way there...

Rest stop for lunch, Corner Bakery. I made myself eat a turkey and cheese but after all the goos and gels and energy bars, my stomach didn't really know what it wanted.

I can't say that I'm very hungry during a bike ride. But there is a term called "bonking," which is basically when you don't eat often enough and you hit a point of no return, a wall, have nothing left, and if you try to eat it still doesn't help, and you have to lay down for a couple hours and keep eating. Obviously not what you want to happen 50 miles in to a 100 mile race. So people harp on making sure you eat every 45 minutes or 12-ish miles to sustain all the calories you are burning. Here is what I packed on my bike and in my shirt pockets.

They ended up having an unbelievable food spread at each rest stop but from past experience of running races, you can't count on them having what they say they'll have so you gotta pack all that you could need.

It was such a well supported ride. I was really impressed.

They had bike mechanics at each rest stop. Luckily we didn't need any bike repair.

We wore a bracelet with a help line phone number to get a support car if we needed it. They also had cars driving the route to help anyone in need.  I had a water bottle cage pop off while I was riding, so I had to stop on the road and walk back to get it. A support car drove up within minutes to see if I needed help. I swear they had hidden cameras, I mean, we were in the middle of nowhere! Fellow bikers are also really nice and constantly ask each other if everyone is doing okay. It's really sweet to watch!

The actual ride in terms of physical demand was pretty do-able, we had trained well. It was more of a mental challenge and I had to play tricks on my mind, similar to when I ran a marathon.

"Okay it's only 4 25-mile rides. Let's just get to the 1st 25 mile marker....Okay now only 3 more of those....Half way done...40 left, that is 2 20 mile rides which are really short...." etc.

Finish line...Hallelujah!

100!

We biked together the WHOLE time! I kept telling them they could go ahead but they swore they didn't want to go faster because it really wasn't a race, more of just a ride. I am so glad because I think it would have been much tougher alone.

I give it two days before this is framed at my parents' house...

Will I do it again next year?! If it's just as flat!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who supported me through donations and words of encouragement!