It has taken me a few weeks here to put my thoughts together about my Century ride...so here goes...
As many of you read, it was a grueling ride. I had a month cut off my training time, due to surgery in June, and that I had made adjustments for, thought I would be ok. The course had nearly 5000 ft of elevation climbs, which I was expecting and had trained for, and the biggest hills at Red Rocks went fine and I finished those great.
BUT... dealing with 10-20 mph winds, which did nothing but increase throughout the day, well how do you plan for that??? For the last 40 miles I was dealing with 20+ constant winds that were gusting 25-30 mph. Most of the ride I had to deal with heavy crosswinds. I rarely got a tail wind and at times had headwinds, but mostly crosswinds. Nearly blew me over several times. Several EMS tried talking me into quitting, telling me I had nothing left to prove, the course was closing, and that there was no shame in it. But this girl parents didn't raise a quitter; I was going to finish and not give up...well, for a lot of reasons!
First reason: Mikeyboard guys have never given up on us...year after year of raising funds, and asking for more and more and more...it would be incredibly insensitive and ungrateful for me to give up due to a little pain and wind!
Second reason: I had a lot of names on the back of my jersey, including Ken Snow. None of those people gave up, and I'm pretty sure what they all went through was much harder than a little bike ride.
Third Reason: I wasn't ever going to go back and do that f*#%ing course again, and no way was I going to let it beat me!
Fourth Reason: John and Vader chased me all around the course that Saturday, encouraging me, supporting me, driving in front of me to give me a little drafting relief, and even walking with me when I just couldn't ride up the last hill at mile 99. No way was I giving up on my husband either! I could have thrown my bike in the back of his truck at any point in the course, but again, what I was doing isn't as hard as chemo. So I finished!!!
You guys who donate to our fundraising, and support me, and ask after me and how I did, well, you will just never know how much it means to me.
Many of you called and texted John that morning, and during the day, and he passed all of those messages on! I really needed that extra help this year!!!
So, simply,
THANK YOU all for your support. I'll take a little time off here, and start up soon for next year's ride!
Lora
p.s. And Mikey...I never got that bread pudding...and now that training is over till next year, I will have to wait!!!. No more carbs for this girl for a while!
