Wednesday, June 2, 2010

RIDING SOLO...AND RIDING DIRTY

I have been meaning to blog about Saturday, but i am kind of busy with getting two weeks worth of work done in 3 days (stupid job) so I have been slow. I will keep if brief as it is already past my bed time.
On Saturday I set off all by myself on my very first solo bike ride. Ever. And I rode all the way to Dana Point. Autumn was there as my sweep vehicle and brought me a cheeseburger in Huntington and picked me up in Dana Point. She is my everything, what can I say. Gina was also a great navigator when necessary. It takes a village to get me where I am going, apparently. Autumn and I had planned to do this ride together, but with her injury it never happened. So I decided what better way to end my training than attempt the ride alone.
Never in a billion years would I have thought I would do anything for 8 hours alone, much less on a bike. Even a month ago doing this alone was never something I even considered. But I knew I COULD do it, so I really couldn't justify backing out. And I am very glad I did it. 75 miles (give or take) later I was tired and satisfied and ready to go to San Diego for some cheese and wine and pool time. A perfect weekend.
You are alone with your thoughts for a long time when riding by yourself. I had a lot of time for self reflection. However, I don't really remember any of it. So I will write about some things I do remember: A LOT of hills in Laguna, I bike path with no mapped entrance that I had to sneak through someone's back yard to access in Long Beach, two weddings, one Quincenera, two dog beaches (this was especially brutal...i almost bailed and went to play with the dogs TWICE), two Catalina ports, many weight sensor intersections, one of which I had to run because mysteriously I do not weigh as much as a car, countless lazy beach people (aka me in a month), and a man dressed in a women's one piece with a skirt. Isn't California great?
Oh, and one more thing. Am I the only one who gets this dirty when riding for 80 miles? When I finish I feel like I rolled around in dirt for the last 8 hours. HOW do I get so dirty? I don't understand.
-Caitlin

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