new blog title

More than once I have thought that my blog title is totally inaccurate. It should probably read: one long ride - day after day, or 49 long rides or something like that. I have, however become pretty comfortable at the back of the group. There are two people who are assigned each day to ride "sweep" which means they have to stay at the very back and carry the med kit and wait while I change my flat tires. At the beginning of the trip, someone suggested that I try and ride with as many different people as possible to really get to know everyone. For lucky me, this has been kind of built in as sweep rotates day to day. During dinner one night, I was commenting that it takes me so long to get into the host location each day. A few people jumped on me and said it is probably because I take such long breaks. To this, I pulled out my cycling computer and showed them that I had actually spent 7 hours and 55 minutes on my bike that day (a full half-hour than Carys, who rides WITH me). That is to say, even the people I ride with wait (usually at the top of hills/mountains) for me while I chug along in my granny gear. To this, another leader asked me if she could tell a story.

She said, as inspirationally as she could muster, that "once upon a time, there was a marathon and after the marathon the guy who came in last went to congratulate the guy who came in first. He said, 'I just don't know how you run so fast,' to which the champion runner replied, 'I wanted to congratulate you, I just don't understand how you can run for so long.'" Apparently, the moral of the story was that I should be proud of myself, that by the time we bike across the United States, the fastest guy on the trip could probably have turned around and been back in southern Indiana. I must say, it is nice to think that when we cross the Golden Gate Bridge, I will be able to think to myself "Mom would be proud of me, I think I definitely got my money's worth out of this bike."