The night before the ride I had dinner at Matt's place with his family and some friends who were going to do the ride in the morning. Some of us were signed up for the 100mi, some for the 100km, and some for the 50km. We all ate a bunch of spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and pie.
I got up at 530am to start my journey. Arrived at the event at 630. We all signed in and were on the road by 730.
It was a chilly morning as we headed west out of Davis, CA. We turned south down a farm road and saw a spectacular scene of sprinklers in the morning sun, these biker chics really wanted to be in my picture:
I pushed pretty hard for the first 25 miles to the first rest stop where we refueled with bananas, bagels and Fig Newtons.
After the rest stop we took it a little easier for the next five miles. At mile 30 the trails split. Those who chose to do the 100km went one way and we went the other. So we bid farewell to two of our teammates and went our separate ways. At this point I just started to feel some discomfort in my right knee.
A few miles down the road, we took a wrong turn which took us up a crazy unnecessary climb. By the time we got to the top of the hill my knee was telling me to stop soon. We finally made it back to the course and at mile 50, I decided to call it a day. My right IT band was inflamed and it was just going to get worse so I called my buddy Brian to pick me up in Fairfield, bummer.
Matt, Mia and Dustin continued on to 58 more miles of hills and wind. Matt rides a hand bike, Mia hadn't ridden her bike in quite a while and Dustin was on a fixed speed bike. They are nuts...but they finished! 12 hours and 108 miles after the start, these three finished in the dark!
Matt and Mia looking exhausted
Dustin enjoying his lasagne...don't get that red sauce in your moustache!
I saw a couple other Ride Ataxia Teammates that day. I ran into Roberto in the morning, he was sporting his Ride Ataxia jersey. Roberto was unable to sign up that day (just missed it) so I saw him on his way to do a few miles on the bike trail.
I ran into another guy sporting the Ride Ataxia Jersey. I found out that Ashley Hartigan is his niece and he is doing his part to raise awareness.
I was also fortunate enough to get a picture with a couple other teammates after they finished the century. Nice work ladies.
Terry, Me, Crit
I am going to take a few weeks off from cycling to get my knee back into shape but please stay tuned there is a lot going on. Registration for Ride Ataxia III will be available in early November!
