| to lunch at mile 88. Seventeen miles out of town, we
started a 6.5 mile climb with about 2100 feet of
elevation gain. By the time I got to the top, I knew
that it was going to be a long day. I was already
suffering a bit from my hard ride yesterday. Shortly
after the second rest stop at mile 64, I joined up with
Rich Kondzielaski and Tom Rosenbauer and rode with them
for much of the rest of the day. Between the three of
us, we had three flat tires (mine being one of them).
The wet roads made it really difficult to see glass and
debris.
As we ate lunch, the rain clouds parted and the sun
came out. Fortunately, it never got as hot as yesterday,
but still hit the low 90's. By mile 108, when we stopped
at a convenience store for more water, I was really
starting to suffer. I let Rich and Tom go on ahead so I
could slow my pace a bit and try to recover. At times, I
really wanted to stop by the side of the road and take a
nap, and if there had been ANY shade, I might have done
so. Fortunately, we had a steady tail wind for most of
the rest of the way, which made it easier to maintain a
decent pace despite how I was feeling.
As I was relaxing at the final rest stop at mile 130,
Anne Marie McSweeny and Lon Haldeman (one of our hosts)
pulled up. Lon was riding his single speed bike, which
limited his top speed (except on downhills) to about
21mph (a little slower than I had been riding). Lon and
I rode the rest of the way into Spokane, and this
slightly slower speed made all the difference.
We arrived at the motel at about 5:20PM with a total
ride time of just over 9 hours. I didn't take too many
photos today because of the rain and because I wanted to
get to the motel as early as possible. There were still
people arriving when we got done with dinner at 8:00PM.
The next two days will be easy days which will
hopefully give me a chance to recover. I've also
schedule a massage tomorrow afternoon which I'm very
much looking forward to. I've learned my lesson that I
really have to take it easy and ride slower than I
normally do on long rides to save energy for the next
day. |
