10/05/19

This ride just about didn’t happen or at least it would have a late start.  For some reason I was off my schedule and ride planning.  Kye and I left the hotel about 6:15 so we would be at the start line early and be able to eat breakfast provided by Whataburger but after getting by bike off the car I went to go and get by helmet,  but it wasn’t in the car.  I had left it in the hotel room.  This was because I had forgot my water bottles and when I got them filled with ice and water I walked out of the room without my helmet.

Thanks goodness we started early because we just had time to go back to recover my helmet and back to the starting line with about 5 minutes before the start.  We did have time for a couple of pictures.

The start takes about 20 – 30 minutes because they start the ride by bike teams and then limited riders at a time for safety concerns.  If they let all the 1600 riders start at the same time we would have a pile up and a lot of injured riders.  They have their act together.

I did finally get off the start line and Kye was strategically located to capture the moment.  She is amazing.

At this point I was not sure if I would ride 75 miles or 100 but I was leaning toward 100 miles.

The weather report said we could expect temperatures in the 90s.  They also project a cold front to come through on Monday, of course.

MS ride planner took the heat into consideration and set up rest areas about every 12 miles.  That is more often then I am used to so I skipped rest stops 1 and 3 which were all before the temperature reached 90 degrees.

At the second to the last rest stop I called Kye and told her I would be stopping at 75 miles.  The heat was taking a toll on me.  By the time I reached the last rest stop I had to fine some shade, lots of water and a cold water rap to put around by neck.  I took an extra long stop here which made the final pull to the finish bearable.

When I got to the finish Kye recorded the finish and as you can see I was soaked with sweat.