My thoughts throughout Sunday, the day of the 97.4 km (60.5 mile) bike race:
5 a.m. – awake, terrified.
6:30 a.m. – Debbie, Phil, Terri-Lee, Kerry, Aiden, Skyla and I leave for Sandton
8:30 a.m. – Phil and I say goodbye to the rest of the group and make it 5km up to the starting point. His start time is before mine, so we split up.
9:38 a.m. – My start time... still terrified, but laughing because I signed up for this horrible torture voluntarily.
10:15 a.m. – Stop for 30 seconds to eat half a granola bar and to think, “Surely the end of the (all uphill) highway portion is near...”
10:30 a.m. - YAY the end of the highway!
10:32 a.m. - WHAT? Another STEEPER hill? DOES THIS RACE END ON THE TOP OF MOUNT EVEREST?
10:40 a.m. - Isn’t there a water point somewhere? Pain. Ow.
10:43 a.m. - Someone rammed his bike into mine and messed up my bike chain. Fixed it myself. Feeling industrious.
11 a.m. – Back on another highway. Uphill, of course. Just make it to Mandela Bridge. I just want to ride across Mandela Bridge.
11:15 a.m. – Some lady decided that it would be a good idea to walk in the road with thousands of cyclists, stick her umbrella out in front of me and then open it. Almost took us both out.
11:20 a.m. – YAY the Bridge! Just make it to Gandhi Square. I just want to ride through the Square.
11:25 a.m. – YAY the Square! Just make it to see Debbie, Kerry, Terri-Lee and the kids at the spectator point.
11:49 a.m. - Look! Free candy from strangers! (Bar One was a sponsor.) Too bad I'm going too fast to grab some.
11:50 a.m. – Hey! There's Terri-Lee and Skyla yelling for me; there's Debbie and Aiden, too. Very cool. Okay, just keep going.
12:17 p.m. – Agh, choking on Powerade. This is the worst decision I’ve ever made.
12:20 p.m. – I’m halfway through? Seriously? AWESOME. I can FINISH.
12:25 p.m. – Big hill. No way I can finish. Just keep going. Ow.
12:38 p.m. – 3 hours! Wow! Cool. I didn’t think I’d make it this far.
12:45 p.m. – Pain. Leg cramps. Pain. Big hill. Ow. Even 1st gear is difficult. Envying spectators.
12:50 p.m. – 58 km. Ow, ow, ow. Lady said I’m only 2 minutes ahead of the cut off time. Gotta hurry.
1 p.m. – THAT IS THE BIGGEST HILL I’VE EVER SEEN. Forget it. I’m going to catch a ride back to the start from the last water point.
1:30 p.m. – Wait? THIS is the cut off time for this water point? I had plenty of time! Arg.
3:20 p.m. – Looking at the hills for the last 38 km from the bus, I think quitting was the right choice.
3:31 p.m. – Terri-Lee texted to say that they can’t get through the road blocks. Gonna have to bike the last 5 km to where they’re parked. This is a joke?
3:35 p.m. – Not a joke.
3:52 p.m. – Biking back to where they’re parked. Can’t complain since I’ve had a 2.5 hour break. Phil actually finished the race and biked back.
5 p.m. – Celebratory dinner with Debbie, Phil, Terri-Lee, Kerry and the kids at Spur. No one has eaten today (though I had a banana and 2 granola bars on the road). Everyone smells nasty.
6:30 p.m. – Home! Shower! Wine! Bed!
Now I know I can make it 60 km with no training. So maybe next year I can train and actually finish. It was wonderful to have people on the sidelines cheering. I'm very thankful to all of them.
My legs are a little sore and swollen today and I've been having weird muscle twitching, but otherwise I've come out of the race unscathed. Maybe next year I'll take along a disposible camera and take photos of these impossible hills and all of the spectators with their funny signs (lots of free tequila along the route... I don't think there were many takers. It's just not something you want when you're already worried about falling over). And I'll take photos of the crowds of cyclists. It's amazing that there weren't more accidents. They sent us off in groups of 200 - 400 every 4 minutes for 4.5 hours. There were over 26,000 cyclists competing. 6,000 had never done the race before.
Also, thanks to Terri-Lee I now have internet at home! Very slow internet, yes, but that should be fixed in about 3 weeks. Just in time for Christmas holidays. :)
