Salt Lake Classic Century

Holy Cow!! I rode the SL Classic Century today. I only rode 76 of the 100 miles, but it was 9 miles more than I had planned on. It was hard, but satisfying. I have a feeling I am going to not be able to move tomorrow. I rode with Christopher and Laura and kept up with them for the most part. They were riding a bit slower because I was with them. I kept telling them that it was okay to go on without me. They are hard core riders. This is the first year they have ridden road bikes, but they go mountain biking all the time. Last weekend they were down in Moab with their road bikes and easily rode 150 miles over the weekend. I appreciated their concern and it did push me harder so they didn't have to ride so slow. On the way back, Christopher had to get to work so they finally took off without me. He called me with about 5 miles to go, apparently they had finished slower than anticipated and were doubling back to check on me and let me know that I wasn't that far behind them. That made me feel even better because it felt like everyone was passing me and I was the last one to make it back.

While I was riding, my allergies were killing me. My nose was running so bad I had to stop every 5-10 miles just to blow my nose. Each time I stopped concerned people would make sure I was okay and give me encouragement to keep going. I was so grateful for those words of encouragement it made me realize that not all roadies are jerks like most of the ones that were on the big teams. I even had one guy give me spinning tips, which helped out a lot. I also want to thank the REI tech that helped tune my bike so my chain would stop slipping between gears. He was so nice and took the time to educate me on what the chain should look like and how it should be aligned.