Cupcake

Miles today: ~100? 

Today Jaron joined me on the women's intermediate ride. Another early morning (remember, this is fun). Julie secured the optimal spot right behind the same ride leader again. It's been great getting useful feedback from her. I wasn't sure if it would work out that way, but when we pulled in this morning she said "right here, you'll be right behind me again." 😁 

This ride leader puts the difficult roads on the morning route and the easier stuff after lunch. We started out and came to a "class 4" aka unmaintained road that had rock ledges, she said about 6 inches. I rode the brakes the whole way and definitely felt my ABS clicking on & off and was doing quite a bit of sliding. It was exhilarating and kinda terrifying. Since Jaron was with me, he got to hear my external monologue over the intercom (shitballs was my word of the day today). I made it through that section and then I heard Jaron go down behind me. I stopped on a downhill and honked my horn to let the ride leader know, but I could not get my kickstand down. Other people were helping him though. His foot was pinned under the bike. He said that he just took a bad line off of a rock ledge. 

He also said that his new helmet was a great idea. So we're trying to decide if we should just replace it now. This is him right after that section. See, he's fine. Even looks like he's having fun. 

Man, I was totally buzzing with adrenaline. We took a break and debriefed, and were told to make sure and keep the power steady on the next bit when we went through some sand. And we all made it through that. 

About 20-25 miles in to the 120 mile ride we came to a long hill with sand and large rocks. It was REALLY loose. There was a fork in the road right after a turn and I was far enough behind the leader that I didn't see which way she went, but I took the way that looked like the main direction the road went. The gravel in the other direction looked more reasonable so I was hesitating and slowed down and drifted to the right side of the road, so when I stopped I lost my footing and dropped my bike in to the rut on the side of the road. Jaron stopped behind me and also lost his footing. Too bad I didn't get a picture of both of our bikes laying down together (aww). 

It turns out it was the correct direction and the ride leader made it back walking down around the same time that the second wave caught up with us. I was like, yeah I'm not riding that, and someone's husband offered to take my bike up for me. Jaron immediately decided to take pavement to our lunch destination and left. It took two different advanced riders to get my bike up that hill and they each dropped it on different sides. I helped dig out ruts for them and pushed. And several experienced riders confirmed that this was an intermediate road! I was taking a break at the top of the hill and finally we ended up with the leads and sweeps from both waves and three participants left (down from 11). One by one, everyone else decided to take pavement to lunch! One woman yelled "FORTY FIVE MINUTES LATER, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!" when she got to the top. I mean, it was hard to *walk* up this hill. I was kind of feeling like I hadn't passed the trial, you know? The ride leader assured me that that was the most difficult section. 

So we kept going. It was definitely difficult but within my skill level. I was doing alright until an uphill when I got distracted by a honk behind me. I let off the throttle and looked in my mirror, but everyone was fine. By the time my eyes got back to the road I realized that there was one good line through a right turn, and it was all the way to the left. I didn't make it over and hit a 1 ft rut/embankment, pretty slowly since I'd lost momentum when I let off the throttle, and I dropped my bike. The woman behind me apologized for distracting me with her horn, she'd hit it while canceling her turn signal which is something I do all the time. Lesson learned - don't take my eyes off the road! 

Discretion being the better part of valor, I declined to finish the hill, and the second wave leader rode my bike up to the top. I had officially hit my limit. From there it was reasonable until we hit pavement and took that the rest of the way to lunch. Jaron was the first to bail and had gotten there around noon, and my group got there at like 1:15. It felt like 5 hours since then tho. 

Jaron had lemonade and a pulled pork sandwich waiting for me. He'd even texted me that there was cold lemonade. ☺️ He said after he left he was kind of wondering if he should have encouraged me to go, too. No cell service tho (plus, I was busy). I was so fried by the time we got there, I almost dropped my bike while parking. My head was kind of fuzzy tbh. I hadn't been drinking my usual amount of water and it had been a while since I'd had breakfast. I actually didn't feel hungry bc I was so hot, and did not think to have one of my snacks while I was waiting at the top of the hill. So I dropped out of the ride even though I knew it would be easier after lunch. A lot of people rejoined after lunch. Both of my handguards were loose (2x falls on each side) and something in my helmet was pulling on my ear so I wanted to address those things anyway. 

Another woman's bike had some kind of mechanical problem so she was looking for a ride back to the rally. The rally organizer was already headed to trailer her bike. Jaron offered to take her back. She was a hoot and said she wasn't riding bitch, she was riding cupcake! So Jaron took her back while I went back to our lodging to do laundry and take a shower. 

We went to the rally dinner and hung out with new friends and didn't win any of the door prizes. Another late nite out, but at least we would get to sleep in the next day this time!