My Longest Bike Ride Ever!

As I’ve already mentioned, I hit 110 miles yesterday.  Young’s Jersey Dairy was a little farther than I thought it was…but I wasn’t going to get myself all excited and not get any.  So an additional 10 miles it was.  Actually, the total was only 109.5 miles, but who’s counting?

Sorry for the blurry pic!

The ride started off kind bumpy.  Actually, the whole ride was pretty bumpy.  I don’t know if it was from the 8 mile run I recently completed, but I felt like I was working so hard just to hold a 15 mph pace.  It was rough!  On the way back (it was an out and back on the bike trail) I realized that the way there was a very slight uphill, which would explain why I felt like I was working so hard and still going slow.  Luckily the ride back was then mostly on a slight down hill.  Yay!

I rode through lots of trail towns, starting with Morrow.

I also rode through some beautiful open farm fields…

Finally, 40 miles later, I made it to Xenia!

Xenia is a town on the trail that is a hub of about 4 different bike trails.  I had only one direction on my mind -

Mmmmm.  A scoop of banana and a scoop of lemon custard.  It took me 54.5 miles, but I made it and I thoroughly enjoyed what awaited me at the end of the line!

I gobbled down the ice cream (I was starving as it was lunch time) and didn’t want to sit around too long to avoid my legs from cramping up, so I hit the trail again.  I soon realized that even though the trail had a slight down hill to it, I was tired and my body was revolting against me.  You ride on a little bike seat for almost 4 hours and tell me how you feel!  Not only that, but I knew I was only halfway done, which was a pretty awful thought.  I wish they made super thick bike shorts.  Anyways…I soon made it back to Xenia…

and rode my way to the trail hub to take a breather on the benches.

At this point things took a major turn for the worse.  I was sitting on the bench thinking to myself that I still had 41 miles to go and I became extremely overwhelmed. 

I texted Eric my concerns, with the idea in the back of my head that he could come pick me up somewhere…but after I received no response from him (I’m sure he wasn’t going to give in to my fishing for excuses), I hopped back on the bike and headed for home (or my car, at least). 

I didn’t take any more pictures after this point because I was just focused on finishing.  It was tough, but I did it.  And it took me just under 8 hours to do so.  I’m pretty happy with myself that I was able to basically complete the Ironman distance.  I was kicking myself towards the end that I decided to do this ride the day before my first triathlon of the season, but I kept reminding myself that I was shooting for something much bigger and it was good practice. 

I survived though…110 miles, by myself…and I lived to tell the tale!