4th of July Ride

Pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8737154@N04/sets/72157600646386327/

Every year, the Joliet Bicycle Club hosts the 4th of July Ride. The longest route billed is 62 miles, but I think whenever I've done it I ride more than that, by adding on. It starts from Plainfield South High School. I used to ride from Plainfield frequently, since I have a friend, Matt, who lives in Plainfield, but he got shipped out to Afghanistan a year ago (he's coming back to town permanently, though--YEAH!), and it's just as easy for me to ride to Fermilab and circle around.

Jamey, who I met at the Y swimming, asked to do the ride with me, and he needed to start fucking early (6AM) because of family obligations for the 4th. Turns out he'd be in Plainfield to ride, go back home to Antioch for some do, and then come back out even further west than Plainfield for another do.

(Side Note: Beer tastes pretty good right about now. Disco Inferno sounds pretty good on the CD player right about now.)

I had set my alarm clock for 4AM so I could be out the door about 4:45. I managed to fall asleep a little after 8PM last night, which was great, so I'd get almost 8 hours if I made it to 4AM. I was awakened a bit after midnight by thunder, which was right on the predicted schedule. I got up and looked at the radar, and knew the storms weren't severe, so I just got back in bed, hoping the storms would pass by morning, and I fell back asleep pretty easily.

4AM WAKE THE FUCK UP, said my alarm clock. Oh boy, did NOT want to get out of bed, but hey, I have a job to do. Turned on the coffee pot, took my Gag Juice out of the fridge (I can't drink it ice cold), and got organized. I had Bitchie all set up to go, and all I had to do was pick an outfit. Socks--no brainer--my lucky socks (that I got from Lori's SO, Marc). Panties? No brainer--black. Now what to wear on top? First I put on a zebra-striped Shebeest tank, but it's a bit too tight under the arms for my liking. Next, the black Zoot tank, and I just couldn't see wearing a black top all day, so I resorted to a tiny white bra top and one of my Zoot white tanks, which is usually a cool (well, as cool as you can be in the mid-80's) combination, and I could even remove the tank at some point if I wanted to.

Radar check--the blob of the storm system was just barely over my house and going south, so it looked good for riding. Drank 2 cups of coffee, ate my Power Bar Triple Threat, downed the Gag Juice, had a little quality time in the bathroom, and I was ready to go. I had fixed my bottles last night. Somehow I ended up leaving at 5:00AM instead of 4:45, but I figured there would be ZERO traffic this time of the morning and that I'd still make it by 5:30AM, our agreed upon meet-up time (clipping in at 5:45).

For about the first 4 miles of driving, it was raining, but I could see the clouds were breaking up and knew we'd be fine today. I was almost there when Jamey called and asked if the high school was east or west of Route 59. I said west, and hoped I was right (I was). We met up about 5:35AM, parked and began getting ready. Jamey had a bit more to do than me, it being the virgin voyage and all of the Skank. I picked that name right away. After a bathroom stop and me paying the money for the ride (because I want to support these people volunteering), we were off at 6:08AM.

I had a workout plan that I wanted to execute, but I was also flexible. I always worry when I ride with guys that I am holding them back, and know that because of this, I had be prepared to just ride hard for a long time if that's what I need to do to stay with them. We took off, and about :45 in Jamey got a flat. He began messing with a brand new pump, and I just grabbed the wheel and stripped off the tire and tube, and I found that a rather sharp rock or piece of glass had lodged into the tire and had almost punctured clear through, which is what I believed caused the flat. So I sacrificed and ate a gel so I'd have some semblance of a tire boot to ensure the new tube wouldn't flat. As I'm doing this, I'm explaining to Jamey what I'm doing and how you can actually buy tire boots (I didn't have any with me since I was running tubulars today, but I usually have some with my clincher tube crap), but you can also use parts of gel wrappers or even money in a pinch.

The classic line from the tube changing was, "Where's the hole?" Which I said a few times as I wanted to line up the almost hole in the tire with the hole in the rim so I knew where it was when I put the piece of gel wrapper in there and then the tube. Jamey took over after I blew some air into the tube and he got the pump working and then he seated the tube and the tire, pumped, and we were good to go. I told him we'd get some more air in there when we got to the rest station, just to be safe.

After the flat, there were no more mechanicals, and we just rode. Since we were the first people to begin riding (technically, the ride began at 7AM), we hit the rest stations first and got the royal treatment. Lots of peeps looking at the Bitch and Skank and asking us what we were training for. Jamey was the one who said, "An Ironman." I don't do that--I just say, "A triathlon." And if they keep asking questions, I get to the Ironman shit eventually.

(Side Note: Beer tastes REALLY good, and I feel a nap coming on.)

I eventually did some of my workout crap, some of which sort of sucked (thanks, Rich, or as I took to calling him today, "Strauss"), but Jamey was a willing participant in all the shit, although I told him he could take off ahead of me any time he wanted. We were about to head into a tailwind at one point, and we passed a group of 3 guys. Of course, said guys could not take being passed by a girl, so they began to take chase, but only one of them could keep with me with the tailwind going. He gets in front of me, and I'm like, fine, dude, I will just suck your wheel and catch a break while you work your ass off. His buddies couldn't keep up, so bearded guy peels left to look back for them and goes, "You are right behind me." I said, "Yeah, dude, where the hell did you think I was?" I think he thought he was going to be able to drop me, but NOT FUCKING TODAY! Meanwhile, I am sure Jamey was right behind laughing his ass off at all this. So I dial it down a notch, and we let the other 2 guys catch up, and one of them (who I think was enjoying the, ahem, view), tells me to tuck in behind the really big guy (and he was HUGE) and draft. So I did, and we had a nice train going, but the gang of 3 peeled off because they were just riding in the area. Jamey and I had a good laugh about this when I told him that many guys get pissed off when I pass them and pull that shit. Oh well!

Rest station, about 50 miles and we need to decide what to do. I consult map and volunteers and we are going to do another 42 miles. Jamey is going to be late, but I consider that because of his flat, he owes me penalty miles and will just have to be late for whatever is next on his agenda. I mean, come on, we have priorities!

So we head out again and that's when we encounter Robbie-Ventura-wannabe Vision Quest dude, who gets pissed that we pass (especially by me) and so he has to show us what he's got. The dude zooms by only to have to cycle back to stay with his wife, and then we never saw him again. I'm sure he was torqued he couldn't ride as fast as he wants, but hey, thems the breaks.

Jamey and I are now riding through lots of people who started later and just people out riding, because the area is very popular with cyclists, so they are everywhere. And we are passing them all. There were some decent winds, but no matter, we just kept cranking.

With about 1.5 miles to go, we passed some girls, who asked how fast we had been riding, and I said, "about 18.5 miles per hour." She said something like, "That's pretty good," and then I was thinking to myself, "Wait for it..." when I couldn't resist adding, "for 95 miles." At that point she was probably shaking her head or something like what the fuck, and we marched on. Later, Jamey said he knew I would add that last little bit, but I was proud of myself for inserting the proverbial pregnant pause first.

When all was said and done, we banged out 95.2 miles in 5:15, which was not bad, considering. Jamey looked a bit tired (as was I), and so I think I gave him a good run for his money. We stopped at a Subway just about 1.5 miles from the high school, loaded up, and went our separate ways.

I really had fun riding with Jamey on this flattest of rides, had fun riding the disk for the first time in 2007, and put out some decent watts. I may run into Jamey this Saturday, since we'll both be up in Madison riding around--Jamey just for riding, me for Strauss' camp.

Tomorrow morning I do another 3800 meter TT swim as part of a 3-mile workout at the outdoor 50 meter pool, then I chill for a few hours, pick up the Strauss, we go for a short run, I get a massage, and Strauss buys me sushi (OR ELSE). Then Friday, we head up to Madison to do a training camp for IMWI. I can't believe I'm less than 3 weeks out from an Ironman and there's so much going on (and even more I can't discuss right now). Ah, well, such is the life of a Crackhead.

I hope Jamey had fun today!