the longest day

A couple weeks ago, one of my teammates sent out an email about a ride he was organizing for the longest day of the year. The plan was to leave early in the morning from the shop, ride to Ocean City and back.

I asked around to see who was going, thinking that if it was a big group I’d have no problem hanging out on the back for 102 miles. Few people were able to commit to the date. 

As of June 18th the total stood at three...that’s when I was in...even though the longest I've ridden was 75 miles (three years ago for a charity ride) and the occasional 50, but nothing this long.

Three guys and a girl, 102 miles...

There was a fear in the back of my mind that the pace would be too much for me to handle. Then I thought about all the times I've invited other women to ride, only to be met with responses like “I haven’t been riding much so we can’t go too hard” or “I don’t want to hold you back, I might be slow.” Guys never say that kinda shit, they just go out there and hammer.

And so it began at 6:30am on June 19th...by mile 10 we had already stopped for our second flat. It wasn’t too late to turn around, but I didn’t. We reached 34th Street beach in Ocean City at 9:30am, made a quick stop at Wawa and headed into the headwind home.

Somewhere around mile 70 we stopped for water. One of my teammates got a cramp in his quad as he went to get off his bike. We slowed the pace, let him ride on the back, but he couldn’t continue. Another teammate waited until someone came to pick him up.

And then there were two...

The Willamstown bike path was the light at the end of the tunnel. I wanted to downshift and spin, but my legs couldn't move that fast so I left it in a bigger gear. I was crossing my fingers, hoping that the “low battery” indicator on my Garmin would hold out for just a few more miles...Broadway in Pitman, just a couple more minutes...the unit powered off. I rolled up to my car, grabbed a change of clothes and headed into the shop.

On the ride down, we all took pulls. There were times when I got to the back and thought about sitting out a round, but I didn’t. Sitting at the WaWa in Ocean City, I thought about just riding on the back for the return trip, but I didn’t. And I surprised myself...I hung in there with the guys, averaging 19.5mph for that 102 miles.