We did it! We rode 42 miles at the Goldilocks ride. It was truly a learning experience for Kim & I.
Neither one of us has been on a road bike before. I just purchased a new bike two weeks prior and Kim does not have a road bike so we had to borrow one. For various reasons: rain/cold/snow weather, she was away at school, I was working a lot of extra hours in April & May, we did not get a chance to try out the bikes until the night before the event. We "fixed" a few minor problems that night. First of all, the borrowed shoes did not fit Kim so she & I had to traded shoes. I was not used to the borrowed shoes and could not clip in or out and fall over. Skinned my right knee and bruised my thigh. (It was a good thing that I am used to falling over on a bike, happened quite a few times last year, and usually just a little bleeding at the knee with no major damage.) It turned out the clips were installed incorrectly to the shoes so I was able to fixed it.
On Saturday May 7th we headed out early in the morning and the episode of the shoes/clips issues last night turned out to be a small problem. I still had a little trouble clipping in, but it was manageable and minor compare to what was ahead of us.
As soon as we got there to pick up our packets, we realized that we did not have any spare tiers or tools with us. It was too late to do anything about it so we prayed and hoped that we would not have flat tires. Our biggest problem came when we started the ride. Kim could not keep up! Imagine that, the half-marathon runner had a hard time staying up with the almost half a century old mom; we were going down hill and I was hardly paddling. At first I though it was because she did not know how to use the gears efficiently. Eventually, I traded bike with her and immediately realized that there was something wrong with the bike. It was more work to ride it than my heavy mountain bike. We pulled over and figured out that the rear break was off center and was rubbing against the tire. No wonder she could not keep up; she was riding with the break on. Since it was the first time she rode a road bike, she had no idea what a road bike should feel like. Of course we had no tool and could not fix it. I finally lift the little lever on the break that is used when you want to remove the wheel to fix a flat tire. I made sure the rear break would still work for her and we moved on. I instructed her to pull over when she see a support vehicle to have them help her fix the break issue and went ahead. Anyway, while I spotted a support vehicle and pulled over to wait for her, she missed the car and me and went ahead. Anyway, we were separated because I thought she was still behind me and keep waiting for her at the rest stops while She thought I got impatient and left her behind. We did not see each other again until the end.
We come up with list of things to be aware of for first timer of a biking event.
- First of all, make sure your bike works properly.
- Carry a spare tier and some tools. We were lucky that we did not have flat tires. After the Goldilocks, I went straight to the bike shop and purchased a seat bag and some tools in case of a flat tire or a broken chain.
- Adjust the helmet to fit properly; my helmet kept sliding backwards, it was such a bother.
- Each riders needs to carry a cell phone - this is not only important when you get separated and need to contact someone, it is also very important if you have a flat tire, get injured, or experience a bike malfunction that you need to be picked up from the side of the road. Kim did not want to carry her cell phone with her from her long distance running experience, but it was a mistake for biking event.
- Each rider needs to carry the little map provided by the even organizer - when I pulled over to the support vehicle, a lady had to call her family to come get her because she rear rim was bad and could not continue the event. If you don't have the map, it's harder to give you location. The map also had event organizer contact phone numbers that could come in handy.
- Eat, eat, eat, and drink, drink, drink. Stop at every rest stop to eat and drink even if you don't think you need to. I rode to the turn around point which was about 28 miles. It was after a long uphill ride so I rested, ate, drank, refilled my water bottle, had a potty break, rested some more, and was ready to head back. Now it was a nice long down hill so I was feeling great. I arrived at the 3rd stop in very little time. I was worried about where Kim was and decided to go ahead and skip the rest stop and ride to the end. BAD IDEA!!! I was "bonked" when I was about 5 miles from the finishing point. According to Infinite bike shop, in endurance sports, particularly cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk describes a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by precipitous fatigue and loss of energy. I have never did anything long distance before and did not realized that I need to eat weather I think or feel that I need it or not.
- Each rider should carry some food, preferably sugary food in the pocket. When I started to feel the huger and lost of energy, I stopped when I feel I had to but I only had water to drink. Soon I ran out of water and I was so hungry. I went on. At the very last hill, and it was just a little hill, I had to stop again and I was shaking. I had to walk my bike about 15 feet to the top of the hill. When I felt that I could continue, I was in such bad shape that I barely had enough energy to lift my leg over the bike. I could not clip my right foot in to get started. I managed to lift my foot to try to clip in again and simply toppled over onto the ground. Talk about precipitous fatigue! Only if I had some sugary food with me; I could of avoided all of the un-necessay sufferings.
- Last but not the least: apply sun screen to every exposed face, arm and leg area. We both forgot to sunscreen and we were sun burned! Kim was in better shape because she had been out in the sun more often than I. My poor thighs and the back of my legs was burn pretty bad and I was in pain for days. My sister-in-law who is an experienced long distance biker said that she carries a small tube of sunscreen in her seat bag so she will always have access to some sunscreen; smart!
Despite all of our inexperience and troubles, we had a great time and immediately went and signed up for next year after we had a chance to eat. I wondered why after all my "sufferings", I was so ready to do it again? Kim also wonder how in the world I got these markings on my legs; they weren't just grease marks, I had cuts and bruises and one of the bruise mark looked just like the bike chain mark. Yeah, I think I won the klutz award.
Crossing the finishing line was exhilarating; it was all worth it. And the only way to get there is to RIDE ON!!! I bought this necklace before we even started the ride; I guess I knew what I needed to do to finish.
