When I signed up for this event, I was taking 2 classes at UofL and working full time. Since I work well under pressure, the money was raised before the end of May...$2500 thanks to my generous friends and to people who sent money anonymously. Two people sent money that I still haven't identified. I liked the fact that the money went directly to Norton Healthcare Cancer Research Foundation and I was familiar with one of the people involved. It still surprises me when there are people I know from all walks of life in this little town...I lived in Dallas for most of my life before moving here and didn't know anyone.
Heather, Linda and her sister, Sherry and I met at E.P. Tom Sawyer park at 6:45am. Unlike, for the OKHT ride, I stayed at home Friday night and got to Heather's house at 6:10. There weren't any lights on in the house so I called Heather's cell phone and asked her what she was doing and she said, "sleeping, what time is it?" I said, "6:10, get your a__ out of bed and come let me in!" I get really hyper before big rides so I tried to remember others are not as nuts as I am. Heather rallied quickly and got going. We heard her Dad in the kitchen upstairs (which reassured me greatly), got our gear stowed in the van and off we went. We both had a lot of gear for the overnight stay and we both had the same cots (big ones). We did our traditional stop to get Gatorade for Heather and arrived at the park around 6:45.
I was amazed and impressed with how organized and energized everything was! There were trucks with color-coded symbols for our gear that we hit first and then we went in a gate and parked our bikes on wooden 'horses' while we went to find some grub and coffee. There was music playing and a very impressive START platform for the opening ceremonies. We had breakfast sandwiches, yogurt, fruit, coffee, juice and stuff to put in waterbottles in case we hadn't done that yet.
We found Linda Remington fairly quickly and she brought her sister Sherry along for moral support. Linda purchased a new bike for the event, had been training very hard with the RtoCC group for the good part of late spring and early summer and she was stoked!! It was her very first ride event, she had raised $2500 to earn her place and she was fearless (at least outwardly). I admire her a great deal for what she accomplished.
Heather had gotten our jerseys and packets the night before so we just hung out and waited for the sun to come up. I was able to locate Terry Rixman who is Karen's uncle and a cancer survivor. He was nervous but excited and his daughter Jennifer was there with her husband Jason. Terry had affixed his yellow flag to the back of his saddle and we all waited together. The opening ceremonies were very touching and made me very happy I had chosen this cause to focus my energies upon. There were people who were cancer survivors, people who were still battling cancer, and people riding in memory of people lost to cancer. I thought about my friend Bob who is battling bladder cancer, and of my Grandmother, who died of lung cancer. I thought about how sick Terry got and about what a joy it has been to spend time with him now. He is truly a miracle and inspiration.
There was a threat of rain for the day and it was very damp but no rain fell and it was not terribly cold. The road didn't look wet, but our tires were leaving trails so there was a lot of moisture in the air. So much, in fact, that it was very hard to get lungfuls of air.
We got to E.P. Tom at 8 or so and sent our gear ahead on the truck that went to Bardstown. I think the 1200 rider limit was met easily for this ride and it was great to be among so many other bikes and see all of the gadgets and beautiful machines. Heather's bike is one of them, she has a new Giant, very sleek and light-weight. Mine is a work-horse that I recently tried to lighten with smooth tires and a new extension on my handlebar. It is much faster but still very heavy.
We both had very busy weeks before the ride so we were tired going in. My weeks are all heavy and I'm always tired on Saturday morning. Heather and I set out with the last of the riders around 9 or so. We were committed to the 72-mile ride and had not decided whether we would do the century. It took me 22 miles to get warmed up and comfortable; it usually takes 10. I was not shifting skillfully, dropping my chain a couple of times and very wobbly. Heather was behind me as usual and giving me encouragement until I found my groove. We are evenly matched but she likes for me to go first because I will push us harder.
People came from all over the country to ride in this. Missouri, New Jersey, Florida. There were bike club jerseys from everywhere. Speaking of jerseys, Heather wore a jersey she got silk-screened at Dirty Tease that she used to get donations for the Ride to Conquer Cancer which is coming up on the 25th of September. She found sponsors from several places who gave her money in return for having their logos on her jersey. She raised over 500.00 with it. I wore the OKHT jersey and it is the first jersey I've bought since I threw out all of my bike clothes following a series of wrecks.
Kentucky is gorgeous. I spend too much time in the city and get very hungry for being in the countryside. We spent a good portion of the ride in what I would describe as 'hollers' deep in the country where there are what look like squatter shacks and lots of chickens and dogs. We saw lots of corn and tobacco and soybeans. Beautiful old barns and farm-houses. The hollers were hidden amongst the rolling hills and there were lots of ravines, and beautiful vistas that I think would rival any in southern France or England. We were in one of these hollers and a guy with us was looking at his trip sheet and wondering aloud whether we were on a street called Polin. I was not paying much attention to him until I heard a voice in one of the ravines droll, 'yeah, this is Polin'. We thought that was very funny at the time but, you probably had to be there to agree.
One of these pictures shows us at the crossroads, where we had to decide to commit to the century or finish the 72-mile ride. I think that was around the 60-mile mark. I was feeling pretty ambivalent about it but Heather said 'let's go for it' so we did. She used the reasoning that we had nothing else to do that day but ride so we should just ride all day. She says this often. Once you get her on the bike, she is content to stay there all day. It is one of the reasons I love to ride with her. If you don't have to worry about limitations with your riding buddy, you can go farther without worrying whether they will poop out on you.
Now on to the Pottershop Rd. It came at the 96th mile. At the first sag, I was talking to a woman about her impressions of this hill and she used the word 'ridiculous' to describe it. She was in her 60's so I thought maybe it was for her but we would be able to do it. Somewhere along the ride I told Heather about this adjective giving warning about the hill. It is legendary for its difficulty and neither of us had ever seen it or knew what to expect. However, the elevation map on our trip sheet shows the first hill on this series of three as a vertical wall looking like it was dug out of a mountain and I thought had to be an exaggeration. 30 feet into the hill, Heather and I were off our bikes and trudging up the hill with the handlebars even with our heads and our feet about 2 feet behind the back tires. It was a 14% grade and I felt it would be impossible under any condition but after the 96-mile, it makes you want to cry. There were perky signs all over the road and beside the road saying things like "I love hills", 'you're not done yet', 'don't look up'. It was incredible. The series of 3 hills stretched across about 2 miles curving around the landscape so that you sometimes could not see what was ahead until you were topping a portion of the grade and hoping you were done. Brutal. We only walked about 50 yards of the whole 2 miles and I thought that was really good. We were so ready for that ride to be over. After the ride, I ran into Jenny (the woman who desribed the hill to me) and she told me that she and her husband had done Pottershop with fresh legs and made it without walking but I am pretty sure I could not do that. It was amazing to see the fitness level of people my age and 20 years and more older. They were very inspiring.
Because we had not committed to the century, we set out late with the main pack instead of leaving early with the century riders and were, consequently, the last 2 riders into Bardstown. We found out we were the last two about 10 miles from Pottershop but we were OK with it. The sags along the way closed at posted times and we were so late that the last sag was waiting an hour and a half for us. It was also after the hill and there was a little party with music and celebration that we'd missed by a long time. We couldn't believe they were so kind and patient. They were the heroes for us and we were so grateful. Both of us were out of water by that time. Also, the sag vehicles had radio contact with each other and rode ahead and behind keeping tabs on us. They never gave us the indication that they were the least bit impatient waiting for us. It was really wonderful.
It was around 7:30 PM when we finally got to Bardstown and a few (5 or 6) people were at the entrance to the school who half-heartedly applauded us. I was glad to see them and knew they were surprised to see us. They could tell we were just coming in and not just other riders tooling around...that's how tired we were. We got signed-in and gave our addresses to the people there so that they could send our Pottershop award pins which they had run out of or misplaced and we were informed that the food was all gone. No dinner. So we decided that we'd get something that was close to our hotel. We put our bikes in the gym and waited at the gym for the next bus to take us to the hotel. Even though we were the last riders in, we were only on the bikes for 8.5 hours and had kept a 14 mph average. That is really a high average and something we were happy with.
This is where I met Larry Varney from bentrideronline.com. He was riding a bent -rider trike that I fell in love with. He allowed me ride it. He reviews these bikes for a journal on this website and gets great deals on the bikes. He offered to sell me the one he had for $2400. I would love to have it and will keep it on my wish-list to chew on. It was very fast and low to the ground...two things that could lead to trouble for me but I would still love to have one. There is a whole trike culture and many of them can be seen on this website. Larry also has a website with his reviews at larryvarney@fuse.net.
The bus never came and Heather was getting grumpier and more tired by the minute and we decided to walk up to the front where the entrance was and see if there was still a bus running. There was, it just wasn't giong into the compound by the gym anymore so it was a good thing we walked up there. We boarded the bus with our tired selves and in our gear while everyone else had showered and done their hair and looked ready for a night on the town. I am sure there was some bourbon around somewhere and maybe they were going there. One thing that struck me about this ride was how many people my age (48) and older there were. I'd say that half of the people on the ride fit that category. There were also some very young riders, including an 8-year old riding tandem with his dad. Some kids a little older were riding on their own and I thought that was amazing, too, since the fact they were there meant they had ridden at least 55 miles.
We had to stay in our bike clothes through dinner because the only place to eat was another hotel across the street that had a dining room open until 9 and it was 8:35 by the time we got there. We ate the food cooked by our waitress; catfish for Heather and country-fried steak for me. We tipped her generously and passed on the cherry cobbler she offered which she'd made the day before, although that was hard for me. I'd only brought about $30 on the ride and didn't want to be without cash Sunday.
The hotel was run and owned by some people from India who lived in the apartment behind the office. At first, they could not see our reservation in the book, and I thought Heather might jump over the counter, but luckily they found it. We had dropped off our gear (one giant, heavy bag) and gone to dinner. We got showers and complained a little about where it hurt. My bottom was my issue but I think we were both too tired to complain too much. During the ride, I'd done a lot of complaining. Heather didn't complain much but we were not looking forward to riding back the next day (55 miles). I'm going to just go ahead and say that the ride Sunday was the most painful 5 hours of my life. That is all I will say. We were so glad to get back to Tom Sawyer and we swore off Pottershop Hill (the century) but decided we would definitely do the 72-mile next year.
When Heather's friend Billy suggested that we just ride the rest of the way to her house since we'd already ridden 55 she started entertaining the thought of killing him. He said it would only take us 1/2 hour. She thought he was serious and I was pretty sure he was joking. He does that. Billy and Heather's son William came and put us in the car. My car was waiting at Heather's and we took a picture of us in the Rav4 for an after ride shot and I drove home and napped for 2 hours because I couldn't do anything else. I would have stayed in bed till the next morning except that my dogs needed my attention.
The ride will make great shop talk the next time we find ourselves around a group of other riders and we will look forward now to the ride to Lexington next weeked.
