9/15/2008

Well, they say your first 100 is the hardest. Actually, they may not say that, but I do. A bunch of the TriGirlIMFLs, as well as IMJoan and MyKaren and next year's IMFLMolly went off on the Heart of Virginia 100 mile ride Saturday morning. The course description included the word "hilly" but we never thought it meant HILLY. It was freakin hot as doodoo, hilly as crap, and hard. I suppose if we can ride that 100 miler, then IMFL will not be bad at all, but I'm reserving my right to call any 100 or 100+ ride sucky. We lost Brad during the first 25 mile loop due to a destroyed rear axel, we lost Charlotte to a blown tire around mile 35. Both Charlotte and KateO had flats, and both changed the tires very capably. However, Charlotte got some help topping off the tire from the sag dude, and it blew out the side before she could get it back on the bike. Lucky her that he was there, at least to give her a ride back to the start.

I ran over a turtle, Sharon said it was already dead, I hope she wasn't lying. I didn't see it at all, as I was following her as we were being passed by a long train of stupid roadies, none of whom said a damn word as they went by. I hate that, just freakin say "on your left and there are a million of us" so no one swerves to miss a turtle and causes the motha of all wrecks. Not that I swerved, I ran right over it. My major melt-down happened around mile 65 and ended somewhere around mile 78 (at a rest stop). Thankfully, MyKaren was there to coax me to eat a gu, take some electrolytes and Tylenol, and keep going. Man, I am a bigass baby when I bonk. But I didn't cry. That would have taken too much energy. The ice cream at the finish was very nice.

Ran 8 or so on the Buttermilk loop with MyKaren and Sharon Sunday am, before it got too hot, but it was still hot as crap. Didn't feel too bad, running on trails is easier on my knees and it was mostly in shade so that helped. Looking forward to the next mega-workout....not really.