Distance - 41.85
Time - 3.21.41
Avg Speed - 12.4mph
Max Speed - 41.0 mph
RED DRESS DAY!
Is it possible to have surprise climbs?? Yes, it is! I guess it would help if we looked at the elevation profile but I think that was even slightly underestimating. At dinner the night before, apparently they were going over the ride for today and no mention of climbing was made. Well, there were a couple very good climbs I must say.
Team Sacramento intended to ride together for at least part of the day but most of them left while I was getting ready to head out. A text from Kenny said The Misfits were planning to leave later so I headed out on my own. With a crowd. lol First part of the ride was pretty flat and a good warm up on a cold morning. I caught up with Team Sacto at the Rest Stop 1 where we took some photos and did some red dress site seeing. There are some very creative and daring people in this world! I took off with Team Sacto, which is the first time I have actually ridden with any of them. lol On training rides they were always well ahead of me so I mostly rode alone. We did a good job staying together until we got to the first climb. Though there was a head wind and it was safer to stay at the back of the group, I needed to climb faster. So I pulled out and, after recovering from the hit of wind I took, was able to climb on. Bear caught up eventually and we each passed Samantha. Bear stopped at the top and so did Samantha and I. There was some talk about whether this was the top or not... Bear thought yes and Samantha thought no. So far Samantha has been pretty accurate in her memory of the ride from last year so I had to go with her. It was definitely NOT the end of the climb. This first climb just seemed to go on and on. I heard people yelling, singing, talking to themselves, etc. Eventually I started saying out loud, "This is vol-un-tary! This is my choice! I am not in prison!" This helped me to count my pedal strokes and made a couple people laugh, which is always helpful. Eventually made it to the actual top after a couple of false summits. Then a great downhill toward Rest Stop 2. Apparently I was taking a bit too much of the road because a car passenger gave me the finger when they passed by. A little horn toot and I would have moved over but I didn't know they were there. Ah well, they lost about 3 seconds in their drive.
Rest Stop 2 was a Bad Bride theme. Cute! More photos, food, and liquids then Perry and I took off to begin the second climb. This one was a switchback that is apparently supposed to look like a red ribbon as we ride. Of course it never crosses over itself so that's impossible but I'm sure it looks very cool from above! I didn't find this climb nearly as difficult as the first. I believe it was shorter so that was probably part of it. Or possibly I just blocked out the pain. (=
The lunch stop was about 3 miles from the end of the ride for the day. Gotta love that! I grabbed my food and sat in front of the "The Voice" stage and waited to see people I know. John E. showed up and sat with me but then the rest of Team Sacto showed up and sat elsewhere so we moved. "The Voice" was great lunchtime entertainment after which The Misfits got our Red Dress Day photo taken and then headed out for the 3-mile ride home.
Another Motel 6 but this one was quite far from ALC Camp. So we went there so I could shower and change before heading back for the Team Sacto "official" team photo. We got a little lost trying to get back to the park and they were not able to wait for me so I missed out on that photo. Bummer. But we went to the meal tent for dinner and I definitely ate my fair share.
There was a comedian for entertainment tonight, Shawn Pelofsky, who was very funny! With a hotel and a memory foam bed, she became the hottest chick in the place. A long day tomorrow so we didn't stay for the whole show. Back to Motel 6 for some Princess sleeping!
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