The Cannondale after the ride
Me after the ride
LIVESTRONG "Phlly" (was really Blue Bell, PA) bike ride - My first century ride since about 1992.
It isn't about me, really. I raised $1300 for LIVESTRONG. It's about my sister who has kidney cancer, my mother who died of cancer, Paul K. and others who died, and so many other survivors I run and work with. Fighting cancer is a lot harder than a little 10K run and 100 mile bike ride.
But here is my report:
GARMIN DIED at 32 miles! I rode the second 50 miles at exactly 3 hours. I am pretty sure the first half was faster - or not because 16.7 MPH comes out to almost exactly a 6 hour century (not including 4 five-minute stops for food, bottle refills, pee, and brake tweak noted below). 4263 feet of climbing, according to the web site and I do not doubt it! Would have liked to have the complete data! The last 12 miles were in heavy rain.
Rode the '84 Cannondale with tubulars. Had to remove the tire guides from the rear brakes at about 35 mi, when the pads wore down from all the downhill braking - thought I needed a new brake pad, but it turned out that those stupid triangular things were rubbing the rim. Sunglasses frame broke at about 40 mi; chucked those. Lost the bite valve from my Camelbak at about 55 miles - end of drinking tube at the bite valve rubs my leg and I guess it worked its way off (I have noticed it pull out a little on rides). All the remaining water ran out, so all the Camelbak did was carry my spare tires from there on in.
It was very cool to ride with so many riders - there were a few thousand, I would say, in wave starts of about 500. Random pace lines at times. Saw lots of the same people over and over. I only saw one other "vintage" 80's-90's era bike. Almost everybody had newer bikes and the gears for those climbs - convinced I really want some carbon fiber and 20 speeds.
Lance Armstrong was there, said some words on the PA, then rode with the first group that were the top fundraisers for a while, then did the whole thing in like 4 hours.
Busy weekend: Friday was the last day of the camp I work at. Friday night was a camp party and some drinking. Had to get up at 5:30 AM to get to the 10K run for LIVESTRONG on Saturday (46 min run was slow for me but my suspected stress fractured ankle hurt a lot as the run progressed). Got about 4 hours of sleep on Fri night. Got home before noon after the run to hang with the inlaws, went for a short hike with them and kids at Watchung Reservation in the PM, then went to a Patriots game Sat night. Prepared for today's ride before we left. (That is probably the reason the Garmin died, because I unplugged it about 4PM on Saturday to pack it.) Got only about 5 hours of sleep on Sat night, up at 5 AM for today's ride. So I got through this weekend double with only 9 hours of sleep!
