A Wet Saturday Ride

All week, the forecast for this weekend was rain, rain, and more rain. But we were to show up rain or shine. Unfortunately, we had no shine the whole ride. It was a 32.9 mile ride starting from McKenzie Park in Los Altos. Route was Foothill to Page Mill to Alpine to Portola (this looked familiar...sorting ride at the beginning of the season) to (I missed 3 miles because I missed this turn to Mountain Home to Woodside to Whiskey Hill to Sand Hill) so I went directly from Portola to Sand Hill to Santa Cruz back to Alpine to Arastradero to Page Mill back to Arastradero to Foothill and back to McKenzie Park.

I started out the ride with two other teammates, Henry and Mike. At around mile 10, while going up Alpine, I remembered from the sorting ride how I was having a hard time getting up this hill so I decided to attack it with a good pace. Henry and Mike decided to keep a slower pace. Either that or they wanted to make me feel better! I know Henry and Mike are both stronger riders than I. Thanks guys!

Nevertheless, I kept my pace and ended up riding the rest of the trip on my own. I was getting soaked and kept thinking, man, now would be a good time to have a rear fender! :o) Being wet didn't bother me, but when I stood up to climb and then sat back down, that's when it was obvious how wet I was! :o)

As most of you know, I just started cycling so obviously I've never ridden in the rain before. I've ridden a motorcycle in the rain before, but those tires have much more contact than these little road tires on my bike. Oh well, I was having fun either way. Luckily for me, right before the ride, I decided to put my golf rain jacket in my bag just in case. It definitely helped!

Coach Patrick and one of the mentors, Arielle, caught me on Foothill (about 3 miles to the end) and we all road back to the parking lot together. Surprisingly, the parking lot was not as full as it was when we first started. Apparently, some other team members and even coaches called it quits! In some ways, I'm glad I ended up riding by myself so that I didn't have anyone to tempt me to quit! I probably would have. Instead, I just kept thinking, I better peddle faster so that I can be done faster! I was pretty happy with my ride, going 29.86 miles (see above - missed 3 miles due to missing a turn) in a little over 2 hours and soaking wet!

Once again, TNT has allowed me to do something I've never done before and that's ride in the rain! Not only did I get soaked, but I also got pretty dirty. The bike needed a bath so I cleaned the bike as soon as I got home today. Now I'm ready for hill climbs tomorrow! I hope it rains!! Just kidding!