Overcoming the Obstacles...or just Complaining?

I have much guilt about only getting one ride in last week so decided to go for a long one today. Today's trek took me down the Sakatah Trail from Madison Lake to Morristown. I wasn't sure if the trail was going to be open through the Sakatah Lake State Park, due to the state government shutdown, but it was. There were barricades up however on the roads that went through the park. And if I was a mischievous teenager I'd probably find a reason to go hang out in the park with no one around.

My friend Ann (member of the Lactic Acid Gang) sent some official padded biking shorts to me and they took their maiden voyage today. I must say that they really are not meant as "walking around" wear as the pad feels like the world's largest maxi-pad with butt wings. However, when you ride your bike with them on they are squeezing and wicking and padding one's parts, so that is all good.

Today's ride was more like an obstacle course as there was need to dodge and swerve around miles and miles of downed tree branches. Not big tree branches but smaller ones that are still capable of getting jammed in your spokes. I'm sure this detritus is also thanks to the state gov't shutdown as there are no state employees receiving paychecks to come and clean them up. (Do not the rest of us have to make compromises every day?)

On the return trip I ran out of water and stopped at the Alley Scoops Ice Cream and Other Treats shop in Elysian. The kind lady filled my empty water bottle and sold me the world's biggest popsicle. It was about ten inches long (hugely phallic in construction) and Jolly Rancher flavored. It was not as good as a root beer or banana popsicle but it was tasty enough at the time.

The last eight miles of the 44.5 were tough as I had entered the discomfort zone. Pretty much everything hurt by that point and I questioned why people do this to themselves. Is there joy in the pain? Is it just seeing if you can survive and reach your goal? It reminds me of childbirth where there is a lot of pain and discomfort involved (and some really good drugs), but you get a baby (or two, or three) at the end of it all. I didn't get a baby at the end of this ride (thankfully!) so I'll have to settle for just feeling good about reaching my goal...surviving a long ride. I look forward to being able to walk up and down steps without saying "ouch" on each one and having the full feeling restored to my pinkie by tomorrow, hopefully.

Still working on reaching my fund raising goal. Check out my progress at: http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/gjengdahl