The beginning and the end, sort of.

My first official sports jersey and rider number ever!

Whoop, there it is! This was the view at the starting line at 7 a.m. this morning. The throng was ready to ride! This was actually the view of the third of three waves of riders that were heading out...the coolest people were in the back. My dear friend Ann and her b'friend Peter were there to help with the send off and volunteer their time to help handing out snacks.

The temps started out in the mid-60s, which are perfect riding temps in my humble opinion, but the sky was pregnant with rain that didn't wait too long to start falling. The joy of riding in the rain is that you can only get so wet and then you can't get any wetter. Once my socks and shoes were thoroughly saturated I was at maximum water retention. I was wishing for a pair of those Elton John glasses from the 70s that had windshield wipers on them however. I now truly understand why riders wear man-made fibers and what that wicking thing is all about. We got a good dose of rain before it finally stopped.

 

Here is the elevation profile for the La Crosse ride. I didn't make it to that mountainous looking region in the middle, which is okay as it probably would have been my demise. The rest stops were about 14 miles apart and were staffed by enthusiastic volunteers who were leading you to food and drink at every opportunity. This is also where the porta-potties could be found. I was making sure to follow the three 'P's and was drinking enough liquid to warrant stopping. The chunk of the ride between rest stop one and two was hillier than the first section. The second rest stop was in Iowa.

(Hard to see in the small version, but that sign is the "Welcome to Iowa" sign) I wanted to film a lot more of the ride but it became too challenging to ride and film and not get hit by a car all at the same time. My original plan this morning was to ride a "metric century" which equates to about 62 miles, which means I would have had to ride about three miles past the second rest stop and then turn around and head back. But after all of the hills that I had just conquered, I wasn't sure that I could make it that far. I overheard a young women saying that she was going to head back and one of the coaches said he'd ride back with her so she wasn't alone. I recognized this woman as I had spent some time riding behind her earlier and knew that we went about the same pace. At that point I trashed the idea of riding out three miles more and pretended to be an extrovert, went over and introduced myself and said I'd ride back with her. This turned out to be a good thing for both of us as it was much better to ride with someone than alone. Katelin was riding for her 19 year old brother and hadn't trained, other than riding eight miles yesterday. Gulp! We battled our way back over the hills which seemed to be only upwards on the way back and made it back to the finish line together.

Hooray! I'm happy to be done with the ride for this year. It is still the most uncharacteristic thing I've ever done, but I have a personal investment in doing what I can to help raise funds so type one diabetes can be cured. All the MN riders had motivational bike-ware to keep them going and remind them what all this pedaling was about.

These are the reasons we ride...there is Annika on the bottom row, third one over from the left. There is my medal that I just might have to wear around the rest of the day. Now it is time for a celebratory margarita with friends!

Countdown...

Eek! Where has the time gone? The ride is tomorrow morning at 7a.m. Looks like there is a good chance that there will be rain to go along with the start. There are almost 400 riders in tomorrow's ride and together we raised just over one million dollars!!!! One dude raised over $100,000 himself! Guess the bar has been raised. There is still plenty of opportunity for people to donate and help me beat out that guy...how about $150,000?  Go to http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR?px=1210912&fr_id=1472&pg=personal and throw some money in the kitty and help get me there. Eighty percent of the funds raised go directly to research to find a cure for type one diabetes.

Many people here have said this ride is a life-changing event and there will be many "goose bump moments." I have been teary-eyed more than once since arriving so tomorrow I may be a blithering mess. It is amazing and inspiring to see all of the people that dedicate so much of their time, effort and money to help JDRF find a cure. My friend Ann from Madison is here with her friend Peter and they decided to volunteer to hand out drinks and snacks at the start/finish line...and to yell really loudly for me when I start and finish.

I am fully carb-loaded and sloshy with hydration and now must get some sleep so I can function at 5a.m. To my family...this one's for you.