Amber waves of HEAT

Steve Shepard in the new ABC club kit. Steve is the chief race offical around here.

Jenn and our guest rider. She's one of the Carve women's team. VERY strong rider. I think our ride was more of a recovery rider for her! HA!

One of our new riders in the yellow, Mark Rogers, Matt, Jenn and Chris cool down after the ride.

There has only been a couple of times that I can remember getting dehydrated to the point of chills and a starting headache. Today will go on the books as one of those. Yes it's summertime here in Arkansas and yes it was 95 degrees with the humidity up there. The ABC ride started as usual about 1 and we had a nice little group moving along about 18-20 and as we hit the road we upped it to about 22 and kept a nice pace. We did the usual slow down through the baseball fields then kicked it up on Cantrell and over the train tracks and into downtown. Of course we hit about every red light there is. Finally heading over the Broadway Bridge everyone was riding strong! The gang was all together. We pacelined on the road by the rehab center and Chris Shaw threw a little canjun mojo powder on the line and BAM! We were kicking it and loving it! Up Ft Roots we go and back down and pace it to Cook's. On the way to Cook's those young guys kept the pace up there and I slowing dropped off the back a bit. Jenn and I took turns pulling at about 19mph on in to Cooks. Everyone was drenced in sweat. We all talked and tried to breathe and cool off. The plan was to ride the triple bypass. We got heading back and the line was great. Lots of families so we made sure we slowed and said howdy to the families and young riders. We got to the road and cranked it back up to 22mph and As Mark pulled out from the pulling the group it was now my turn. I was eager to prove I could pull for distance today. I would glance down and we stayed at 22 and we continued until we banked the curve and headed to the side street to get to the bridge. We slowed a bit of course and as we got to the stop sign it was clear which is unusal for that spot. I was still pulling and took us over the bridge. I was feeling good about the distance then wind. Smack me in the face and call me Moses! Just as we crested the rise in the bridge the wind was hitting me head on. I dropped all the way down to 14mph. We all got on over the bridge and the light stayed green for us to turn and that was it for my pull. Not bad but not great. I'll vow to pull better next time. We were taking a bit of a break then speed picked back up and then slowed just before hitting the road by Alltel (Pronouced aww-hell). The pace formed and off we go then that weird sense of somethings wrong began to creep in. I was still with the group but I began to get big time chills. Oh crap! As I was dropping Jenn, who is fighting a sinus infection, was dropping too. I pulled the two of us for a while and I was honestly about to give out and speed was dropping to 14mph and she came around and pulled us on in. Thank you Jenn! A true friend. Chris, her husband, was sticking it out with the young whipper snipper group ahead of us. I drank almost all the water and GU2O I had left and sat on the tailgate and cooled down. I began to feel better fast but knew my body was telling me to take it easy back there. What could I have done different to prevent that I keep asking myself. Anyway, all in all it was a great ride and there were a couple of new folks riding with us. Patrick is still working in Boston and thank heavens otherwise our 22 mph would have been 26.

I told Terri I was going to be in bed by 9:30 reading.... with my eyes closed.