One century down (literally) and several more to go

Saturday morning 4:08 a.m.
I'm looking at the clock telling myself the alarm will go off in 7 minutes so I do the kind thing and flip the switch before it ever goes off. No one will be awakened.
Shower, pancakes and double, riple checking everything. I'm ahead of schedule a bit and not having the usual nervous energy feeling I normally have before basic rides and this one is with folks I've never riden with and for a century (100 miles) towrd Pine Bluff.

I head out to Willow Beach park and there are tons of cars there! Some folks talking and laughing and some have the "I'm nota morning person... especaily a few minutes before 6 a.m. morning person" look in their eyes. I see several from my group and several friends from other places. I talk with Cecia and Bill and Bll tells us this story of his 3 year old grandson who had taken the batteries out of the flashlight and Bill's wife asked the little child if he wanted her to put the batteries back in the falshlight and he told her, "Oh no, grandma, I need Grandpa t do itbecause he is brave and strong." It was a hoot!

We all were given red, white and blue clothes for headbands, bike decoor whatever you wanted to do with it.

We all gathered and a prayer was lead and off we went. Great group of folks! We moved along about 15 mph as everyone was waking their legs up and Christopher and I were sort of hanging back a tad because bright eyed Matthew did wake up and grace us with his presence. He caught up very quickly and we make our move around the crowd and toward the front group. Ahh yes, the 21mph crowd. No I'm thinking, I could ride this pace all day. I saw jerseys from Trek, Baptist Med, The Ride, ABC, Carve and several others. We all took turns pulling and rides usually do, we split into several groups. Christopher, Matthew, and myself stay with the front group. I'm feeling really great today! We pass some minor road construction off to the side of the road and after that clears we bank into a curve.

Rider down!

OWWWW, man did it bite! I see the waters bottles rolling down the road. I see my bike laying on the other side of the road from me. I see I have a flat front tire. I see I have nice road rash on my leg. The whole front group stops and I tell them to go on, I'm fine, just need to fix the flat. But the truth is, it's hurting a bit. I remove the tire and take the tube out and fumble with everything, totally shocked I went down like that. Wayne helps me get the tube back in, we get aired up. I'm checked over... legs, hands, shoulder all road rashed. I get back on the bike and my hand is telling me to take it easy. I can barely put any pressure on it. It's turning blue on my wrist. I ride with one hand then drop to areo bar style but I don't have areo bars but resting and the handbars gives me a recovery type ride for a bit.

We stop at a little store and load up on Mt Dew, water, Gator and I hit the Tylenol corner. Stuff was a life saver! We ride on out the 15 more miles to the 50 mile point around and wait for others to arrive. Break taken and it's time to headback. Rumors of tailwind surface. That would be nice. We are heading back and ride with the bigger group. There are place along the way where they have these 5 ft gravel spots where they have installed new water lines or something so the group slows for these. I'm second in line now and a girl with a really nice pink Orbea bike slows to almost a stop for the gravel and I pass her and kick it in. 21mph again. I needed to work out the soreness of my accident. I look back a few minutes later and it's Myself, Christopher and Matthew. We've dropped the group. It's not a cocky thing but we were all going 21 one he way out and if I haven't gone down we would have been with the real front group that was way ahead even though it was only 2 or 3 of them in that group now. Chris takes over the pull and I yell that I need to grab some more water right quick at the store. Chris says we are stoping and waiting for the others. We stop and go in and it seems a long time before the others arrive. Were we really that far ahead?

We get going again and this is the part of the ride where everyone has had their fun and the general concensus is to just get it done. Everyone is riding strong and enjoying the ride and my wreck soreness is next to nothing but my butt sure seems sore.

The weather is heating up and begins to take effect on the group. Everyone is drinking a lot of fluids. We ride on slowing a bit and working as a group. We stop a couple more times to rest in the shade. Yale says he's ready for the ride to end, he's dogged out big time. Still laughing but dogged out. But then we're all starting to feel te ffects of the heat.

We all make it back to the parking lot,say goodbys and head home. The air conditioner feels sooo good! HA! I stop by the bike shop and they replace my bar tape while I wait! I love those guys!

I get home and Emmy shows my her sunburn and I one up her with my injuries. "Oh my gosh!!!" She can't beleive it. Chrisotpher told be back on the ride that the shower was going to hurt. I'm putting it off another 5 minutes. Remeber when I was talkign about my butt huritng? Well when I removed my bike shorts my butt looks like my leg! Road rash! My shorts have now gone through 2 big wrecks, the other being the train track wreck last year, and they've never torn? These are the mosamazing riding shorts. Pearl Izumi stuff rocks! Oh yeah, Christopher was right... the shower hurt more than the bike wreck itself.

I crashed on the couch for a bit, had dinner, and here I am. I've been up since 4:08 this morning so I think I'll shoot up some Tylenol and slowly ease into bed... I look like a lady that's had a baby trying to sit down. Ok, now where am I gonna ride tomorrow??? Not!