Sunday, May 22, 2011

Fountain Hills...GOODBYE!

Saturday was our last ride in Fountain Hills.  A typical morning starts at 4 AM.  I eat, get ready, fill up my camel pack, and Gatorade bottle.  Pack all of my biking stuff and get it into my car.  I am out the door by 5 AM to make it by 5:30AM.  I am not going to LIE...I it was a TOUGH morning.  I was looking for any excuse to quit.  I had woken up GROUCHY and still tired.  I have been riding during the week at 5 AM instead of after work.  I am not a morning person and I think it had taken its toll. 

The beginning of my ride I was pretty winded. and slower than usual.  The 3 sisters were my first challenges.  Last week I had not conquered the last sister and almost fell off my bike.  This week Coach Wanda took an attempt at getting my up that hill.  I had conquered the first 2 sisters and before we hit the last one she said "OK Sylvia, you are doing this for my uncle and your DAD!"  She was yelling "DON'T STOP PEDALLING...YOU ARE DOING IT!"  Between my Coach's and MY yelling we probably looked CRAZY...BUT I MADE IT!  I had conquered the 3 sisters!

It took me an hour to really warm up and I finally got into the groove.  The weather was cooler and I was going a little faster...I decided to that I was going make it to 71 miles.  I added a loop that had a nice down hill but an uphill that really STUNK!  I was 100 yards from the gas station...then I heard some air popping out.  I HAD A FLAT TIRE!!  Are you KIDDING ME!  Well I got the tire changed...ate my power bar as quick as I could.  Everyone else had already left the  station and I was behind.  Luckily Maryann (another novice rider) waited for me so I did not have to go back by myself.  SHE WAS AWESOME!  The heat really was beating down  enough for us to be drinking like crazy so we had to stop a little more frequently for water.  In the end we MADE IT to cheers from the rest of the team.  LAST BUT NOT LEAST!

I learned that regardless of how I am feeling mentally or physically I am able to push through it and achieve a goal.  I AM RIDING 100 MILES on June 5th in honor of my dad and collecting donations for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society to help them continue finding treatments and a possible cure for these blood cancers.

Please donate to my ride...Every little bit helps : D


http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/ambbr11/sguzmannzd

1 comment:

  1. You're doing awesome Sylvia... getting me motivated to get in shape. I'm proud of you!

    ReplyDelete