45 miles of...

...pain and pleasure. what can i say. i loved it, but it killed me. well, actually, i did a lot better than i thought!

i signed up for a 70K/45 mile bike ride at the end of june (which landed, of course, on one of the hottest weekends that month). starting out in san mateo, we caught alameda de las pulgas to crystal springs road. which then dead ended into skyline blvd (highway 35). it's probably a good thing i didn't look at the route map before the ride, because if i had known that i'd be cycling on skyline, i would have said "HELL NO".

but... in that moment, the only choices i had were to: a) freak out and turn back, b) freak out and cycle while freaking out, or c) suck it up and not panic. i chose (c) and tried really hard not to care about the fact that i was on a steep decline (i hate downhill) with no shoulder and cars passing by at ~45 MPH, inches away from me.

i was not prepared for the amount of hills in this ride. after the relatively flat 30 mile ride in morgan hill back in may, i didn't alter my expectations this time around for some stupid reason. i was not mentally prepared for it, and probably not physically. still - it probably did me some good not to dwell on it beforehand.

the best part was riding on canada road and alpine road. totally fun places to take your bike, with a good amount of up and downhill to keep things interesting, yet not make you want to die.

at one point, there was a speed radar set up on the side of the road at the bottom of a hill to catch cars speeding. it clocked me at 19 MPH: i was riding the breaks while other cyclists whizzed by at 35+ MPH. yikes!

the picture above is at ~35 - 40 miles into the ride. i still have a smile on my face - a good sign despite the annoying hip joint pain and the incredibly horrible and dreaded right upper back pain i was experiencing.

all in all, it was GREAT. i would definitely do it again. bryce was a great riding partner, who kindly waited for me at the top of every hill since i'm a big slow poke on uphills.

next ride is the tour de max in august - a measly 30 miles that will be a piece of cake!