48 miles!

I woke up this morning at 6am, packed my bike and gear, and drove out to Katy Mills Mall for "Puddle for the Ducks". When I got there, I figured I would do good if I only went for 28 miles - the shortest route. At the 2nd rest stop around 18 miles in, a decision had to be made. Turn left - your route is 48 miles. Turn right - it's 28. I turned left.

Life is all about making decisions. Do you go one way because it's shortest or easiest? Or do you go another way to show yourself you aren't looking for the easy way out?

The ride started out with no wind, no noticable wind anyway. When I made that left turn, I told myself "There's no turning back". Of course, there's SAG there if you can't finish the ride. But to me, I didn't see that as an option. There were a handful of times that the side wind gusts were so strong that my bike swayed and I thought I was going to crash into riders passing me on the left. The headwind was making many people stop and rest, including me. The headwind gusts, from what one gentlemen told me, was 25 mph. There were several people along the 48-mile route that I saw packing up their bikes and calling it quits. That was me last year. This year, that's NOT going to be me.

Along the route, I witnessed a pretty bad collision with 4 riders. So bad, that the road was blocked off both ways with 2 police cars, 2 SAG motorcycles, and 1 ambulance. The Ride Marshalls there told us to get off our bikes and walk through the accident scene. Two people were laying on the side of the road in the grass crying, obviously in pain. I heard the paramedic say that one of the ladies' ankles might be broken.  Oh, how I literally felt her pain in that moment.  Not too long ago, I broke my ankle in a biking accident.  It was a tough journey to get to where I wanted to be, but I did...so will she.

So what's my next plan? I am going to try my hand (or feet in this case) at cycling with clips again. I have the shoes, and I have the clips. I didn't have enough patience and confidence in myself the first time I tried it and ended up breaking my ankle in the process. I am going to take my bike back into the place where I bought it and ask that they reattach the clips. It will be an exciting and scary experience to try it again. But I know that I can gain enough confidence to ride with the "Big Dogs".