Saturday, November 17, 2007

The El Tour of De Tucson

Tiff, Tiff's Dad Jay and I biked 66 miles in the El Tour of de Tucson today. Right in the middle of the day too, when it was as high as 85 degrees out in the sun. It was a whole lot of fun, although I'm pretty tired/sore/exhausted right now. I first died at mile 8, but I think that was more of a mental thing, like I couldn't believe that I still had 60 miles to go. Then around mile 40 I REALLY died. My legs were like lead and I couldn't pedal at all. People were passing me like crazy until I reached the next aid station, where they had food and water. I ate about 12 bananas, several oranges, pretzels, and grapes along with a cliff bar before heading off for the last 17 miles. Thankfully those last 17 went pretty well. They even called my name out when I crossed the finish line (I was pretty much alone when I finished)!

Tiff and Jay waited for me for most of the tour which was very nice of them. For the most part, they weren't too far out in front of me, but they definitely waited at least a minute before I showed up the three times we stopped. Then at the last aid station (the one where I had been dying the several miles before I reached it) they ended up leaving before me since I was so busy stuffing myself with food. Apparently Tiffany "really dropped the hammer" over the last several miles and refused to be passed by anyone!

It took us about four hours to finish 66 miles, which isn't so bad. I finished 15 minutes or so behind Tiff and Jay, which I think is not so bad, given that my main goal was just to finish the darn thing!

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

Actually, Shane finished 3:47 behind us. And we had to stop at the rest stops because I REALLY died just as much as Shane did. Dad was the only one who didn't die.