LIVESTRONG Challenge - Austin

So, today was the big LIVESTRONG Challenge. Oh boy. Challenge is certainly not an understatement - I'm tellin' ya, these LIVESTRONG rides are certainly not your typical charity ride. Some of you may recall that I did the ride in Philly last year, and it was extremly hilly and hot. I had a really tough ride. I knew that the Austin ride would be in "hill country", but I figured it couldn't be any hillier than Philly - and that's true. But let me back up....

The alarm went off at 4:45 this morning. We were quick with getting our stuff together and met John and Rick downstairs. I loaded up the three bikes into our rental car and we were off. Wait a minute, I need some coffee! The hotel Starbucks wasn't quite ready with their coffee (and there was a piece missing to our coffee maker in the hotel, so we couldn't make coffee) - we found a gas station on our way to the race site and actually the coffee was awesome! We followed Rick and John, which was great because I didn't have to "think" so early in the morning. Of course they were doing construction on the already small highway leading to the race site, so the traffic was a bit nutso. Thankfully we were warned in advance and left plenty of time to get there.

We arrived at the school around 6:30, unloaded our gear and started getting everything together - airing up the tires, loading up the jersey pockets, socks, shoes, helmet, glasses (even tho it's pitch black out here!)...once we had everything ready, we had to ride our bikes to the start. This was approx 2 miles from the grassy lot we parked in, so a good opportunity to see if there were any hiccups in the shifting and such. Everything seemed to be in good working order. Check.

We rode by the port-o-potties (yes, this is the best part of any race - NOT!) for a final pit stop before lining up in the corral. We ran into our other ACI teammates, Jennifer and her husband, David. We were able to snap some pictures (hopefully those will turn out ok and I'll post them soon)

There was a 20 minute delay to the ride, so we were all pretty excited when it was time to roll out! The 90-milers went first (this was us...) and with a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...we were OFF!

I'll spare you the mile-by-mile details, but will say that this was a tough ride. It wasn't the climbing that made it tough, rather the surface. It was that chip seal and it was rough! We only had a few stretches of road, the entire 90 miles, that were smooth and boy was it noticeable! Jenny and I talked before the ride about trying to just hang together. I wasn't really concerned about setting any record time and thought it would be more fun to have someone to ride with. Poor Jen - she had bike troubles from the get-go. I felt bad for her! The first problem reared it's ugly head just a few miles into the ride - her bars were slipping. Uh-oh! We pulled off to the side and a fella came by immediately and helped. *note - this was an extremely well-organized ride and there was a ton of support out on the course. It was really nice.

Ok, so we got the bars fixed up and then we were off again. The morning was beautiful - a bit cool and lots of cloud cover, which we knew we'd be happy about later in the day. A ways down the road, Jen gets a flat tire. We pull over and start changing that - two guys stop to help. We mostly stayed together, and occasionally I would get ahead and just slow up to wait. I stopped at this aid station and realized Jen wasn't behind me. As I was watching for her, I saw a fella from KC MultiSport. I talked to him a little bit - he seemed like a nice fella. When Jen pulled up, she told me she had another flat tire. Bummer!

We stopped at several of the aid stations, 'cause it just felt SO great to get off the bike and stop the jarring of your body. You could never really relax on the bike because it was sooooo rough. My back, neck, shoulders and arms were all really sore and tight. It was also heating up out here and the cloud cover had disappeared. I guess I got a bit ahead of Jen again with just under 15 miles to go. So, I'm riding down this hill and just about to make a turn taking me that much closer to the finish when i hear this guy behind me yelling. I slow up and he catches up to tell me that my friend has a flat and needs me. So, I turn around and climb back up the nice big decent I just came down. I was a bit grouchy at this time. It's not her fault she's having the flats - I was just ready to get off my bike! :-)
Anyway, as I'm coming up the hill, I see that she's off to the side of the road with the sag wagon there helping her. I pull up and stop. These guys were so nice. The one guy asked if I needed anything - I NEED a COKE...he didn't have one, but he gave me some ice and water, which was great, 'cause it was toasty out there!

Once Jen had her new tire, we got moving again so that we could finish this ride! Thankfully, we hit the highway back into the finish and it was nice and flat. I felt sooooo happy to be on a non-jarring road that was pretty flat and not quite as much of a head wind. I didn't mention it before now, but we also had a pretty good head wind most of the day. Good times!

I was thrilled to see the finish line and even happier to ride my bike under that big archway - there were lots of folks cheering, which was nice of them. I was DONE!
I grabbed a drink, turned around and watched for Jen to come through that archway...sure enough, it wasn't long at all and she came rolling through. We did it - Woohoo!

We rode out of the shoot and sat down with our drink and the cold towels they provided. Man, it felt great to be off that saddle for a bit. Of course, then we realized that we had to find the rental car and, since it was pitch black when we arrived, I really wasn't sure which direction we were at this point. Thankfully, a worker fella helped us out and Jen and i rode to the car. Again, keep in mind, this is another 2 miles. Fun!

We loaded up the bikes, changed out of our very sweaty bike gear, and collapsed into the car. Meantime, Janet called and she had also finished her ride! We said we were on our way to pick her up. That was it for the ride - it was done. We had all done it and were now in search of a Coke and some grub!