Breast Cancer Awareness Ride

Lindenwood Park, Fargo ND

Saturday, October 11, 2008

25 Mile Ride (closer to 28 miles)

Before:
The first thing I did this morning when I woke shortly before 7 was check the weather. It was a whopping 42 degrees, with the windchill right around 36 degrees. I looked outside and the sky was full of dark, thick, clouds and wet streets. On the bright side, it wasn't raining. All I wanted to do was crawl back into my warm bed and watch the Today Show.

There were multiple reasons that could have kept me home, but I knew I just had to do this ride. I have been looking forward to this for almost a month. If I could do anything to bring more awareness to the community, this was just another little thing I could do myself. Plus, one of my best friends left me a message saying...."Get down to your ND roots and do it!:)" ... That was just enough of a push to get my going.

I dressed in as many layers as I could. Not only was I trying to keep myself warm, but dry as well; 3/4 length running tights, padded cycling shorts, cycling socks with red tube socks up to my knees, long sleeved shirt, adidas zip-up dri-fit jacket, a water resistent "shell-like" jacket, padded cycling gloves with fleece gloves on top, and a winter headband for the ears. We got to Lindenwood Park, signed in, and picked up our fun stuff. We were given a bag of goodies... gu, pria bar, Trek Breast Cancer Awareness water bottle, and Sock Guy cycling socks!

The Ride:

When we started it was not only cold, but it started to rain again... nothing heaving but enough to make one wonder what the ride was really going to be like. It was so cold that you could see your breath as well. There were probably no more than 15 people riding this morning. Would this possibly be under the definition of crazy? I was just hoping that the weather wouldn't get worse.

We rode through Lindenwood Park and was sheltered from the wind and rain for a little bit. Before we knew it, we were heading north out on a county road. The rain had backed off a bit, but we were fighting some serious headwind for quite a while. It was slow going at that point.

Then we turned west onto a nother county road, Cass County Road 22 to be exact. We still had a bit of wind to deal with, but it was more out of the north and it was nothing compared to the last leg. I had never ridden on this road, but I look forward to getting out on it next spring/summer. It was newly paved and very quiet, nothing but farmland all around.

After a good length of time on that road we headed south for our last leg. The wind was at our back and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there on out. However, this was the point when I felt pretty tired and we still had another 40 some minutes left of the ride.

After:

When we were finished, it felt so good to get off the bike and into the warm visitor builing at the park. Prizes from the drawing were being distributed and I was able to go home with a new Bontrager saddle for my bike! I was pumped!

It only ended up raining about the first 20 minutes and the rest was just cold and windy. But, once I got home, it was down pouring. Is that ironic or a gift?

It felt so good to be able to participate in such a ride, even if the weather conditions weren't prime. I just kept reminding myself that fighting through the cold and wet on a 25+ mile ride was so minimal and not even comparable to the battles that those with cancer have fought or are fighting. I was just there to bring more awareness to others.

The photo below was take before we took off, but it definitely portrays how excited I was to be a part of this ride. I hope to do it again next year!