3 days left, the Count Down Continues

3 days left until the ride of my life...


The Aids Life Cycle is 3 days away. It's slowing starting to hit me, but not yet. I guess it'll all come to me Sunday morning when all 2500 of us riders stand together preparing for the grueling journey to LA.

I signed up last October not knowing what I was getting myself into. At first, it just seemed like one of those, "once in a life time" moments. So I signed up impulsively. At the time, a ride almost a year away seemed do-able. Like many before me, and after me.. we all thought "hey its just riding a bike right?" Many people think riding a bike is easy, and a few miles here and there are nothing. Many people have this misconception that cycling is naturally easy. We picture cycling as taking your bike out on a nice sunny day and strolling around the neighborhood for 20 mins.

But it is so much more than that.

You ride out.

The first hour, is nothing, there are no pain, no worries. You push faster and faster

After that 2 hour mark, you begin to feel the pain. A sudden panic and worry.

"Its not supposed to be this hard."

Sitting on the saddle longer than 2 hours, all you think about is the pain. Climbing up endless hills, endless miles, your legs feel the burn, the pain drives you insane. After your 5th rolling hill, you just want to let go and roll back down. After your 4th hour and your 5th rolling hill, you look down at your cyclocomputer only to find that you've only ridden about 35 miles and you have about 50-60 more miles to go. Then here comes a 7 mile climb...

What do you do?

You grind. You grind it out. After 4 hours, the pain is not there anymore or at least you try to pretend it's not there. You get into your groove as your mind wanders effortlessly as you continue to peddle endlessly.

Hour 7: Enter hell, you wish you were home. You dream of the finish line and what it looks like.

Another 4-5 hours later, you're at mile 80 - finish line.

If this was the Aids Life Cycle, then I'd guess we'd say: "Day 1... done... 6 more days to go."