I coordinated the group ride. After a few emails back and forth between groups, there were around 12 people who were going. We met at the Sossebee bike park. The plan was to wheel down at 8AM. At 8AM, Karen's and Katie's groups wheeled down. I was anxious to go. Susan was behind me. Sarah, Eric and Scott were still in the parking lot. I told Susan, I was rolling. I rode pretty slow. After 3.5 miles, at the Busch Drive intersection, I stopped and didn't see anybody behind me. I waited a few minutes, and then I decided to ride back to the park thinking I was going to run into them. One mile... two miles... still didn't see anybody. It was odd. They shouldn't be this late to start. I got to the park, there was nobody there. I don't know what route they took but apparently not the same one that I took. I was annoyed. I should have waited. I was a little nervous riding 52 miles by myself. At that time, it was going to be 59 miles total since I went back to the park. I thought maybe I should just ride the 31 mile loop and made up the difference by adding some stretches. But I hate doing that. I preferred riding a big loop, so when I was back to the parking lot, I was done.
I decided to wait until I got to the church to decide what I was going to do. I was praying for safety. When I got to the church, I saw TNT cycling team. Cindy asked me where everybody else was. I told her what happened. I felt a little better because I saw somebody that I knew. Her group rode pretty slow, so after a couple of miles I took off. Right before one major intersection, I saw a big dog running towards a house. He was backing me, so I was riding silently and hoping he didn't turn around and see me.
I got to the convenient store and didn't see anybody. I was hoping I saw Karen's group but they were at least 10 miles ahead of me. Even though they were slower than me, there was no way I would be able to catch up. From the store, I had only 20 miles to go. I felt better and at this point, it didn't bother me anymore that I was riding alone.
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| Lonely Ride (minus an awesome view) |
Since I had to run only 9 miles on Sunday, I decided to try a different running course. Leita Thompson Memorial Park was across the street from me. It had a few options for running trails. The longest one was 2.25 miles. I was planning to run it 4 times. I thought I could handle that. I knew from the reviews, the trail was hilly but I thought how hilly could it be? I'm used to run on hilly courses. Little did I know....
It started off okay. After a mile, I ran on downhill and uphill that were pretty steep. A half mile later, the hills were a bit much. A quarter mile later, they were ridiculous. Running downhill was scary too since the surface was loose gravel, so it was a recipe for sliding down with my butt if I wasn't careful. At the end of the run, I was done. I drove off to Riverside Park and finished the run there.
On Monday, we swam at a quarry in Carterville. I never heard of a quarry before, so I googled the word. It was a body of water where divers normally practice. Eric found this place. It was just a couple of miles away from our bike course. Who knew? I carpooled with Katie. Since the owners wanted us to promote this place to other triathletes, we got to swim for free, otherwise it was $5 per person. The lake was blue, not brown like Lake Lanier or Allatoona. We decided to swim counter clock wise. The first loop I swam by myself. I was a little nervous of sea monsters... seriously! I like swimming in open water as long as I could see somebody by me. The second loop I waited for Katie. It was a good idea. I had somebody to keep up with and I wasn't scared anymore. We swam 5 loops. It was probably around 500-550 meters a loop. I had a great swim. I felt better about breathing every three strokes. I didn't have a problem in the pool but sometimes in open water, I felt the need to breathe every two. We definitely would be back again!
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| At the dock. Eric is odd ball with a long sleeve wetsuit. |
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