Mom's Final Exam (and a Goat)

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With two weeks until our departure, we have had a little dilemma: are Katelyn's legs ready for the miles she will need to ride?  We have been wanting to put together some substantial weekend riding for a while but never seem to make it beyond 35-40 miles or so. Next Saturday the family is doing a mud run and our final Saturday the bikes will already be in a box to take on the plane.   So it was today or nothing.   Thank goodness for MOMS!

Each year, on the Saturday before Mother's Day, there is a charity group ride called "Ride for Mom." It offers a few different routes and distances, the longest being 77 miles...PERFECT!  The way I figured, the longest stretch on our trip will be 72 miles.  If Katelyn can manage to slog through 77 miles, I can feel pretty confident that she can put together some long days down the coast.  

5 minutes until the ride starts and this is my ride partner

Then came Friday night.   Taylor Swift was in concert in San Jose and Raquel and Katelyn had gotten tickets.  I'm doing the timeline in my head:  Concert begins at 8:00 and probably won't end until after 11:00; traffic and travel probably puts them home after 1:00 in the morning. The bike ride begins at 7:00 am and we need to get there 30 minutes early to register...this is not going to end well!   Still, I loaded the bikes, laid out all of what we would need in the morning and figured Katelyn could sleep while I drove the 30 minutes to the ride--which she did.

As we started, it was a bit ominous.  First, Katelyn had a big blister on her food from the school Jogathon the day before. 

Thank goodness for rest stops! 

Second, after only 5 miles into the ride, she flatted and I had no tubes and no pump.  Luckily SAG support was there within 2 minutes (love those Oakdale Bike Shop guys!) and we got her tire changed and on her way.

Rest stop #1.  Still smiling

 But even then, by mile 11, she was complaining about how her body was feeling.  I started wondering how far she would actually make it.

Fast forwarding ahead...she started finding her groove and we racked up 35 miles or so and it was a fun ride.  Other than having to stop every time we saw an animal that looked friendly, we trucked right along.

She named the goat Gilligan

The brown cow she named Mess Cow

She named the Horse Larry

 Then, around mile 40, she said the words I dreaded:  "Dad, my back hurts so bad." It has been my experience that once the back pain sets in, it just doesn't disappear.  And with 37 miles to go, more hills and mainly riding into a stiff headwind, I braced for the worst.

Miles and Miles and Miles

Luckily, there were a few more rest stops--one every 10 miles or so--that allowed us a chance to get off the bike and stretch out.

20 miles left--grass never felt so good!

 Once we got under 20 miles, I knew we would be ok and it almost seemed like Katelyn found her second wind.  We finally rolled back into the finish after 5.5 hours--much faster than any ride we would need to do on our trip.   78 miles ended up being the total which is a long ride by any standard.

So with that, Katelyn passed the final exam.  She will have a few more rides between now and Memorial Day but nothing like this one.  And as is usually the case,  we have Mom to thank for it.