Falling

Hotter'n Hell Hundred was this past Saturday in Wichita Falls. People say you have to ride it once - after that you'll never want to put yourself through that agony again. Maybe someday. We'll see. So, my plan was to ride 50 miles on Saturday. I rode 30. I've decided it's a lot easier to ride with people than to ride alone. I would have bet money that I had been on the bike for three or four hours on Saturday. It ended up that I had ridden for just over 2 hours.

Anyway, I was riding a 30 mile circuit in Flower Mound. I had never ridden the route before, so I constantly had to be checking this map that I had printed out that was folded up and in the back pocket of my jersey. Near the beginning of the ride (I would guess not more than 10 miles into it), I had gone out into the countryside and I was passing by some really nice houses. You know, the kind of houses that make a person think, "Wow, I'll never own something like that." Anyway, my eyes were taking in these architectural masterpieces when I noticed I had kind of ridden off of the road. Now, there was no shoulder and no curb on this country road, so I just angled my front wheel to get back on the pavement. However, there was too much of level difference between the paved road and the ground onto which I had ridden, and I fell...hard. I didn't have time to unclip out of the pedals, so I fell on my entire left side. I was kind of stunned as I stood up. I had this horrible feeling that my cycling shorts were going to be torn and I would be riding back to my truck with one butt cheek exposed (ewwww!). Thankfully, that wasn't the case. My bike has a few scratches on it, and I've got a little bit of road rash, but other than that I'm OK. I woke up yesterday with a terrible backache, and I'm not sure if that's because I slept wrong or because of the fall. Hopefully, that will be gone soon.

So, there you have it - my first official fall off of the bike. By the way, no one was there to witness it. The road was completely empty.

Thanks for reading.

church family

Well Saturday was interesting. It had been a pretty good day until 11:45 p.m. I had gone to Abilene to drop off my younger sister at ACU. I had gotten to eat at JoeAllen's. I was just about to get home, when the clutch on my pickup gave out. I had to park at the Kroger on 121 and call for help...that's where the topic of this blog starts.

Since it was so late at night, I wondered who to call. I didn't want to call my parents or my older sister since they were pretty far away, so I decided to call the youth minister at my church. He very graciously came to my rescue and took me home. He even asked if I needed a ride to church the next morning. I told him that I could ride my bike. He suggested I call someone on the worship team, since we would be practicing at 8 a.m. on Sunday. So, a girl on the worship team came and picked me up.

That afternoon, one of the elders of my church and another friend from church helped me pull my truck to the elder's house. He knows about car/truck maintenance and said he would be more than happy to see if he could fix the clutch. He worked on it yesterday morning, but couldn't get to the part that was leaking the fluid from the hydraulic system of the clutch. So, I ended up having my pickup towed to the dealership.

Last night, one of the elder's wives called and asked if I needed to borrow their car. I gladly accepted since I had missed work yesterday because I didn't have transportation. So, today I have transportation, and I'm waiting to hear from the dealership about my truck.

How wonderful is church family. I had a brother or sister in Christ come pick me up in the middle of the night, take me to church, help me tow my truck, try to fix my truck, and lend me a vehicle. They did this all out of the kindness of their hearts. I felt and feel extremely blessed. I've got more than my physical family looking out for me - not many people can say that.

Thanks for reading.

40 miles

Hey kids. I was asked if I wasn't going to update my blog until next July when the Tour started again. Actually, that sounded like a good idea - I have wanted to update, but there's really nothing exciting going on right now...except that I almost died this morning. OK, I didn't really almost die, but I thought I might pass out.

As you know, I'm training for a century ride on November 19th. Well, this morning's ride was 40 miles. I was a bit anxious about the ride because I don't do near enough training during the week like I should. I make the excuse that I don't get home until 9:30 or 10:00 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. That leaves me Wednesdays and Fridays. Anyway, I was nervous about the ride today. I started out pretty strong. I stayed with the lead group for about ten miles. After about an hour of riding, I told a fellow cyclist that we should have come to the first rest stop by now - it was supposed to be at mile 12. We kept riding and never got to it. The lead group of three riders had stopped, so we stopped too. The girl I was riding with said her computer was reading that we had done about 16.5 miles. Actually that was wrong. We had done 26 miles. At this impromptu rest, all I had had on the ride was water. I didn't have any power bars or food on me (that'll teach me for next time). After about a ten minute break, we started again and at mile 32 we finally got to a rest stop where I inhaled peanut butter crackers, a fig newton, gatorade, and half a banana. Our coach said we were inside 10 miles to finish, but I swear that was the longest ten miles I have ever ridden. At one point before I reached the 32 mile rest stop, my jaw started to tingle and I thought, "That's it. I'm going to faint." But I didn't.

It ends up that I was the 4th person to finish. The last person didn't come in for another hour and a half. I guess I did OK. My longest ride previously was 30 miles 2 weeks ago. I think in 2 weeks we're doing 50.

Oh yeah, I'm getting that farmer's tan that cyclists get from wearing the cycling jerseys. There are also two distinct lines on my thighs where tanning starts because of the cycling shorts. I'm so proud.

Just in case you're wondering, I've raised $1905 of my $4000 goal for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I've been a slacker lately and haven't sent out the latest thank-you notes. They will be sent soon.

I'm on break from UNT right now, but kids come back to school on Tuesday. We'll see if that gives me anything to blog about in the future. Thanks for reading.