Sunday's Ride........

I couldn't beleive it when I looked at the time when I finished today. I was going sooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooowly that I thought I was about 2 hours later finishing today than yesterday. It was actually only 10 minutes longer. I also thought the elevation was much more kick-ass today, but the GPS says otherwise. There were a couple of killer hills today, naturally at the end. I was just creeping up them. A guy came up beside me and said, "Are you in your lowest gear? Have you ever thought about getting a triple?"

His remains are somewhere along the side of the road.

The guy who sold me my bike assured me that the compact crankset I had was just as good as a triple.

He lied.

I think I will hunt him down and hill him too.

I WILL have a triple before I attempt another ride on my single bike.

I thought I had one of those "this would only happen to Bragger" experiences today, but it turns out I didn't really.

Today's route was 51 miles. The "short" option was 47 miles. What the hell? If I could ride 47 miles, surely I could ride 51. I mean, the last few were going to be the same anyway; it's not like they just tack on the extra 4 at the end.

I opted for the 51 mainly because it crossed into Tennessee, and I could legitimately say I rode to Tennessee on my bicycle. I was watching on the GPS to cross the state line, and I was riding with this other girl. We got to a park, and when we turned in, I noticed that the arrows turned around and went back out. So we just did a u-turn without venturing into the park very far. Turns out THAT'S where the state line was. I was bummed because I didn't think I had actually ridden to Tennessee, but as you can see from the map above (you might have to scootch it down a little bit), we definitely crossed the line.

I had my iPhone playing my music for the last half of the day, and I had it on shuffle. That was the only way to keep my sanity today. It was brutal out there.

When I rode up to my car, the song that came on was Julianne Hough's "My Hallelujah Song."

I am NOT making this up.

The song starts out: "Look at me, can't believe I finally made it here. Feeling like I'm where I belong. Singing my hallelujah song."

It made me smile at a time when I was thinking I might never smile again.