Saturday, April 9, 2011

Tony Serrano Ride 2011.........

It's days like today when I am glad I live in the South. While some parts of the country are dealing with snow (or at least cold weather), we have already gone to shorts and flip-flops. Temperatures today were in the 80's, and I think it's supposed to approach 90 tomorrow, at least at the Masters. The yellow dust has decreased a little; at least I don't taste it as much when I go outside.

It was overcast for a large part of today, which made it excellent bike riding weather. The sun came out late in the day, just enough to give me my "raccoon" look where I got sunburned around my sunglasses. I also have the tiger stripes on my feet from my cycling sandals, a farmer's tan on my arms, and the lower part of my leg is just slightly less pale than the upper part.

Today's ride took place just one town over from us, so an added bonus was not having to travel very far to ride. We had the option of doing a century (100 miles), but I'm glad we didn't take that option. We rode 61 miles, and there's no way we could have done another 40. I was whipped by the time we got back, and my knees are incredibly sore. I'm having to do that old lady thing, where I go up and down the stairs one step at a time. As soon as I came home I took a shower and turned on the Masters, then promptly fell asleep. I was dead to the world when Hubby came in the door an hour later.

This ride boasts "the best rest stops ever," and while I haven't done every single bike ride in the world, they can't be far off the mark. In addition to the usual cookies and fruit that almost all bike rides have (except the really crappy ones), these rest stops have homemade goodies. There were some little peanut-butter balls rolled in sugar with chocolate chips in them, and I would ride another 61 miles just to have some more of those. Well maybe not TODAY, but tomorrow wouldn't be out of the question.

There were 520 riders today, about 100 more than last year. Katydid and I didn't ride the longer route last year (we only rode 34 miles) because we wanted to get home and watch the gymnastics regional championships.

Hubby and I went out to dinner, and I ordered a beer. His jaw fell open, and he said, "I can't believe what I just heard." (That's only my second beer of 2011, and the other one was last Friday before the hockey game.) I said to him, "I earned every drop of this beer, and I'm going to enjoy it."

I also earned an early bedtime, and that's where I'm headed now.

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