Saturday morning I had the opportunity to ride in a favorite charity ride of mine. It was the Upstate Meals on Wheels’ Wheels for Meals metric century. Once again it lived up to being a wonderful time.
To be honest, I almost made the decision to make my donation without doing the ride. Word from the weather man was that it was going to be a wet and soggy one. However, looking at the weather map, I could see that there was a horseshoe of rain activity and right in the middle (and in the clear) was the area where we would ride.
Arriving at the campus of Furman University, I started to see rain drops fall on my windshield. I was here now and I might as well get out in it. Besides, I pulled up beside my teammate Randy and he saw me. No way I could back out now!
David Bright and I came across the line first together
I started out the ride near the back with my teammate, Billy White. Randy was somewhere near the front and I couldn’t see him. The pace was nice and easy and I had no intentions to go off and do something crazy.
Yeah, right.
As we made our way to Old McElhaney Road and the climbing started, I knew I would go absolutely nuts if I tried to stay in the group. I began to weave my way through the slower climbers, not so much to get ahead of them, but to maintain a pace with which I was comfortable.
By the time we crossed over Keeler Mill Road and started down Hunts Bridge Road, I was alone off the front. Then a guy came flying pass me. He was wearing a Metro Reprographics kit. I sped up to get on his wheel. When we reached 186, we were then joined by another rider wearing the Team Metro kit. It appeared they were hanging together.
In my mind I began to argue with myself. It wasn’t my intention to go out in a break. As a matter of fact, the instructions from my coach were to stay under 300 watts for the ride. If I went with these guys, I could throw that instruction out the window!
Of course, I got on their wheels and we started to work a pace line. Just before we started to make our way toward Caesars Head we came upon my teammate Randy and a guy on a time trial bike. Hmmmm, this would be interesting. I was certainly glad to see Randy… I didn’t know what to think of a guy doing this ride on a TT rig!
Much of the rest of the ride to the 31 mile mark – at the front entrance to the Cliffs at Glassy – was spent with us roadies trying to hang on while Shay Eskew blistered the road on his TT bike. Shay also had a red bib with the number 2 on it. Another cool thing about Shay was that he raised the second most amount of money for the event!
Thankfully, there was a port-a-john at the midway sag. The two Metro riders, David Bright and John Frame, along with Shay got tired of waiting while Randy was trying to get finished in the john with his kit. By the time he was out and I was able to get in, the three guys were gone.
Randy and I started to chase – a little. Neither of us really felt like taking up the effort. They had a several minute lead on us. So, we rode on together talking and let a faster pace just come to us. We continued that way until we reached the climb up to Camp Old Indian.
“You go ahead at your own pace,” Randy said. “You don’t have to wait for me. If I catch you after the top, then I will.” So, I started to tap out a tempo that I hoped would allow me to close in on the riders ahead. I reached the camp and still not lead group. However, just as I neared the top (about 40 minutes after we were separated) I saw them.
Then I caught them and sat on the back for a bit. We were right back to how we started… but without Randy. I kept looking back on occasion to see if he would join us, but I finally realized he wouldn’t be hooking back up with us. I then just tried to avoid dropping off myself.
Clearly, David was the strongest rider of the four of us. I was starting to feel it each time I went on the front to pull. Bright would get up there and just hammer away. Shay would go on front and crank it, but now it wasn’t for quite as long. John also still had some juice, but he was fading as well.
Finally, we came to a turn and I yelled, “Slowing!” I looked back to see there wasn’t a rider behind David and myself. The fractures were beginning. John and Shay caught us once again, but then with 20 miles to go they were finally dropped off for good.
Now I was left alone to deal with Mr. Bright. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. We worked together and finally I realized that he was not going to try to ride off from me. We were going to finish this together.
I could tell that my training and fitness has made a huge change in me. Getting on the front and powering along at 300+ watts I would reach the point where I was about to pop. In the past, I would go back and it would be all over. However, I found that I was able to recover behind David and then go back up there again for a few more moments of pain.
The improvement isn’t that I can go on and on and on. I am now able to recover to continue the fight. That realization slowly started to make its way into my fatigued brain. It was a realization that bolstered my confidence and my pulls on the front began to grow just a tad longer.
Closer and closer we came to the finish. It came to me that David was also feeling the effects of the ride. As we neared the back entrance to Furman we pulled up side-by-side. We finally came to the entrance back to the start. As we neared the sound of the ringing cowbells, we patted each other on the back and crossed the line after 66 miles in 3 hours and 12 minutes.
I was happy to use my wheels — and my wallet — to support the Meals on Wheels organization. Here is hoping there will be many meals served from the money raised during this event. Oh, and did I mention that after the first 15 minutes or so, we had no more rain and it was a perfect day for riding?
Glad I didn’t go home!
