My first Century Ride...El Tour De Tucson 2008!

I did it! I rode on my bike in El Tour De Tucson on November 22, 2008 in 8 hours and 49 minutes. The El Tour De Tucson is a 109 mile bike ride. More importantly I raised about $4,000 that will help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with TEAM IN TRAINING! Thanks to the Coaches at Team in Training and my new bike I’m a much stronger rider then I was last year. I might off finished faster but that wasn’t my goal. I’m going to save that goal for the next time I do El Tour de Tucson. This ride I had more important goals:

1. To finish all 109 miles of the El Tour De Tucson
   
2.  Finish Strong
   
3.  Stay Positive      
   
4. Be a inspiration to others
   
5.  Help pull my pace line team mates along the way.
   

The day was beautiful. I loved looking at the mountains. I told my team mate Heidi at one point, “It’s like looking at God’s Sand box…In a good way. I like Sand boxes.” The weather hit a high of 80 degrees. Their was a great tail wind. I can’t wait until the next time

Here is how the day went:

Race went off great. We crossed the Starting line around 7:15 am. The Pace line was determined to stick together. Our pace line got so many good compliments because we communicated and stuck together so well. We were taking short turns at pulling.

For non bike people when you are “pulling” you’re in front of the pace line while everyone else is “drafting.” When you draft you don’t work as hard and conserve energy. Everyone takes turns pulling to share the load.

Unfortunately the pace line broke apart through out the race.

•  Gale and Rose broke off before the first crossing. That was expected
  
• Sue was over heating before the second river bed crossing. She stayed back with Katie. Sue finished with Coach Al Later.
  
• We lost Mark around mile 66 at a long incline. Mark caught up with Tom and finished with him. Throughout the rest of the day we kept passing each other up at rest stops. In the end we got ahead of them.
  

At that was left was Brian, Heidi, and me.

Susan was the brains of our pace line. She planned out stops and help set our initial pace. Our goal was to make 6 minute stops at stations: D, I, M, & Q. But you never know what is going to happen race day…

• We stopped at “C” because we all had to go bathroom. I thought the lines were long for the porta potties. I decided to go up a little further and help water the cacti. We were there for about 10 minutes
  
•  “D” was short because all we had to do was drop off our extra gear with Katie’s parents and top off our water bottles.
  
•  “I” took too long because lines for bathrooms were too long
  
•  “M”, in my mind took too long. My rear wheel fell off because the nut came loose at that stop for what ever reason. I was able to fix it
  
•  "Q" was within limits. At that time my rear brake was out of alignment though. I was able to push the break and fix it.
  
• We had to stop a couple other times between stops for a refresher.
  

 There were two hills and some long inclines. The hills and the incline was my time to break away from Heidi and Brian. I felt really good and really strong. Our Barrington and St. Charles rides were worse in my mind. I thought, “Hey, I could ditch them and finish around 7 to 8 hours.” If I left them, I knew I wouldn’t reach my goal of helping my teammates pull. I couldn’t do it. I already let Sue, Mark, Gale, Katie, and Rose down. I wasn’t going to let Heidi and Brian Down.  The only thing I could really do was just to keep reminding Heidi and Brian how great they looked and kept cheering them on and everyone we passed up or passed us up.

 Heidi at times told me to “GO” so I kicked it up a notch. I went in to the drops and rocked out. There were times I thought I lost Brian and Heidi but I slowed down and they caught up. Incase I forgot to say Heidi’s job was to keep me in check. And a good job she did at that.

 There was this stretch of road along mile 90 were cars were really close. One car with PVC pipes hanging out of the passenger side, I thought, got too close to Brian and Heidi. That was the only time I cursed. I believe my direct quote was, “Watch where the #$%@ you are going you #$%^&^% @#$ %$#!!!”

 At the end for the last 3 miles, Heidi said along the lines off, “Alright Bobby let’s finish this.” According to Brian, “I took off like a rocket”. Heidi told her mom, who was waiting for us at the finish line,“I knew if you heard Bobby finishing, you would know I wasn’t far behind.” Heidi and Brian finished about 5 minutes behind me.

 When I crossed that finish line I was cheering and yelling at the top of my lungs!

 Heidi, Brian and I all ended up with Sliver Medals. At the Team in Training Tent the staff rewarded all of us with out 100 mile pin. For finishing a marathon, a triathlon and a century I was rewarded with the coveted Triple Crown Pin!

 Mark finished with Tom 10 minutes after we did. After I dropped off my Bike off at the Team in Training Trucks I saw Gale and Rose finish and cheered them on. Sue Finished with Coach Al.

 After the race people told me and my team mates that they were lucky to have me. That I made there day brighter and gave them that extra push.

 If I inspired people, well in my mind, then IT WAS THE BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT of the day for me.

 Thank you all of Team In Training for helping everyone cross the finish line. Thank you to all the participants that help fundraised over one million dollars for the LLS!