50 miles in 4 hours

Yesterday our team practice was a bike ride in Norman for charity. The ride was called Norman Conquest, Conquer the Hills, Conquer the Heat. The best part was the fact that there wasn't any heat to deal with the bad part was that the hills were still there. If you have never been east of Norman it is extremely hilly and when you are going 46 miles on these hills it makes it even tougher.

So I met some team members in the parking lot and when it was time to head out I noticed that my front tire needed some air so I went to put air in the tire and told Stephanie and Kristy that I would catch up. When I got back to the exit of the parking lot I saw people turning left so I went left. I noticed that there wasn't anyone out in front of them but I kept going anyway since there were a few hills and thought maybe they just turned and I couldn't see them. So after I went about 2 miles and saw nobody I realized I went the wrong way and had followed the 10 mile family fun ride group. So I turned around and went back to the start. At this point I have ridden 4 miles total in the wrong direction and am probably 10 - 15 minutes behind the group.

I went back to the start and got a map and got on my way. After about 2 hours of riding alone I finally caught Stephanie and rode with her for a few miles before we hit a rest stop and that is were we found Kristy. So we all enjoyed some chatting about how badly I wanted chicken nuggets and then got on our way. At this point we were 25 miles in to the 46 mile ride, not including my 4 miles in the wrong direction. The last 20ish miles were so hard my legs were tired and just ready to not move for a while but I made it through and finished at 11:30. so I rode for 4 hours and covered 50 miles of crazy hills. I am glad I did it and can only hope that it made my legs stronger.

To put into perspective of how far 50 miles that is the same as going from 2nd Street and I-35 in Edmond to Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater.