10 - 30 "Way To Go, Joanie!"

It really dumped here yesterday and I rode another century. As I was drinking coffee I was feeling very negative about the whole challenge, basically because I was trying to come up with good reasons not to have to go out in the soup. I was thinking that the rain had probably ruined my chances at three events. I figured this storm will close Pine Mountain, the Angeles Crest Highway, and maybe end the Yosemite season as well. Since I won't finish my challenge, why go on? These excuses didn't hold much weight because the point of this whole thing isn't really to succeed as much as it is to challenge.

I then thought of an old Nike commercial from sometime around the '84 Olympics. In it, marathoner Joan Benoit wakes up in the morning to her clock radio and starts getting dressed for a run while the radio continues to play in the background. Just as she's about to go, the radio starts to broadcast the news about how she'd just won some big race. She's not paying attention because she's opened the door and it's raining. She sigh's loudly, pauses, then takes off in the rain. As she leaves you hear the announcer saying "Way to go, Joanie!" Once I thought of this my whole attitude changed because I realized that I was letting this thing get me down, and it should be getting me up. Normally, I love this kind of stuff, so I was just being a wimp because I'm tired. After this, I knew I'd have fun.

No one was going to go with me and I didn't expect them to. I said as much and Reed said, "You're kind of a gamer. You probably would go." I said "maybe" as I walked out of the room and when I came back Reed was getting dressed. He had to drive to Malibu, well Zuma, to pick up some friends on the Cancer Walk so he could only ride for about 20 miles but it was nice to have him there. The rain may have motivated him too because I think he was riding stronger than the previous day.

When he left I was feeling strong so I took off south. I noticed I was in a headwind where it's usually a tailwind, which so I decided to ride as hard as I could to the turnaround time before the winds changed. As I was turning I could see the rain start to come straight down, so I went even faster. I did this because the next section has a notoriously bad headwind and I thought maybe I'd get lucky and get pushed along. I made it, but just barely. At one point where Reed and I were going 19 mph the day before, I was doing 24. On the last hill the rain slowed down and the winds shifted back to normal, but I only had to deal with the headwind for about a mile, instead of 15.

Just as I was about to leave for the second half, DB showed up and asked if I wanted company. Would I? Are you kidding? He was happy to pull, which allowed me to cruise, and it was a good thing because I was somewhat spent from the morning. I would take an odd pull and Dave would say, "Get back there, save it for tomorrow. You'll need it."

He's right. Today I'm alone. I'd better go get at it.

Thanks for reading. Back at ya tonight.