Milestone

This post is a day late....but I was being slammed by an allergy attack yesterday!!!

Sunday morning I got up with full intentions of riding 50 miles. I have never ridden that far before and I was thinking it was time. This morning offered me temps in the low 60's and rain filled cloudy skies. I filled the water bottles and headed out.....the route.....50 miles.

When I left the house my eyes kept turning skyward. I really didn't want to ride in the rain, but I really wanted to turn the wheels. Thankfully I stayed dry. The first nine miles of my route are simple with a few rollers. I was feeling pretty good climbing the hills but I decided to back off a little so I had some gas left in the tank for the last 15 miles. From mile nine to mile 23 the roads are mainly flat. The wind was coming from at a 45 degree angle but it wasn't blowing very hard. I managed to keep my average speed above 16 all the way to the lakeshore. That is Lake Michigan for those who are wondering!

The turn south was easy! The wind pushed me for about 4 miles until I turned back towards home with over 20 miles to go. At this point I was approaching my longest distance for the year, which was 33 miles. The only thing that kept me going was that I was going towards home. I kept pushing the pedals and the miles ticked away. At 40 miles I started to get excited about what I was doing. I was actually going to ride 50 miles without stopping. As the odometer climbed closer to 50 my mind started to get the better of me. Doubt was creeping in and I thought I was going to have to stop. Then the sun came out.....and the warm glow of our star revived me enough to get home. Final distance was 50.33 miles in just over 3 hours. Longest distance ever.

Half Century.

Wow.