Wet

Saturday was the 3 State 3 Mountain ride in Chattanooga. The weather forecast when I left Friday afternoon was for a typical summer type day, with 50% chance of rain in the late afternoon. Since I planned to be finished and long gone on my way home before late afternoon, I figured it was going to be a nice day.

Following baseball practice (my Dodgers are 8-3-1, and have won 5 in a row by the way), I got off to a late start when I couldn't find the wrench I need to attach my rack to the van's hitch mount. Cathy found it for me, and I left to pick up Jake. Discovering along the way that I forgot the GPS mount. So Jake and I headed back to my place to retrieve it. In other words, an already late start got later by the minute.

Finally out of Birmingham, and on our way, The Beast called wondering where we were. We were about an hour short of Chattanooga, just outside of Gadsden. 5 minutes later, it started raining. Then it began to rain harder. I had the wipers on as fast as possible and couldn't see a thing. I started checking the weather radar on my iPhone (love that feature) and discovered huge bands of orange and red and yellow stretching all the way to Arkansas. Sigh. Maybe a miracle would happen.

The next morning, it was barely raining at all. Encouraged, we headed off with 2500 other riders through downtown Chattanooga. We were near the front, feeling good, even though it was beginning to rain a bit harder. Then The Beast had a flat. We'd gone maybe 3 blocks. We pulled over and changed that flat in less than 3 minutes. Hundreds of riders had passed us, but we were still well within the group. We jumped out and started off again. Less than 2 blocks later, The Beast was stricken with another flat. Again, a very fast change and back into the group, but near the back this time. Heading past AT&T field (where the Lookouts play), Jake had a puncture. His tire was a little harder to change, but eventually it was repaired and while inflating it, the tube blew. So we pulled the whole thing apart again, and installed our last tube. So, if you're keeping score at this point, it's now raining pretty hard, we've gone less than 1.5 miles, and had 4 flat tires in our group of 4 riders. There was talk of packing it in right there, but...

Finally on the bikes again, a few blocks later, we passed a bike shop, which opened for us to replenish our tube and CO2 cartridge supply. Jake and I also got cheap rain jackets...the clear rubber/plastic kind that we discovered kept the rain out, but the sweat in. I know.

We made it to the outskirts of Chattanooga, without another rider anywhere in sight. All 2496 riders (besides ourselves) were up the road. We were dead last. A motorcycle support guy pulled up alongside us and warned us about some railroad tracks up ahead. He said they'd had several crashes there and suggested we walk across. When we came to them, I pulled my right leg over to the left side of my bike and coasted across them, ready for the bike to slip. Jake on the other hand, chose not to dismount, and sure enough, he went down. I looked back to see him picking himself up and trying to get going again.

As the first climb began at mile 10 (Suck Creek Mountain), the rain was falling pretty hard, but things seemed to be looking up as far as making some headway on putting some miles behind us. This climb lasts 5 miles, and 3 miles into it, the bottom fell out and it couldn't have rained any harder. There was lightning and thunder, and I'll admit that being on a bicycle near the top of a mountain in such conditions was not exactly comfortable. I'm no coward, but I have a healthy respect for things that can kill me...like lightning.

All along the climb, we had been passing riders. We probably passed 2 or 3 hundred on our way up. Now we started seeing large numbers of riders coming back down the mountain heading back in (abandoning). I have to admit, a dry, warm car was an enticing thought at that point, but we kept on going.

Skipping way ahead, to mile 45...my knee had been bothering me for about 10 miles. By this point it was almost unbearable. In the cold and wet, it had never warmed up properly (and I'm too stupid to bother to stretch properly before I ride). We had a discussion as a group and decided that I'd head off and do the 100K route (63 miles) while they finished the full 100 miles. So we split up at that point. About a mile into the shorter route, I decided to abandon that plan and go back and finish the full 100 miles too. I rode back and rejoined the 100 mile route.

About a mile into that, my chain broke. I took that as a sign I was making the wrong choice. I started walking back hoping a support vehicle would be along soon, when another rider offered to help my fix my chain. We got it together and I managed to make it back to the finish without it breaking again.

It isn't the way I'd hoped to do the ride this year, but sometimes things happen in a way you don't expect. On the plus side, there were Physical Therapists at the finish who finally pointed me in the direction of what is causing my knee problems. Hopefully, if I break my bad habit of not stretching and start building better flexibility (particularly my IT Band, which is causing my knee pain), I should have it beat.

I'm hoping to enjoy the full ride next year.