I finally got my post up about the Ft. Worth, TX Tour de Cure over on my diabetes blog: Ride to Remedy. I had a struggle in writing it. But the whole ride was a struggle to begin with. Normally I would just post the entire post here on Traveling Thoughts but I’m trying to prevent duplicate content so please head over to Ride to Remedy and read about my Struggle to the Finish.
So this weekend I was in Ft Worth, TX for the Tour de Cure. Grandma got a picture of me as I came in through the finish and it was a good picture. But it also made my imagination run. I’m like a bobcat, speeding towards not my next meal, but a cure that will keep me alive. It’s almost the same thing right?
I’ve used Morpheus Photo-Morpher to take that picture that my grandma took and make turn it into a bobcat.
Zoombli (who happens to be the sponsor of this post) has the Morpheus Photo-Morpher available to us so that we can take and morph our photos from one thing to another. I only morphed two photos together, but it’s possible to morph several photos together. I morphed them into a video, but there are many options including: animated gif’s and swf (flash) files, in addition to the video (avi).
Anything can happen when you use Morpheus
on your photos. It’s so incredibly simple to use. You choose your photos, put some dots on them and let it do the rest. It’ll transform your pictures from one thing to another. It’s totally cool. You saw it yourself, me on a bike turned into a bobcat. What will you turn your pictures into?
I finally got around to writing about my ride in Longmont, CO. The one I did back in August…yeah, I know, I’m a slacker, but it’s been a rough road since the ride.
This is what I posted over on my official ride blog, Ride To Remedy
While I much expected the Longmont, CO Tour de Cure to follow suit of the SoCal Tour de Cure that I did in May, I was much surprised to see that this one was better organized from the moment I walked onto the fairgrounds, actually, let’s back up, to the moment I drove onto the fairgrounds. There were people directing the traffic instead of making us fend for ourselves in the parking lot (which is what we did in CA, we parked wherever we wanted because there was nobody out there directing us in any kind of civilized matter, of course I didn’t blog about the parking in CA because it wasn’t important at that time, but now that I have something to compare it to and CO’s parking situation was much better. I feel the need to mention it. But I digress.)
When we got out of the car and got my bike put together I noticed that my front tire needed some air. It had been a long time (several years) since I had to use the hand held pump and I couldn’t remember how attach the pump nozzle onto the valve. I had it backwards. When I was a kid the pump we had the lever had to be up and when you put it on the valve you pushed the lever down. That’s the thinking I had when I tried to attach the nozzle of the hand held pump to my tire valve. It wasn’t happening and I knew that they would have bike technicians to help me out. Sure enough, as soon as we entered the fair grounds there was a young man servicing bikes at the Schwab Cycles Tent. I told him that I needed air in my front tire, he lifted the bike to his work stand, added air to the front tire and then proceeded to check the air in the back tire and check and adjust the brakes on both tires as well as check that the gears were changing properly.
When I had my act together, we walked through the entrance of the Tour de Cure official entrance place (*shrugs* I don’t know what it’s officially called)
And into a world of friendliness. People had no problems talking to you. People I didn’t know. I knew my grandmother she was with me. And I had met like 3-4 others that I actually remembered their names the night before at early check in. I’m going to say that this friendliness spawned from two things: first, it was CO and not CA so people weren’t as full of themselves; and second, I was a RED Rider and I had the jersey, so people knew I was riding with diabetes (I blame that on Mari Ruddy).
Since I had gone through the registration process the night before the ride (preregistration is a great thing) there was no need for me to visit the registration table on the day of the ride. Which was great, because the lines, well, there were lines and who wants to stand in line ;)
Although, I do have to say this, their registration process was very organized compared to CA’s registration process. Here they had all the stuff we needed in envelopes, our numbers, our maps, etc. We just told them what team we were on (because that’s how they had us organized) They asked us for our emergency form and our fundraising envelope and they gave me my envelope and I was on my way. (And this was the way it was on ride day too, anyone who had registered online they had an envelope for.)
Since I had previously checked in (previously being the night before) all I had to do was get my goody bag and t-shirt. What was cool about this is that before they would give me either, they wanted to know that I had, 1) checked in and 2) that my bib was properly attached to me. They marked it off and gave me my goodies and sent me on my way :)
Grams and I walked around for a bit after checking my bike into the valet parking lot (something only available in CA to those of us that had raised $1k or more) But it was cool to be able to put my bike somewhere and not have to watch after it while I’m waiting for start time.
After having parked my bike we went and checked out the RED Rider tent to see if there was anything that Grams could help with (I mean, it was going to be at least 2.5-3 hrs before I returned back to her and she didn’t have much to do except read a book and crochet)
The RED Riders tent was right next to the start line so of course I had to go stand there and have a picture taken.
10am was start time and at about 9:45 we all started to congregate and line up. I was able to start a conversation with a nice man named Ross, actually, he started a conversation with me. The whole nubs on the mountain bike that I shouldn’t be riding in the first place on the road…yeah, that starts conversations (note to all: if your riding on the road with your mountain bike, get slicks)…
When it was all said and done, and we were allowed to go, it was about 10:15. The coolest thing about them taking their time to get us started (they had a lot to say) was that they told us to recognize the RED Riders. If there was someone in the special jersey (see me in my jersey above) we were supposed to “Whoop! For the RED Riders” I think this really drew us all together. It was cool to be riding along and as I was being passed I’d hear that. It was like each of us had our own cheerleaders riding along with us and cheering for us.
Ross and I rode together and talked for about 4 or 5 miles, which was where I met with my first hill of the ride and couldn’t any longer keep up with him (of course, had I been able to keep up with him at that hill, I would’ve fell behind later on because he didn’t stop at any of the rest stops.)
The first rest stop was at approximately 9 miles into the ride. I didn’t waste any time, I got off my bike, took a picture, checked my blood, ate a hammer gel, drank some water and went on my way.
What sucked about this stop was that immediately after this stop I had to go uphill. What was great about going uphill is that I got to go downhill (and I would’ve tried for my 30mph except that there was a curve in the downhill). The bad about that downhill was that I then had to go back up a hill. That hill, I checked, I was going up at 3mph, it sucked, but not as bad as this other hill, that I’ll discuss in a bit.
At 14.5 miles I got to stop again (at the top of a hill of course). I did the routine rest stop stuff: took a picture, checked my blood, ate a hammer gel, drank some water and went on my way. And actually, it was at this rest stop that I picked up a new group of cheerleaders. They took my picture and whenever they would pass me they would encourage me by saying, “come on Albuquerque, you gotta make it to the end so we can say that you rode the entire way”. They were cool, I’d pass them at stops but they’d quickly pass me (as was the case with all stops and people that passed me and I likewise passed)
This leg of the ride between the 2nd and 3rd rest stops was the roughest for me. The hills were brutal. There was this one hill, it was awful, I couldn’t have been in a lower gear (cause there was no lower gear to go into). I was pedaling so hard and I was barely moving, but I was moving. There was this one lady, another diabetic. I didn’t ever get her name, but she encouraged me all the way up that hill, she was awesome. What was cool about this hill was the down hill that preceded it. I almost got to 30mph, I got to 29.9 mph, and had I not arched my back to look down at my speedometer, I probably could have made it to 30 mph, I was so close.
The 3rd rest stop was at approximately 22 miles. I didn’t get a photo here. I was exhausted. I did my stuff, had to get more water because I had gone through my entire camelbak, and my water bottle. I wanted to get back to the start as quick as possible, this was probably my shortest rest stop at less than 2 minutes (where the other stops I maybe was there 2-2.5 minutes)
The last stretch wasn’t too bad, it was about as good as the first stretch. It was cool to see skydivers on the way back, of course at about the time I yelled out “oooh skydivers”, my cheerleaders rode past me and yelled “focus Albuquerque, you’re on a bike, you don’t have time to stop and watch”
I finished the ride in 2 hrs 44 minutes (and 24 seconds if you must know) actually, that was my ride time, so if you factor in my 2 minute stops and what not I think I was at 2 hrs 50 minutes. The total distance was 32.01 miles. My avg speed was 11.6 mph my fastest speed (as I previously mentioned) was 29.9 mph. It was a very good ride. Much more enjoyable than my CA ride. And I think that was totally due to the the “Whoop! For the RED Rider”
One of the most exciting things about riding in a Tour de Cure event in every state is the opportunity to turn that quick visit for a ride into a vacation. There are so many states where I’d love to stay for a longer visit, in some remote place, not in a hotel, but rather a private cabin tucked in the woods or a condo on the beach.
The ride locations that are near mountains and lakes or beaches, those are locations where I’d want to turn the ride into a mini vacation instead of just flying in, riding and flying back out (and staying in a hotel on the nights I’m there). For example, in May I spent a week in Long Beach for the SoCal Tour de Cure because I wanted to be able to go to the beach, disneyland, knott’s berry farm, etc. I wanted a vacation. During this time, I stayed in a hotel, which worked because I wasn’t aware of a website off the top of my head where I could find a non-hotel to rent. But I would’ve been thrilled if I could’ve stayed in a condo on the Beach.
What I’m most thrilled about is knowing where to look for my next ride, which is near Boulder, CO for a vacation home. Just glancing through to get an idea of what’s available, there’s one place that already appeals to me. It’s a bed and breakfast, called Mad Creek Bed and Breakfast.
I all ready get so excited about traveling to different states to participate in the Tour de Cure, but now that I know where to find alternative locations to stay in as opposed to hotels, I’m that much more excited to be traveling. To be able to stay in a place and experience that location for what it is (by not staying in a hotel) and to make it not feel like it’s bombarded by tourists (even if it is), now that’s a vacation I’d like to experience.
But even if I’m going on a vacation that isn’t driven by the Tour de Cure, for example, if I wanted to find Lake Tahoe vacation rentals I could. And perhaps instead of camping out at Lake Tahoe I could stay in a cabin. It would be just as fun with a little less work. That’s another vacation I’d like to experience.
Post sponsered by VLBO Vacation Rentals.
With this grand idea of mine (riding in a Tour de Cure in every state) comes an imminent need for proper gear. I have a bike that I fit (when I say “that I fit� I mean that I bought a bike from the shop that overall seemed like the most proper fit but it’s not quite right) as opposed to a bike that fits me (a bike that’s built for the length of my arms and legs and the range of motion in them). The problem is (because of my strangely short legs in proportion with the rest of my body) I’ll probably never be able to walk into a bike shop and buy a bike that fits my needs off their floor. I’m most likely going to need something custom (which is painful to think about because of the cost, but I’m willing to go there, eventually.), so how convenient is it that Outside magazine had a little blurb in it about a Custom Built Seven Cycles bike (road or mountain) that I could win (or you, anyone really).
All I had to do was write an essay, 200 words. That’s really not too difficult, I ramble and at a good pace too. After reading the official rules and discovering that 50% of the score would be based on relevance to theme (which I assumed this was a theme of my choosing because I don’t recall them providing one) and the other 50% would be based on the need for a Seven Cycles Custom Bike, I decided I had myself a good case. I had a theme (the Tour de Cure what else) and I had a need. I think I put it nicely in 197 words 
We’ll find out though, because even though I thought my essay was good, I’m a horrible writer and there are (as there always is) people that probably had better essays.
Regardless, here’s the essay I submitted:
For 15 years I’ve had a disease which has controlled my life. At the tender age of 11, most of who I had been was stripped from me. The little girl who was constantly outside on her bike, rollerblading, swimming, and running around, was now limited in what activities she could do. Yet, I refuse to be limited any longer. I am returning to the athletic kid I once was, however what I’m doing is not simply for pleasure. I have a goal to ride in a Tour de Cure in every state to help cure diabetes.
A custom road bike from Seven Cycles would help me immensely in meeting my goal. It would ensure a proper fit, putting me in a position that is not only efficient but also provides suitable aerodynamics which would allow me more time in the saddle and would prevent injuries from having a bike that I fit instead of having a bike that fits me. A custom Seven Cycles road bike would allow me to ride longer distances in the Tour de Cure thus bringing more awareness of diabetes to the communities in which I ride.
I should know by July 16th whether I won or not. And regardless of winning, I will still ride.
When I did my ride in SoCal it didn’t matter to me too much that I wasn’t around for the training rides, the early check in, the gatherings. But now, I’m feeling the pain of not living where I’m riding. Tonight I received an invitation to the “SoCal Tour de Cure Celebration Party” which is, of course, in CA. Let me remind you that I’m in NM. It makes it tough to attend these things. Through nobody’s fault but my own, I’m not getting the opportunity to attend functions that I’d love to attend. Another example is the upcoming Tour de Cure Party in CO to help riders “Get Geared Up”. People will get all the information they need to start preparing for the ride. Me, I’m here in NM, doing my own preparations, and I’m not feeling sorry for myself so much as I’m bummed that I can’t participate in the pre and post ride functions.
I think that they (the pre and post ride functions) can be deemed as an important part of the ride experience. That they help you get to know people and establish a base for your next ride (especially if you’re in state and plan on riding again.)
I strongly encourage riders to go to the pre and post functions and get to know people, if you don’t do it this year, yeah there’s the chance that there will be similar functions in the following years, but you’ll still be missing out on the camaraderie of fellow cyclists here in the now.
At 7 am on the 19th of May 2007 Robbie and I (Team Goober and Runt) set out for El Dorado Park in Long Beach, CA to check in for the 35 mi Tour de Cure ride. It was overcast as can be expected for this time of year in Southern California, and to my New Mexico skin the temperature was a little colder than I would’ve liked. The moment the sky opened up and a slight rain fell I was bummed. But rain or shine I was going to ride. When we pulled into the parking area at the park I had on my shorts and a long sleeve shirt. When it was time to get in line for the ride I was in a tank top. “Cowboy up” I had said to myself, “When you start riding you’ll warm up.” Turns out that the infrequent opening of the sky was nice as it cooled me down. But let me back track slightly to before the ride began.
It was about 7:15 when we arrived at the park, perfect timing as that was when check-in for the 35 mi ride began. Being me, I had to show up at the start of check in time as opposed to closer to ride time (8:30), not knowing what I was to expect was my reasoning behind that. (In actuality though, I expected lines of people and having to wait to get checked in, and I really didn’t desire to have to wait in line.) Luckily for me though, having raised more than $1k, I got to skip the lines (although I can barely say any lines existed) and check-in at the Elite Riders Club, while all the other riders had to step from stations 1 to 2 to 3 etc, I got to bypass all that non-sense, hand in all my previous filled out paperwork and donation envelope, get my t-shirt, my wristbands, my bib/bike number. It was a painless process, quick and easy. (For me anways, Robbie had to fill out all his paperwork and stand in line to get checked in and get all his stuff).
After check-in, we unloaded our bikes, pulled our acts together, took some pictures, and waited until start time. We were supposed to start at 8:30, but we actually didn’t get to begin our trek until 8:45. Regardless, we were in our starting positions, which I chose, at 8:15 because I wanted to be near the front of the pack because I knew I would fall behind but I didn’t want to fall to the end of the pack, just to the middle. And that’s exactly what happened, so my plan worked out great.
The ride went well, the only thing that killed me were the overpasses which were hills, of course. They took my speed from about 12-14 mph down to about 7 mph and it also took me from being in bliss to whining and complaining about how I wasn’t going to make it, I of course made it and never did stop during my hill climbs. Boy did they wear me out though. We stopped at both rest stops. Robbie (a.k.a. Goober) was kind enough to inform me that if I didn’t stop at the rest stops that he’d chew me out and not be happy. I wasn’t happy about having to stop at the first rest stop. I thought it was unnecessary as I was doing just fine. (Of course, I assumed that I was doing just fine because I felt just fine, the stop was necessary to stop and test my blood and eat something so that my blood sugar didn’t go low before the next rest stop.) There were restrooms (gotta love those port-a-potties) and orange slices and water and Bear Naked Granola. If there were any other goodies, I didn’t notice, at the first rest stop I didn’t get anything (I was doing just fine, remember) and at the second rest stop my blood sugar was beginning to slope down so I had some orange slices and granola.
At about 30 miles I was worn out and couldn’t wait for the ride to be over with. At about 33 miles I began the “are we there yet?” questioning. At 35 miles I was rejoicing because I could see the finish and I knew I was there and I was more than happy.
Because I had made other plans for lunch we didn’t stick around for the post ride activities (I will tell you now that that was a dumb move on my part, but hindsight is also 20/20). But as I was loading my bike onto the car and I was cooling down and feeling much better, I couldn’t help but think, “Wouldn’t it be cool to ride in every state.”
My very first Tour de Cure ride went very well and as such, it’s far from being my last ride in the Tour de Cure.
For more information (stats concerning the ride distance, the time to completion, etc) check out RideToRemedy.com
I’m house sitting fairly close to where I work. Fairly close being 4 miles. The 4 miles isn’t a problem on the way to work, it’s all downhill. It is a problem on the way home when it’s all uphill. And it’s gotta be something like a 6% grade. But I decided that I could do it, I could do it because I needed to train on insane hills because I just really don’t know what I might encounter on my ‘mostly flat’ ride in CA.
So, it took me 10 minutes to get to work. Completely awesome, only a slight breeze and the sun was out. The ride home was insane. I get one block from work and the sky just opens up and dumps rain on me, the wind was something like 19 mph, and it was a headwind of course (because it’s always a headwind out here). Luckily it only rained for like 5 minutes. But the rest of the ride with the wind was tough, it took me 40 minutes to get home. And I pulled a muscle in my leg. But it was good training regardless.
Note: Courtney’s been really busy getting ready for the last week of school, so yours truly (Robbie/Goober) gets to blog again. Sweet!
Friday was supposed to be picture day. But there was some miscommunication and Courtney ended up getting to the trail head late (we were supposed to meet at 4:00pm). I got to the trailhead at 4:00, but when Courtney wasn’t there, I sent her a page (she’s rarely late). I got a reply that she had gone to school and forgot to text message me. She said to give her 30 minutes and she would be at the trailhead.
I had some time, so I decided to explore the other side of the bridge that marks our starting point. Since we have a new found desire to ride off-road, I was curious to see if there were more trails past the bridge. I was in luck; I found a nice trail that went over all kinds of terrain, from soft sand to bark from chopped down trees. I rode for about 5 minutes, but decided it would be more fun if Courtney went with me. So I turned around and went back to the trailhead. There was a lot of traffic…rush hour and all, and Courtney didn’t get to the trailhead until 5:30pm.
She didn’t have her skirt or camera, which meant we couldn’t take pictures, so we just rode out to the spot on the river. We rode to the 4.5 mile marker and turned onto the newly found trail. We rode down the paved path to the point where it goes off-road. I was following behind Courtney, preparing to peddle hard through the soft sand when all of a sudden she stopped and shouted that a bug was in her ear. Fortunately I was back far enough that I managed to stop (in the soft sand no doubt) before running her over.
By the time I had stopped, she had retrieved the offending bug from her ear and showed me the bug that was “trying to eat my brain”… It was a little tiny bug that looked of the beetle variety. I told her that it was too small to be of any danger to her, and it probably wouldn’t have made past the ear wax. I was then informed that her ears are very well maintained and don’t contain any of the potentially life saving wax. Well, she then took revenge on the bug for all the trouble it had caused and we continued down the trail to the river spot…well, I rode; she walked her bike because of the soft sand. :) When we got there, we noticed the river was a little high, but we managed to find the spot.
Courtney had to check the water level again, so off with her socks and shoes and into the river she went. She looked for the sand bar she had previously found, but it was underwater. I suggested she just use the sand bar that was four feet to her left. Well, I actually just pointed at the sand bar. She thought I was pointing to a sand bar much farther up the river and for the next few minutes we argued about which sand bar I was pointing at. She finally decided she liked the sand bar a few feet to her left (the one I had been point at the whole time). I yelled out, “You’re killing me!* That’s the one I’ve been point to the whole time…” lol. She made her way back to shore, and I retrieved a towel from my pack that I had brought for her to dry her feet off with.
Everything looked ok, so we decided to come back the next day and take the pictures.
(Usually Courtney posts her blood sugar numbers here, but again she didn’t tell me…)
We rode 12.5 miles in about an hour and 10 minutes (I finally got my speedometer/odometer to read in MPH). Again we averaged 13.3 MPH, which will set us up nicely for the ride in California.
* Quote used with permission of Courtney (except in cases where I’m killing her)
Note: Courtney is feeling lazy today, so I Robbie (Goober) get to write the entry for our ride today.
Our ride started out like most, except this time I had installed a speedometer/odometer on my bike so we could see how fast and how far we were going. Of course I lived up to my nickname and accidentally reset the entire meter while trying to reset the odometer. When I got the tire size and time corrected, I noticed it was reading in KPH (kilometers per hour). Try as I might, I could not get it into MPH (which is sad because I can program a VCR in no time, but this little meter had me stumped). Needless to say, I spent the rest of the ride calling out speeds and distances in kilometers…
After the little incident, we finally got riding. After about a kilometer, the wind started picking up. Let me tell you, riding in the wind sucks, and here in Albuquerque, it’s always a head wind…no matter which direction you are riding.
We made it to our 4 mile marker and Courtney decided we had ridden far enough for the day. I still had a lot of ride left in me, and since we have to push each other, I reminded her of how far we had ridden (eight or nine kilometers). She mulled it over for a sec and decided she could make it to 8.5 mile marker. We never got there. About half a kilometer past our 4 mile marker we came to a fork in the road. Normally we ride on the west side of the irrigation ditch, but lately on our way back, we’ve been riding on the east side of the ditch. At this fork, we had the option to cross over a bridge and ride on the east side, or continue straight. That’s when Courtney noticed another paved trail to our right, heading east toward the river. This new trail peaked our curiosity, and it wasn’t long before we decided to go on a mission of exploration.
We rode on the new trail for a ways until it ended in a loop. Courtney noticed a dirt trail continuing past the paved trail and took off down it. I followed, but noticed that we were riding in soft sand (that soft sand where if it’s too deep, you just sit in one place spitting sand behind you until you get off your bike and walk it the rest of the way). So I yelled out, “Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.� But it fell on deaf ears. Of course when you’re riding a mountain bike, you’re always itching for the trail off the beaten path, so off I went to catch up with her. We followed the trail until we reached the river. We met a woman and her young son, who warned us not to get too close to the river or we might fall in, and the woman informed us the trail kind of follows the edge of the river. The bushes and trees were pretty thick, so we dismounted and pushed our bikes along the trail some more until we found we couldn’t go any more. Courtney wanted to see how deep the water was, so we parked our bikes and walked down to the river bank.
Now I didn’t find out until later why she wanted to see how deep the water was, but before I knew it she was out of both sock and shoes, and had one leg in the water trying to find the bottom. She couldn’t find it, so we walked back to where the woman and boy had been (they had left by then). It was shallow enough at that point that the water only came up to her shorts. She made her way about six yards to a sand bar in the middle of the river and proclaimed herself king [queen, ruler] of the sand bar. She like the backdrop of the river and trees behind her, and decided that was the spot she was going to have her graduation pictures taken. After she was done playing in the water, she made her way back to the bank. I offered my hand to help her out of the water, or keep her balance while she was cleaning the mud off and putting her socks and shoes on, but she reminded me she was “Miss Independent�. I told her she can be Miss Independent all she wants, but I’ll still always offer my help.
After our fun at the river, we made our way back to the 4 mile marker, which also happens to be a main road to look for a place to park for when we come back to take those graduation pictures. We didn’t find a place to park, but we did find another dirt trail that took us in back of several ranches (we got that itch again for off-roading). The ride back to our cars was uneventful, but I have a feeling we’ll be doing a lot more off-roading, and exploring on our subsequent rides.
(Normally Courtney lists her blood sugars status here, but she didn’t tell me what her starting or stopping numbers were, so I can only assume they were in the normal range)
We rode ~21 kilometers (Courtney calculated it to be 15.87 miles) in an hour and 10 minutes, but there was at least 20 minutes of fun in/by the river, and another 10 minutes looking for a place to park on Montano. When we were riding, we averaged 21 KPH (~13 MPH) which is exactly how fast we need to ride in California.
