Yesterdays Ride

Hello all. Hope the Wed. is treatin' you all marvy harvy. I have a full days of work ahead of me. Wed. and Fri are my 9 1/2 hour days. ugggh. It's slow going until 3pm. For whatever reason after 3pm it seems like it's almost over...even though there's still 2 1/2 hours left.

Yesterday, Jason, Ben, and I hit Madonna mountain for what ended up being a really fun ride. We went around Lemon Loop and then up to the top. We took Rock Garden down. I had a near death experience with some crazy down-hillers. Jason and Ben are way faster when it comes to downhill. Especially with Rock Garden. This is only the second time I've ever gone down it. It was super fun but I definitely didn't huck myself down it. Well, I'm going along when all of a sudden I thought I heard something. I turned around and saw this guy flying down at warp speed. I dove into a really pokey bush and made it out of the way just in time for him to yell in my ear, "Two more!". So, I waited there with the woody branches stabbing into me until the other two went by. I made it to where Jason and Ben had stopped and waited for me (they too had seen the guys speed by and wondered if I was now a flattened little "Anna pancake".) I rode up to them and told them about how I was almost ran over but had moved out of the way barely in time. Jason was annoyed. Aside from the fact that it was me who was almost ran over he's afraid that one day they're going to ban mountain biking on Madonna mountain because of these psycho down-hillers. Granted, if I had 6 or 7 inches of travel on my bike I'd probably go fast too. The problem though is that there are no designated mountain bike trails on Madonna. They are all fair game for hikers...including Rock Garden. There could easily be someone hiking up these trails. There's enough turns and corners that you really have to be careful when down-hilling. Some of these guys go SO fast, and they don't really give a care who's in their way. So, at the end of Rock Garden Jason we met up with the guys and Jason talked to them. It was the typical, "One nice guy in a group of jerks." The guy who almost ran me over was actually really nice. He had a terrible noise in his bike and Jason actually ended up fixing it for him. His other two friends ditched him though and he ended up riding with us a little bit. So, long story short...we finished the ride, it was really fun, and I fell at the last corner out. Duh. I don't fall on the technical Rock Garden...I fall at the end...where it's practically flat! I got a little "dirt rash" on the arm but no real harm done. :-)

Sunday, at 7am, Jason and I are heading out to Madonna for the 10KOM. 10 times up and down Madonna mountain. The is a total of 22 miles up and 22 miles down. That is, if you actually finish it. I don't foresee myself actually doing 10 of those things. For a few reason really... First, it KILLS the lower back. Second, my lungs may poop out on me. Third, my legs may poop out on me. Fourth, it sounds a smidgen bit boring. Fifth, the longest ride I've done since being back on the bike was 15 miles and maybe 3/4 of those miles were climbing miles. So, there you have it. We'll be sure to take some pic's of the gang. There's a whole brigade of guys from church doing it...maybe a girl or two too. Maybe Julie Theule or someone can get out there and represent the Grace girls who ride. :-)