12 hours and 300kms later

My Ride to Conquer Cancer fund-raising ride last Wednesday was a grand success. I started at 0600, riding at a crisp 7C and was just starting to warm up when the rain began falling. Fortunately, it only lasted about 45 minutes or so. There were many geese, wild turkeys, deer, and a coyote out to cheer me on.

The wind picked up as the day progressed but I spent most of my time marvelling at how beautiful a ride my new R3 is. I had recently been fitted by Mary at Bike2Body and everything just felt right. I switched over to 28mm Grand Bois tires to handle the dirt roads and construction at work so the ride was pretty sweet. Only problem was the lack of clearance with my 3T forks but after a consultation with Matt of Tall Trees fame I solved that problem with a judicious use of tinfoil to shorten the depth of the 3T dropouts. Perfect.

My goal was to ride 250km in 12hrs, but after about 4 hrs I realized a more lofty goal was achievable. By the end of it I covered 302.6km in 12:02. I "cheated" along the way by drafting behind an Ironman athlete friend of mine for a couple of laps, but I figure that compensates for the few laps where I slowed down to enjoy the company of a few friends who were kind enough to join me along the way.

Here's a graph of my progress on the 9.25km course. I owe some gophers an apology.



Some other stats:

Calories burned: 10880
Calories consumed: 3750 (mostly Lara bars and eLoad)
Water consumed: 6L
Average Speed: 26.16 km/hr

Total time stopped over 12hrs: 7 minutes

My back was a bit sore between hours 9 and 11, and my traps were a bit weary, but the only really sore spot was my right foot that didn't like the last hour. Remember to cut your toenails before embarking on one of these things. Post-ride, I did wake up in the middle of the night a bit nauseous, but the only other casualties were a tender achillies and bit of a crunchy knee.

I raised over $1200 towards my ride. Thanks to everyone for contributing.

cheers,
P