Waco Wild West Bike Ride

Discretion is the better part of valor. Similar to Benbrook Half-Marathon when I walked 4.65 miles back to the finish line rather than reaggravating my IT Band Syndrome, I decided to end this ride early rather risk a freak ailment only one week before Ironman Longhorn.

For today's Waco Wild West bike rally, the plan was to ride the 100 mile route with Don T and his friend Scott from Gorilla Multisport (slogan: "[Tri training] is like wrestling a gorilla.  You don't stop when you're tired.  You stop when the gorilla is tired.").

The ride started off a little shakey.  Scott took off in the beginning, but Don felt something "off" with his bike and stopped to tinker with it.  I caught up to Scott a few minutes later to let him know the news.  He told me to go on and we'd catch up at the rest stops.  So I continued on, but just a few minutes later I heard a popping sound and then a rattling.  I stop and looked down at my front wheel - a broken spoke!  And it was the spoke upon which my bike computer's sensor magnet was mounted - so no speedometer.  Oh well, just gotta roll with it - I bent/wrapped the broken spoke around the next nearest good spoke (and I could still see my GPS-based speed on my Garmin Forerunner 305) - and restarted my ride.

After the initial bumps, things went pretty well. I completed the first 57 miles in 2 hours and 54 minutes before stopping at the rest stop in Mother Neff State Park near Whitson, TX.  Because I had such a good pace, this was the first rest area at which I stopped.  In fact, apparently, we rode right by Prairie Chapel Ranch (aka George W Bush's home away from the White House ... http://www.tagzania.com/item/28187) outside of Crawford.  Don T told me about seeing Secret Service vehicles and large antennas around that area, but I was so focused on the hard I don't recall any of that (except maybe for passing one radio/cellular tower).

Anyway, the bad news is that I quit at 79 miles (at 4 hours and 23 minutes) and took the SAG wagon back in because something (dust?/pollen?) was irritating my lungs. I've never had asthma but I imagine I was feeling something similar to an asthma attack.  I think I could have toughed it out and ridden the final 21 miles, but with my big race next Sunday I didn't want to risk getting an infection or something stupid like that.

After getting back to our vehicle and loading up my bike, I wandered over to the finish area at Indian Springs Park to grab some cold beverages.  I also took a walk over and around the Waco Suspension Bridge and enjoyed the music and cooled off by the misting fans.

I'm a little disappointed at not being able to finish the full century, but I'm still happy with doing nearly 80 miles today. And I got a HUGE box of candy to take home.  The ride was sponsored by M&M/Mars/Skittles and at the end the ride organizers were all but forcing the candy on the departing riders ("Take it all, we have way too much, and we don't want to haul it back"). So I'm all set for trick-or-treaters next month! :-)

My stats for the ride - good speed for the first 57.17 miles, the 10 minute rest stop, and then the final (for me) 21.5 miles ...

Things got painful at the 4-hour mark ...

My heart rate wasn't too bad for such a fast pace.

It's encouraging to know that I had a fast pace even though the first 35 miles was mostly uphill

Ride Review:

• Course: 3.5/5 - a lot of chip-seal, but not too much traffic; route only marked with painted arrows on the road - they were done well, but are no substitute for also having signs; NO traffic control when crossing over some highways - not good :-(
• Rest Stops: 4/5 - decent selection - fruit, cookies, PB&Js, assorted candy and bars, and water/Gatorade
• Logistics: 3.5/5 - online registration available; no issues with race day resistration; only park bathrooms (but was okay since the ride attendance was not huge); lots of parking at nearby mall/businesses; not much post-race refreshment (less stuff than the rest stops) - but tacos for sale
• Overall: 3.5/5 - pretty good ride; will probably do again, but the drive (almost 2 hours) is a bit far