After 5 weeks of anticipation, today
was the day for le Tour de Donut! For those who are not
familiar, the Tour de Donut is a just-for-fun bike race held up in
Greenville at Klackle Orchards. It is 32-33 miles long with 2
doughnut stops during the race. For each doughnut you eat, you get 3
minutes subtracted from your total time. Your placing depends on
total time – doughnut time.
The best part about this race is that
it is really just for fun. Sure, there are some people taking it
seriously (there will always be a few) but most people are just out
there to ride and eat doughnuts. There are no prizes, no money, no
nothing at stake, besides bragging rights of course.
This race has been on my schedule for 3 years now. It is even a part of my yearly bike goals.
About 5 weeks ago, completely out of the blue, Hannah told me she
wanted to do a bike race with me. What!?!? I had no idea she was
even thinking about it. This has convinced me that Hannah takes
after myself, in that she has to ruminate on ideas for a while but
when she makes up her mind, her mind is made up.
I tried to convey to Hannah what a
30ish mile bike ride would be like. She was confident. I tried to give her an idea of how long she would need to be on the tag-a-long (better than 2 hours). She was determined.
Ok. Nothing to do but get training. We did 4 "long" rides over 4 weekends (10 miles, 14 miles, 18 miles, and 22 miles). There were also a few shorter jaunts around the neighborhood mixed in. She did wonderfully with them all.
As a side note, she also became determined to learn to ride her own bike. She started on a tiny, little 12 inch bike borrowed from the neighbors. Once she was proficient on that, she took on her big girl bike. Next thing you know, she is doing great on that bike. Once again, like me, when she becomes determined to do something, she will do it. It's done. Period. End of sentence.
As the day of the race approached, I was no longer concerned about her ability to tolerate time on the bike or to be able to pedal well. I was, however, concerned about the weather. First, it was cold. When the race started, it was probably in the upper 40s. Second, rain was a definite possibility.
Cold is one thing. If you wear enough of the right clothes, you will be fine. Wet is a whole other thing. I have ridden when wet and cold. Imagine taking all the fun, crumpling it up and throwing it in the trash. Oh, and guess where all the spray from my rear wheel would go? Yep, straight into Hannah's face.
If there had been rain, Hannah and I would have ended up going out for a nice Daddy/Daughter breakfast after I picked up my t-shirt. Thank heavens there was no rain!
We got there with a few minutes to spare. Hannah was covered in multiple layers on her upper and lower body and had her feet in plastic bags (to break the wind). We got ourselves ready, picked up my race packet and headed to the start line. Once there, I got to listen to "When are we going to start?" approximately 5,000 times. I am riding with a 6 year old, after all.
Many very nice people commented on our set-up. Several joked with Hannah about eating 400 donuts. She is pretty cute.
Then the race started!
We were off with Hannah pedaling hard and with me trying to pick a clean line through the other racers. I had come to learn that the tag-a-long significantly affects the handling of my bike. I have to take turns wider and the tiniest little twitch of the tag-a-long makes my bike swerve.
My first warning that things might not go as well as I hoped came when Hannah started to ask when the first donut stop was when were only 3 miles in. This question got repeated many times over the next 10 miles.
Even though I had done this race before, I wasn't sure exactly how many miles it was to each donut stop. Turns out the first one is 13.6 miles in. That is a long way to go for a little girl jones-ing for a donut.
Before getting to the first donut stop, another rider commented that he was humbled by how fast we were moving. GO TEAM TERRELL!!! WOO-HOO!!!
When we got to the first donut stop, we each grabbed a donut and I headed to the port-a-john (yep, lots of coffee). I ended up eating 2 and Hannah ended up eat 1.5 (no, hers didn't count).
Then it was off to the next stop. This section goes right through Greenville, including a section on a bike path. There is also a section that goes around a lake that lies within the city limits. There is really nothing noteworthy about this section except for the really, really, really steep hill you need to climb to get away from the lake. I had warned Hannah that we might just have to walk up part of the hill. She pedaled as hard as she could, I got into the lowest gear I had and got up out of the saddle and pedaled hard!
And then we walked.
About 3/4 of the way up, I couldn't keep the bike on a straight path and was barely keeping it upright so I stopped and we walked the rest of the way up. Oh well. Had to happen.
As we got going, I could tell we were getting close to the second donut stop but were probably 1-2 miles away. And then Hannah decided she was done.
She got a little tearful and said she wanted to go home. I was afraid this would happen all along. I let her know we were close to the second donut stop and that Michelle would be able to pick her up. The next mile was tough. It was gradual climb on a tar-and-chip road. Hannah didn't seem to be pedaling as hard but I definitely was.
At the second donut stop, I called Michelle and let her know Hannah was finished. Thankfully, the second stop is very close to the finish. We pedaled over and I unhooked the tag-a-long. She seemed to be OK, so I decided to finish the race. There was a race official who seemed a little confused. I can't really blame him.
The last stage of the race felt like I was on turbo. First, I was no longer pulling an extra 60 lbs. Second, I wanted to get back quickly so that the kids wouldn't have to wait too long. I passed a good number of people. A few tried to hang with me but couldn't. All those hill intervals have done me some good.
As I finished, Hannah and my Mom were there. Michelle was in the Klackle store getting donuts and cider for the kids. David has a cold and was getting bent out of shape (Poor Buddy!). We took some pictures and headed for the cars. The kids wanted to ride with Michelle in the Mom-mobile so I drove home in my car.
Once home, David needed a couple books and then he was off to bed. Hannah has been reading or watching TV all afternoon.
I am really proud of Hannah. She did wonderfully. I think she did about 22-23 miles on a cold day. That ain't easy. It is my hope that she will learn the value of pushing yourself to do that which you aren't sure you can do. Physical limits need to explored.
The whole experience was a lot of fun. Spending that much time with my daughter was great. I can't wait to do it again.
