Now, a lot can happen while pedaling 13.4 inches circles over and over and over again for 12 hours. Here's the story...
It was 6:58 am and I had just posted on Facebook that I was about to start. I was staring intently at my bike computer so I could hit the start button exactly at 7:00 am. It was now 6:59 am.
Wait a minute, where are my water bottles?
Quick into the house, grab the bottles, and back outside.
The official start to Crazy Faith was 7:00:10 am. The 10 second goof fact bothered me for all of about a minute as I rolled out of the driveway and up the street. Oh well.
The first big loop of the day was the Tour de Christian Schools. It was a ride I had done back on Labor Day weekend as a trial run. Basically, I rode to Grand Rapids Christian High School, then to Calvin Christian, over to Unity Christian High School, up and over to Allendale Christian and back east to Westside Christian School and Westend CRC. The loop was about 52 miles total.
On Labor Day weekend, this had been an uneventful and thoroughly pleasant ride. For Crazy Faith, there was more traffic and a mechanical snafu.
As a little back story, over the last several years I've had some issues with rear wheels. To keep it brief, I seem to be good at destroying them. Why is that? No idea really. Going into Crazy Faith, I knew my rear wheel was not completely right. Fingers were crossed and prayers were said to just make it through the day.
By the time I had made it to Unity Christian, I realized that the rear brake was rubbing because of the wheel being out of true laterally. Nothing like starting a 12 hour ride with some brake rub. When I opened up the brake calipers to stop the brake rub, the tire started to rub the fender.
Sigh.
The tire rub didn't seem bad so I kept on riding up to ACS and back to Westend. Once back to Westend, I took the fender off (with help from my lovely wife) and made sure the brake caliper was open nice and wide to avoid brake rub. This made my rear brake non-functional but that is ok since I never use the rear brake anyway (I would be happy to explain why, if you are curious). Michelle was there with the kiddos and my Mother-in-law, Barb. It was really good to see them because it reminded me of why I was doing this in the first place.
What to do for the next loop? My only planned route was the Tour de Christian Schools. After that, my route was up for grabs. One factor that I needed to take into account was the wind. If you remember, Saturday the 21st was quite a nice day. No rain, moderate temperatures, and occasional sun. The 15 mph wind from NNW did change my plans, however. Battling the wind for several hours did not seem to be the best idea on a day where I needed to ride for 12 hours.
With that in mind, my second loop went towards Millenium Park, Indian Mounds Dr, Butterworth and up the new connector trail that goes from Maynard & Obrien to Rememberance. Not a bad loop, overall.
Little did I know that Pastor Jeremy had been at church and was ready to ride with me. As many of you will know, Pastor Jeremy is not someone with a whole lot of free time on his hands. Just the fact that he was there and ready to ride speaks volumes. He didn't have to. It's not a job requirement.
When I got back from my second loop, there was Pastor Jeremy, all geared up and ready to go. After a brief rest break and some more food, we took off.
Oh wait, is that Scott DeKryger coming up the drive? Yep, it is.
Scott had just returned from le Tour de Donut (which I highly recommend, by the way) and wanted to put in a little time. After a brief delay, we were off. Pastor Jeremy had about an hour, so we rode west on Leonard to Linden and then turned around and rode back to church.
Not surprisingly, this was the fastest loop of the day. Scott and Jeremy cut the wind (not the cheese) for me and basically pulled me along. It is truly amazing how much a little companionship can make such a huge difference. I have often heard it said that God shows his presence and care by sending others into our lives. You've got a firm believer in me! Michelle's effect on my life has long been proof of this.
When the Scott/Jeremy loop was done, I had to decide what to do next. No one was around to ride with me. Do I brave the wind or brave some hills or find some boring, flat loop to do?
What to do? What to do?
I should pause to say that, by now, I was starting to feel it. I had been riding for something like seven hours. That's a long time in the saddle. My neck was sore. My back was sore. My legs were tired. I knew all of this was going to happen. None of it surprised me, but that does not necessarily make it better.
The next hour and a half was not a ton of fun. Most of my thoughts were focused on how many different things hurt, how much they hurt, and how much more time I had to go. It was, truthfully, the lowest part of the ride. It was here that I questioned whether or not I would finish the 12 hours.
"You've already done 9 hours. That's good enough. No one will blame you. You've already done enough."
And then I saw Dave!
"You had me at 'Wanna ride?'"
Dave VanderSchaaf was waiting at church ready to pull me along for a little while. His company was most welcome.
For nearly 2 hours we rode out towards and then up the Musketawa Trail and then headed back to church. We bike dorked out and talked about wheels, pedals, shoes, DALMAC, bike touring and every cyclists favorite topic...the next bike! There is no topic quite as a juicy sweet as the next bike.
Was I still hurting? Yeah, I was. Did I notice it as much? No, not nearly as much.
When Dave and I got back to church, my lovely wife was waiting for us to help me along for that last hour of riding. As my Facebook post said, "Just 66 minutes to go. Just 66 minutes to go".
Michelle and I left church with almost exactly one hour to go. Due to the whole having-a-infant-thing, she hadn't been on the bike too terribly much. This was, realistically, a good thing. After having ridden my bike for 11 hours, there wasn't much of an all out effort in me.
As we got back toward church, I realized there was still about 5 minutes left before 7 pm. My thought process was:
"C'mon, go hard for the last 5 minutes!"
So, I stepped up the pace as I was going around the block a few times. Not surprisingly, I couldn't "go hard" for more than about 30 seconds before I had to back off some and regroup. After 12 hours, your red line is kinda low.
At 7pm on the dot, I hit stop on my bike computer and brought Gimli to a halt. One-hundred and forty-five miles. Not bad.
I rolled into the parking lot where Michelle was waiting for me. We snapped a picture, loaded up the bikes and headed to McDonalds! Extra large, salty fries? Yes, please!
By the time I got home, I was basking in the warm glow of endorphins, serotonin and lactic acid. That period after finishing a long ride is really a great one. Everything seems to be right with the world.
One might think that a person who had just spent 12 hours on a bike would want nothing to do with said bike for a long time. To be honest, that's not the case. By that Tuesday, I wanted to ride to work. The only reason I didn't is because the work day really didn't allow it.
By Thursday, my body felt pretty normal. In fact, by the day after Crazy Faith, everything except my quads and hamstrings felt just dandy. That's one of the wonderful things about cycling. Once your body has adapted to being on the bike, cycling really doesn't beat you up the way other sports can.
Next year? I think there will be a next year. Will I do the same thing? No. Will I still do something crazy? Yep. What about involving others? That seems like a great idea.
More later...
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