I had a really great time on the Mass Red Ribbon Ride. I kept a little journal thing of the ride, then I lost it, here’s a close retelling.
Just to skip ahead a bit, the coolest thing I saw was a trailer home painted like a cow, covered in spots with a head towards the front and a tail at the back, I wish I had a picture.

Pre-Ride
After a pleasant stay at the Crown Plaza Hotel, we took the shuttle over to the staging ground for our grand send-off. At this point I seriously questioned my desicion to drink those two tasty Sam Adams from the charming hotel bar, although happy I refused the shots of Jager that were proposed by a local drunkard as good luck for the ride. Anyways, the beer set into my brain and went on to elaborate on my anxieties in a series of bizzare dreams. The best that I can remember without revealing to much about ole Nate’s thinky-box was a dream where I showed up to the race to discover that instead of the 225 bike race I had anticipated, I had indeed signed up for a 225 mile road race, ouch! I’m not sure how I got out of that one, but my shaky nerves continued to conjure up wacky dreams until morning seeped in.

Day One:
After an uneventful shuttle ride, we arrived at the parking lot for the opening ceremonies. The opening was also relatively uneventful, lots of standing around and looking at the other riders, checking out the bikes out there, some really beautiful ones. After a short speech, we hit the road, riding between an ornate balloon arch, some type of symbolism?
The first day was to be 75 miles, so I was feeling pretty confident. Sure, the farthest I’d riden previously was a easy 60 miles on the Minuteman Trail, but I felt strong and bikey was ready to cruise. The whole day we were followed by cars of volunteers to make sure everything was okay and a lesbian motorcycle club that zipped around to make sure everything was cool. A couple people I talked to were not so keen on the large number of volunteer cars, especially as they could sneak up behind you and yell “IS EVERYTHING OKAY?” usually when you were doing something difficult. I found then to be a relief, especially when I was by myself.

Anyways, the first 20 miles were nice and smooth, I started to edge towards the front of the pack, bikey was feeling good on the new Armadillo tires I had recently purchased. At mile 20 we reached our first rest stop, spaced about 20 miles apart throughout the ride. These breaks were well stocked with Gatorade, water, about 15 kinds of energy bars and plenty of helpful volunteers and bike techs.

Right out the first pit stop I became separated from the rest of the riders. And I encountered my most formabile challenge, a 3-mile twisty climb that seriously tested everything I had. I had not riden my bike too much, and hadn’t done very much climbing at all. So, I never realized that having two in my front sprocket meant that the so-called “Granny Gear”, that little gear for big climbs, wasn’t there at all. yeah, it came as quite a shock to me. Luckily I was sitting down and would be for the next 5 hours, so I had plenty of time to ponder this. After climbing that sucker, things got better. It turned into a lot of ups and downs. The lunch pit-stop was a nice break, although it was hard to eat a veggie wrap, I ended up tossing most of it and gourging on Cliff bars.

Shortly after leaving this stop, I saw another biker speeding up the hill I was about to descend, looking for help. One of the bikers ahead of me crashed coming down the hill, a mixture of new asphalt and a slickness deposited by light rain. It ended up that the rider broke his leg, which was a big shock to everyone. I had been taking most hills pretty conservatively, I was pretty nervous about taking turns on the bike, it’s a very different feeling of balance. After professional help arrived, it came very quickly, I kept riding.

When I hit the last pit stop, at mile 52, they told me I was only the 3rd rider in! I spent a couple minutes there, drinking a lot and started again with fresh legs. The last 20some miles blew by, excepting a midday downpour that drenched everything and took the life of my phone of more than 2 years… so sad.

It was a great feeling to ride in that day, tons of people were around to take your bike, get you water and direct you to the showers. Actually, we were staying in Northampton at Smith Vocational and Agriculture School, who’s locker room boasted an astounding single functional shower without hot water, still felt pretty damn good though.

Dinner was delivered by my friends at Community Servings, some fantastic deep lasanga and extras, it was a great meal. Some meager card playing ensued after dinner in the gymnasium in which we slept. A lot of people choose to stay in hotels, but there was still agood 50-60 people sleeping in the gym. It was actually pretty hard to fall asleep, a lot adrenalin and just a tad of next day spooks.

Day Two
We got up earlier on Saturday to get an early start for the 100 mile day ahead of us. The day started slowly for me. Another questionable descision was made when I consumed a double order of eggs provided by the local hospital, not pretty. Once I got on the road, it took me a while to find my energy and legs. For a while I started to worry that my energy had been sapped, and I would spend the day in unimaginable pain. Luckily, this was not the case, I started feeling better and better as the day progressed. The first pit stop was on the shore of a beautiful lake. I saw so many amazing natural and artifical ponds & lakes during my ride, some really serene spots.

The second pit stop was in a more malicious location, on top of another neverending hill in the town of Petersham. It was great to get there, but the climb was awful. The landscape became rather hilly after this stop, lots of quick descents and slow ascents. Nothing too bad, but a constant shift of resources. After another quality lunch in Princeton, I started for the last pit stop. During this leg of the ride, my right knee started to become very painful. By the time I got to the final (and best, with a tropical theme complete with leis) pit stop, my knee was in a bad way. I was so close, 20 miles on paper, although more like 25 in actuality, that I kept going.

It took a good while to cover that last distance, which was depressing as I felt energy everywhere else. I tried to pedal with just my left leg for a while, which feels really awkward and just made everything hurt. I did finally roll into Regis college, 105 miles at around 4pm, 9 hours after I had left. It was a really great feeling, I was one of the first 10 people, so everything was not in place, but it was just a fantastic feeling to get off your bike knowing you just biked that far.

Day 3
The third day never happened because of the weather conditions and sick/injured riders. That was too bad, but it was still a fantastic time. It made me realize a number of things, personal stuff, but al
so that I love being out on the open road on a bike, it is a great feeling.

So, now it’s just three days until I’m off onto my epic charity bike ride. The MassRedRibbonRide should be fun, I think I’l be able to do it without much problem. I have convinced myself of this fact without any real semblence of logical thought.

My obtuse reasoning is that I am not really going to think about physical stamina and focus on happy thoughts, like the end.

I mean, I’m in decent biking shape & I have all the gear now, so good stuff. The most motivational aspect of this whole ride and the reason I wouldn’t fail or at least never admit to failure is the fact that I have been able to raise so much money for this event from my friends and family. I’m currently at $1,900, only $200 from my goal! That’s pretty awesome, I’m humbled by the generousity of my peeps. And, if you haven’t already, you should check out my fancy-pants web site . This puppy has garnered phone calls from a number of other agencies involved in the raise, it’s the sauciest donor page out there.

Here is an obligatory shot of me and my bikey, look how angry I am, that’s positive anger!