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Ultra Cycling Records "I began to wonder why in the world I was doing this." |
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Grew up in Minnesota, but had never actually been out to this part of the state. Started at Gary, SD just after sunrise. I'm sure the locals - they're farmers so they must have been awake - thought we were nuts - unloading the bike, setting up lights, signs, etc. on the car. The weather was perfect - about 60 degrees or so. Skies were clear but there was quite a bit of ground fog. Dead still.
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Had a nice ride into Granite Falls - very slight downhill - really flew. The fog cleared off by Granite Falls - began to warm up. Had a detour at Olivia - about 9 miles out of Olivia the road route turned to a combination of loose sand and gravel. Switched bikes. This was a bit more tiring - having to keep the bike going straight in the sand, washboard vibration; but it went better than I expected. Back on the main highway at Hector - switched back to the other bike. Around Buffalo Lake I picked up a slight tailwind - very helpful. It pretty much offset the detour problem.
Somewhere around Norwood-Young America - just before Chaska - I started to get a little sleepy - thought I might just take a nap on the bike. Around Chaska traffic began to pick up - started getting hotter. After Shakopee traffic lights became an irritant. Between Savage and Rosemount - lots of Saturday traffic, 30(+) new stoplights, temperature 80(+) degrees - I started to get a little dehydrated and began to slow down a little. I began to wonder why in the world I was doing this.
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I had the crew stop and get me a Dairy Queen Freeze - that was awesome - great combination of cold, wet and protein. That may have been the best part of the ride. Just outside of Hastings I started feeling pretty good again. Picked the speed back up a bit. Coming up the bluff on the north side of the Mississippi River just north of Hastings, I started to cramp a bit - slowed down, rubbed it out and kept going. Nice downhill finish into Prescott.
Overall, the ride was pretty uneventful. I'm sure the crew and official were bored to tears. But, who wouldn't be following a bike across the prairie at less than 20 mph! From my perspective this was great fun and very rewarding. I'm ready to do another.