Quarter Century Bike Ride

Did my first sponsored bike ride on Saturday.  We all got tags for our bikes and headed out for the 25 mile ride.   Truthfully the ride pretty much killed me emotionally and physically.  I thought I'd have a great time and I was so exhausted and frustrated afterwards it hurt.  It was 90 degrees with head winds up to 30mph and I was nearly dead when we reached the halfway point.  I almost wanted to dump my bike in the back of the truck, start crying, and have them drag me back to the starting point in shame.

My friend convinced me to head back as now we'd have a tailwind but by mile 15 my left arm was killing me and had to keep stopping to rest.  Everyone was passing us and even though it wasn't a race, I just felt like a failure.  My mountain bike shorts were digging into my waist around mile 17 adding to the discomfort as well.  We finally made it back to the beginning and headed into the bar for the food being provided.

For making it 25 miles we all got our t-shirts that I can proudly say I earned and I love it:

Will I do a ride like this again?  I don't know.  But, if you have a chance to do a ride, do it.  I don't regret it and I learned a lot about myself.