Life Lessons

So, having successfully completed my first Century ride yesterday, I wanted to sit down today and recount some of the things I realized during the ride.

(1) wanting to do something and being motivated/committed enough to finish it are 2 different things

(2) you have to take/ask for advice from people older and more experienced than you, your survival depends on it

(3) setting unrealistic goals doesn't do anyone any good

(4) a positive mental outlook is your most valuable asset

(5) each teammember should operate both independently and interconnectedly at all times, both autonomy/independence and communication/interreliance are important for team success

(6) "the price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." - Vince Lombardi


I know I had some other good revelations but I didn't have a pen/paper to write them as I was riding and I was so focused on "Stayin' Alive" that I didn't have the brainpower to really remember.

I'm showing below the elevation profile, which you can see is relatively flat (1% grade at most). I've labeled some of the parts I remember most vividly.

(A) 6:45am, mile 11, When Cliff went down and bloodied his knee up, Edith and I taped a Maxi Pad to it

(B) 7:40am, mile 22, A second group joined us at the Corona West Metrolink station

(C) 8:20am, mile 29, A third group joined us at Featherly Park (see picture on Facebook)

(D) 9:13am, mile 42, Angel's Stadium/Honda Center, almost to the OCEAN!!! (see picture)

(W) 9:58am, mile 56, my first fiew of the pacific. (see pictures)

(E) 1:40pm, mile 84, The HOT part of the day (103 deg F), we took a 15 min shade break (a non-scheduled stop)

(F) ???, mile 92, The BIG HILL which was to me the most brutal part of the ride, after which I couldn't cool my body down at all. Luckily, my friend Tom told me to squirt myself with water and that helped immensely

(G) ???, mile 100, The Farmer Boys rest stop (also non-scheduled) where we sat inside in a wonderfully comfortable and AIR CONDITIONED building drinking ice water and eating beef jerky

(H) ???, mile 106, The last painful stretch where I also could not stay cool. I used almost all the water we picked up at Farmer Boys just to douse my arms and legs repeatedly

We got back to Mission Burger in downtown Riverside at ~4:30pm. At the time I felt I could have gone further but definitely did not want to face any more hills or heat.

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=91961&id=660124126&l=bfe7d29b93