Cycle for Life

This weekend was awesome! I hope that you all can say the same! The BF and I took on a challenge and were successful!

For those of you who don’t know, we headed to Erie to for the CF Aptalis Cycle for Life.  It was a bike ride to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

It was only the first year for the event, so there were only about 20 people total that participated.  Only seven of us did the longer route and the others did a 30 mile ride.  The longer ride turned out to be exactly 61.8 miles.

The best mapping job we could do...though a little off

What I didn’t realize until we got there was that the whole event was not a race; it was merely a ride.  That definitely took some relief off of our shoulders before we started since there wasn’t the whole idea of racing others and racing the clock.  We got there around 7:15, got our bikes all situated, ate some bagels and fruit, and got ourselves ready to start riding at 8.

Pre-ride! Ready to go!

The smaller group of “hard-core riders” vowed to stick together the whole time which made the whole experience really enjoyable. One of the riders was deemed our marshall to lead the way and make sure we didn’t get lost.

After we were done!

The weather never got higher than about 65 degrees which was actually kind of chilly at times but still pretty perfect riding weather.  Seven miles into the ride, we met our first rest stop.  There were four stops along the way and they were awesome.  PB&J, bananas, apples, Gatorade, and granola bars…sounds awesome to me! I had plenty of water between my Camelbak and water bottle, so I was stacked.

There were about 10 hills, but nothing my strong legs couldn’t handle ;).  What was really nice was that the group, though some were hardcore riders/racers, would stop and wait for everyone to finish some of the more intense hills.

The ride took us along Lake Erie, through some wineries that smelled like amazing grapes, around a beautiful lake in New York, and through some awesome farms and neighborhoods.

What I learned from this experience is that I can push my body further than I thought I could.  Though I have run a half marathon before (and I think the run more challenging), the 65 mile ride took a lot longer and I had to endure a dog running in front of me.  He was a cutie but scared me half to death!  The ride pushed me in a different way than the half did.  For a lot of the ride, I was not in sight of other riders, either, so I was able to have some good convos with myself. I also realized that I should never doubt myself.  I didn’t think my lack of training would allow me to complete the ride, but I was wrong!

All of us long riders with Jon (far left) who is a CF patient and friend of the other riders!

As a first time rider, I was really happy that there was no pressure to race during this event. I loved the group we rode with, and by the end, I felt really close to the five people the BF and I met.  I hope they are there next year because I think we definitely will be!  We got free registration for next years’ event! 🙂

After the ride was over, they had some awesome pizza for us! But the pizza could only hold my stomach over for so long.  We went back to our hotel, passed out for a few hours, and then headed to Olive Garden and Cold Stone to get some awesome eats!

This morning, we woke up and took a ride around Presque Isle.  It was a beautiful peninsula on Lake Erie, and there was a marathon, half-marathon, and 5k event that we got to watch.  I loved cheering for them as they kept running!! There was also beach and lighthouse which was so awesome. I will leave the pictures to show you the prettiness!

Awesome little baby houses on the water

Pretty lighthouse!

 

The beach!

At the beach..with the sun in our faces!

The water was surprisingly warm!

Alright, well bed time for me! I will catch up on your weekend posts as soon as possible!

How was your weekend?