Life's a Beach

So this weekend we set out for another bike ride down the San Gabriel bike bath. Our ultimate goal was to get to the beach and back "someday. " Little did I know Saturday would be that day.

When we left - we did not intend to go to the beach and back - approximately 65+ miles. We were going to go about 48-50 miles.

So we made it to Liberty Park - which was 23 miles into the ride - and 9 miles from the beach. It seemed like the intent was to take a few minutes to relax and head back home. But then I made a tragic mistake. I shared my feelings. I said, "I feel good - oh I feel so good." O.k. not quite. What I actually said was, "I think I feel good enough to ride all the way to the beach today. (insert Chuckle chuckle)."

Something then went very wrong in Jane's brain. All of a sudden she says, "Let's go!" She decided we were going to the beach. Dave asked her, "are you sure." I laughed. We paused a second to confirm she was serious. But turns out she was. I guess we both could have tried to talk her out of it, but she was fairly determined.

So back on our bikes we went - cruising along making good time - until we get to a bridge that crosses the river about 6 miles from the beach. All of a sudden we hit tremendous head winds, slowing us down considerably. While we had hit some head winds early on, but then we were fresh. Now, it was a grind down to the beach due to the wind, and I suddenly felt tired and concerned that I still had a ton of pedaling to do.

We got to the beach - and it was a beautiful day. We contemplated having lunch, but ultimately decided against it. Then we got back on our bikes - 32 1/2 miles to go. We were not riding for very long, when it dawned on me just how horrendous the wind was. Seemed no matter how hard I pedaled, I was going virtually nowhere. So my goal was just to push hard get back to the bridge - thinking that the wind would die down there. I felt relief when I saw the bridge in sight. But the wind did not let up.

So the next checkpoint was Wilderness park - another 9 miles away. We kept grinding, with the wind blustering, and screaming through my ears. The miles slowly ticked away on the odometer. We finally made it to Wilderness Park, and the loud winds had given me a huge headache, my arms ached a bit, and my quads just hurt for some reason. Jane and I took five minutes or so to regroup, and Dave took off without us - to get the pain over with. So Jane and I contemplated if we could find a place to eat and grab a drink and then make Dave come get us. But it was really a fleeting thought.

Break over - as we continued on - I did take some time to appreciate our ability to torture ourselves like this. We have our health and the ability to get out. So despite the demoralizing wind, we were happy to be out there.

At mile 54 - we stopped for a second and reflected on the length of a half-ironman. (Someday I would like to do a full ironman) and that we would then have to run a 1/2 marathon. We laughed and continued on. The last miles on the bike path consists of many short hills (or woop-dee-doo's as we like to call them). So with legs of brick, I fought to build momentum to get up the hills and continue on until the next one. We finally made it all the way to the top of the bike trail - facing the wind the entire time. Here is Jane at the top of the bike trail. Is that a smile or a grimace? Who can tell? But we rewarded with beautiful scenes - like the sun and the clouds.

In the end, we made it - all the way from Duarte to Seal Beach and back - 65+ miles. While tired and demoralized from the wind, we were still proud we made it! Now we just have to do it faster - and hopefully on a day when the wind is not our nemesis.