Day Five... DONE!

I'm writing today's entries at breaks throughout the day so I can publish it right after the ride...

7.00 -- on the bus and about to leave on the 90+ minute ride to Latrun, our starting point outside (and way below!) Jerusalem. We are going to be joined by like 400 one-day riders, and I'm curious to see if they are fast and energetic because they are fresh, or sloppy and slower because they haven't been building up to it. I was nervous that it might actually be dangerous because we sort of have a flow for passing and moving around in our giant pack on the trails. But there's a rumor that they keep each group separate until the end. Hope so. There have been too many broken and dislocated shoulders, concussions and bad gashes. :-). Don't need more today. 

Achilles feeling less painful, but hopefully not an issue with my new tried as true pedaling style. Still going to pop three Advils in an hour. 

[7 hours pass]

Okay, turns out I didn't have time to update this throughout the day. We just rode and rode and rode. So here we are at the hospital at the end. It was simply uphill all day everywhere, and pretty dramatic when we joined the onroad group and all of the riders together, about 500, took the last two very long and steep ascents together. 

Dena and the boys were here waiting for me at the finish line, which was really the only way I could've imagined ending the ride. Dena has been watching and mapping and commenting and encouraging me all the way through, and I really felt like she was on the ride with me. The first thing out of my mouth was "we did it".  She is taking pictures now and I will add an epilogue post later on tonight.

After parking our bikes, there was a courtyard with kids being treated in the hospital giving metals to all of us as we came by; it was very special to see a couple of dozen of the kids that we've been doing this for right there to share the excitement with us. 

Some of you may know that I have a bit of an aging hang up, and one of the nice things about this ride is that the average age was somewhere between 40 and 50 with dozens and dozens of people in their 50s and 60s riding along just as well as anybody else. Give me a pretty good outlook for the future. :-). So I'm I going to do it next year? They alternate between the north and the south, and I've heard that the ride through the Negev desert is not quite as picturesque or exciting as riding through the hills of the north. And the weather down there is often very hot or very cold. So....? Today, probably isn't the time to ask me. Having trouble imaging getting up out of this chair to walk over to the closing ceremony.  :-)