Day One

I have three words: Gonna sleep great. 

The first day was pretty wild. I sailed through the first two thirds, including a Challenge section, a tricky 'single' path through the forest billed as 'for experienced technical [the term for riding over large rocks, steep slippery slopes and generally dangerous routes] riders.' Glad to say my training was right on and it was smooth. Then the last third of the day was long and hard... Flat, but dozens of kilometers along the rough rocky, sandy, gouged paths along the perimeters of a lot of sprawling fields and orchards. And while it's definitely not a race (which is nice because everyone is really mellow and patient... When someone gets a flat or has mechanical problems, a couple of people usually pull over to help. Really nice to see.) you really find yourself pushing hard to keep up the pace. Maintaining 15 km/h for over an hour is tougher than you'd think. 

(oh, in the group picture below I'm right there in the front in the middle. :-))

And the weather couldn't be better. It was about 80° and sunny but never too hot. That's the forecast for the rest of the week. It could've been much hotter, or like last year from what I hear, it was really really windy and it made it really tough because the wind inevitably went the wrong way.

Oh yeah: I'm dictating all of these posts with Siri so forgive any of her silly blunders. :-)

Oddly, I seem to be the only one with the gel seat on my bike. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm happy I have it. Of course, I'd be lying if I said my butt didn't hurt, but I can imagine how it would be on a hard seat. Oh, and one of the people running the show told me that he got a real kick out of my video but he's glad that I upgraded my yellow bike to the one that I have now because it's not quite up to the level that I need for this ride. Whew! 

Finally, tonight they gave us a presentation by some of the people from the hospital, discussing the work that they do and the miracles they perform for some of these kids who a few years ago would've been written off and left him in ICU for life, as long as that would be. They really save them, adapt the latest technologies to give them a long life and the quality of life that is unbelievable.  Makes me feel better than ever about helping them do the job with this terrific group of contributors.

Good night! Zzzzzzzzz....