Eileen Swanson's Tales

>>September 19th, 2009

Blake of Garmin Slipstream and me

 

I had the awesome opportunity to join Team KCBS/KPIX Ch 5 to ride in the Audi Best Buddies Challenge 100 mile bike ride.  My good friend, Ch 5 weatherwoman Roberta Gonzales invited Reid and I and we couldn’t  say no to this amazing event.  Best Buddies is an organization that supports individuals with intellectual disabilities and Maria Shriver is the spokesperson for this event. 

The ride was absolutely breathe taking , an unbelievable experience.  100 miles with 7000 ft of climbing!  A couple of Garmin Slipstream pro men were in attendance to make the ride even that much more fun!  The Tibco pro women’s team was also there and wanting to get in a good “tempo” ride.  It was so SWEET!  The first 9 miles of the ride started off very controlled with 2 escort Audi TT’s  leading the way!  Reid, our good friend Steve Cramer and I quickly moved up to the front of the pack with the pro riders.  The Garmin guys and Tibco women were so sweet and fun to ride with.  We had a good pack of about 30 strong riders, moving along at a good fast pace along rolling terrain.  It was not until we passed through Big Sur, Ventana hill that the pace got a bit too fast for my hill climbing   Reid, Cramer and the pro riders were putting the hurt on the rest of us.  But I was lucky to have a couple nice guys slow up for me so that I could pace off of them up that crazy climb!  At the top of the climb, Reid and Cramer were waiting for me.  I had to make a quick pit stop, which put us even further behind the first pack of riders.  So, of course Reid said we should work hard to catch them.  Gulp!  I’m always up for a challenge and Cramer happened to be up for it too.  We were flying up and down the California Coast, trying so hard to catch back on.  It hurt, we were all working super hard, breathing extra hard, and feeling the serious burn in our legs.  But within a couple of miles, we were back on and so happy to sit in and draft.  Phew!

But here comes the crazy part.  A mile after catching the group, we hit some big rollers and I was feeling it.  My legs were screaming, my lungs were burning, but my mind was fresh and willing to deal with it all   I stayed on for as long as I could until I felt like I was going to pass out.  I backed off at that point, only to have a CHP officer on his motorcycle tell me to hold on.  I was like what??  He said “hold on” and pointed to a part of his motorcycle that I could actually hold on to.  SUPER COOL!  When does this ever happen!  AMAZING!  I was so stoked.  But I was also too scared to hold on for long.  It was scary )  So, I let go and he then said “jump on.”  He let me draft off him for a bit, before he had to go back up to the front of  the group since he was the lead escort!!  Once I caught back on of course the pace picked up again.  This time I killed myself to stay on and even got some nice pushes from my hubbie, he was not going to let me fall off again! 

By mile 75, we hit the biggest climb of the day.  Not only was it long, but it was steep too.  I was actually loving it.  I was so stoked to have gotten so far with some amazing riders.  Plus this was my longest ride in a year!  I couldn’t believe how great I was feeling despite all the crazy hard efforts.  However by Mile 90 both Cramer and I were toast, cooked, done!  Reid, on the other hand, was still looking fresh and ready for another 100 miles   We stopped to take some pics at a cool, popular tourist spot with a ton of elephant seals.  After the pic, we got back on our bikes even though Cramer and I were ready to lay on the ground and take a nap and rode the last semi rolling 10 miles to the finish.  Our ride time was just a bit over 5 hours.  Crazy!  This is my fastest 100 miles ever and I am coming off a 6 month injury.  It must have been the great company and great cause that inspired me to ride fast   Thank you Best Buddies, Garmin riders, Tibco women, Reid, Cramer, Roberta, and Darrell for an AMAZING, unforgettable experience. 

We were taken care of extremely well at the finish line.  The Best BBQ ever and several hours later another unbelievable BBQ at Hearst Castle, complete with an open bar!  Super fun times….

A week later and I was back at it, competing in a local triathlon.  700 meter swim, 19 mile bike and 4 mile trail run.  I haven’t run more than 3 miles a week or every other week since having this crazy injury 6 months ago. So going into this race, I thought I would just jog/walk the run.  But I was first out of the water, beating the guys   and felt so good that I thought I would race ’til the end.  I ran a, crazy for me, quick 4 miles and it didn’t hurt that bad!  I guess a 6 month taper works well for me HA!  Seriously, I had so much fun and loved all the local athletes and friends cheering along the way!  There were 700 of us racing in beautiful Pleasanton, CA and I won and had a blast doing it  

 

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