Just over a week ago I did the hardest and most hellacious bike ride of my life. Now, I've done a ton of 100+ mile bike rides and this one was only 85 miles but it was wicked! I met up with Team Badass people Lauren, Missi, Ian and Aren to attempt the Champagne-Lilac ride. We have been wanting to do this ride forever, mostly because of the name. I grew up in Spokane, which is the lilac city, so I thought it would be fun. Only supposed to be about 5000 feet of climbing. Not bad! We thought there were 2 major climbs and a bunch of rollers. No problem!
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| This is what champagne means to me! (Bach party preview) |
We started in Solana Beach and began the climb up the Del Dios Highway. I used to think this was hard, now it's cake. Lauren had a mechanical issue and had to be rescued by another Team Badasser, Tammy, who was not riding with us that day because she was volunteering at Ragnar SoCal.
Side note: Ragnar is pretty special to Team Badass. Ragnar Vegas is how I made all of my Team You Got Chicked friends, Missi and Ian met at Ragnar Napa (and are now getting married!) and was the foundation of Team Badass.
We continued up the Highway and out to the East. It was getting hotter and hotter as the day progressed. We rode out toward the casinos and hit our first climb just over 20 miles in on Lake Wohlford Road. This climb reminded me of the purple monster. Long and kinda steep but not too bad. At this point, we though we were 1/2 way done with the climbing. It was getting really hot. At mile 37 we turned down a road between orchards and saw the behemoth bitch before us. Cole Grade. We knew it was 3 miles long and steep and evil. We underestimated the bitch. Almost immediately, the climb became really steep. There was no shade and I was sweating so much that I could barely hold onto the handlebars. Thought about passing out, thought about dying, thought about barfing, held it together and made it to the top. It was terrible, but we thought we were done with climbing.
We were wrong. That Champagne road we were so excited about? Long, boring climb with no scenery and really tired legs. Why is it so hot?! Then one more climb out of San Marcos. Very steep. Thought about crying. Nobody was having fun by this point. It became a death ride. Finally we hit the coast and it was freezing cold. We were drenching with rapidly freezing sweat. But, we made it! Turns out it was nearly 7000 feet of climbing with multiple huge climbs.
It was so hot that we kept running out of water. I drank around 200 ounces of fluid that day. Happy to have survived. I managed to add to my bike shorts tan lines, which are pretty awesome. They were a big hit at the bachelorette party.
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| This pic just doesn't do them justice |
The next day, I ran my first trail half-marathon. I'll tell you about that tomorrow. It hurt. I'm also badass.
You are definately a Badass!
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