First Century Ride

It's only Day Ten, and I'm already exhausted. I'm still able to move, but I'm definitely more sore and tan than I've ever been in my life. We rode just under 120 miles on Sunday, 70 miles on Monday, 80 miles on Tuesday, and about 60 miles today--and we still have 90 miles to go tomorrow before our rest day in Delta, Utah. I've finished every day this week (meaning I've completed every ride day this week and have gotten through the miles), but this amount of biking and intense activity is unlike anything I've ever experienced.

This past Sunday the team rode just under 120 miles from Fallon to Austin, and I completed my first century ride. We left early in the morning from the homes of the families where we stayed during our rest day in Fallon, and 7 people out of the 15 of us that rode finished the day. I ended up riding the last 45 miles alone, and in the midst of desert wind and heat conditions as well as the insanity that results from riding a bike alone through Route 50 (a.k.a. "The Loneliest Road in America"), I motivated myself to finish and not call the support van for a pick-up rescue by doing the following things:

1) Saying a few Hail Mary's

2) Listening to the same song, Pitbull's "Bring it Back" on repeat for upwards of two hours to get through the ridiculous amount of climbing required by the route for the day

3) Thinking of the names of everyone who donated to the Ride to support me, who told me their personal stories of friends or family who are/were HIV-positive, who went on training rides with me, and who texted or called me in the past two weeks to cheer me on

4) Thinking of Eden

And that's how I finished my first century (plus almost 20 extra miles)!