100 Miles

Checked off another goal of mine this past weekend.  I biked 100 miles on Saturday with Kelly and Andy.  As Kelly's unofficial training partner for her Ironman (which is in 4 weeks...ahh!), I made a 100-miler a goal at the beginning of the summer.  

Back in June, when Kelly & I did the Tour de Cure, I thought Sharon (our spinning instructor/friend) was crazy to do 100 miles around the track (truth be told, I still think she's crazy for doing it around and around a track....I'd go crazy!)....but a small part inside of me wanted to see if I could do it, too.  So while making my Summer Check List, I added it to the list of fun things to do.  


And I did it!

I could lie, and say that it was a cake walk.  

But hell, 100 miles in one day is NO JOKE!  At about the 70 mile marker, I was wondering how in the hell I was going to finish it.  But I knew at that point that it was purely a mental thing.  I knew I had the strength and I definitely knew I had the willpower to do it, so I wasn't going to stop!


Kelly sweats profusely, where she loses an INSANE amount of salt.  (Like, INSANE.  Her black cycling shorts turn white with salt. No joke.)  And even though she took multiple salt tablets throughout the course of the ride, she kept cramping up.  So she had to stop around the 90 mile marker.  Andy turned to me and said, "Chris, what do you want to do?"  

My reply?  

"If I'm going to do this, I'm going to DO this."  I hadn't cycled for 6 hours, just to cut it 10 miles short.  So, even though our speed went dramatically down, we pushed through the last 10 miles and completed ONE HUNDRED FREAKING MILES!

Screen shot of our course. Started at 52nd St, and went all the way up to Tipton. Then we went back down to about 16th St to get the last 10 miles in. 

Fixing Andy's flat tire. First experience with a flat. Thank God for Kelly's expertise!

Always a team, dressed in red, Team Swickheimer DID IT!