Elisa and I, along with some of our other pals, decided that we would spend a nice Sunday morning riding our bikes around the Birmingham Metro Area, as a part of the Tour de Cahaba.  This event was put on by one of our local bike shops, Cahaba Cycles. Basically, the route took riders on a loop throughout the city, passing by each of their four stores.  There were a few different route options, a 60 mile (18-20 mph) that went to all the stores, 45 miles (15-18 mph) that skipped the Trussville store, and a 15 mile ride.  Elisa and I thought that we might do the 60, but decided to ride with the group and then take the 45 mile turn off if so disposed.

All I can say is…we didn’t even stay with the group.  After the first major climb I was about to puke all over everyone and had to stop for a moment to recover.  This put us right at the end of the group.  I didn’t really become fully functional again until we got to the first stop, which was about 20 miles from the beginning (fyi, electrolyte pills really help!).  Elisa decided to take some sort of gel thing and she then started feeling ill on our next climb.  Really like our 50th climb.  100th climb.  I was pretty delusional the whole time, probably because it was a continuous climb.

ANYWAY, the speed of those freakish roadies, plus our inexperience, plus our general malaise, equaled us riding 45 miles rather than 60.  And getting passed as we pedal along by those freakish roadies who rode 60 miles.  Sigh.

Well we had fun, I think, and next year we’ll hopefully see other riders around us the entire time.

Congrats to all the folks who rode the full 60 miles – Alan, Sean, Terry, Chad…you guys are amazing!