Day 1: Cedar Park to Lampasas

June 26, 2005

Biked 72 miles today and felt pretty good. My left knee felt a little twinged at times, but I’m hoping it’s just a temporary warming up kind of problem. Actually, my left shoulder and upper arm hurt the worst, maybe because I was leaning to hard on it. I’ll keep experimenting with riding positions until I get it right. My body will also need some time to adjust to the constant riding as well too, so I’ll need to be patient.

Because today was the ATLAS ride, there were quite a few people riding. With 70 registered riders there were about 110 of us out on the road. There were also media stations covering the ride so there were cameras and interviews going on as well. We were able to snag a police escort for the first couple of miles so with the media and all the riders it felt like a pretty big send off. One ridiculous thing I tried to do while waiting for the ride to start was to practice balancing on the pedals without moving forward. I ended up tipping over and flipping my bike into the air, drawing a lot of attention to myself. Hilarious.

There were rest stops set up every fifteen miles or so, so it broke up the day into manageable increments. I stayed at the first rest stop for ten minutes or so, but spent progressively less time at the remaining stops. I just wanted to get out and finish the ride instead of procrastinating under a tree.

Somewhere along the last leg of the ride I either went past riders or they passed me up and I ended up biking alone for an hour and a half or so. Kind of a nice experience for a while, enjoying the great scenery and giving myself some time to think and such after such a hectic week leading up to the first day.

While I was biking by myself I came across a row of baby birds crossing the road. I suppose they were swallows since a pair of adult swallows started diving at me and chirping furiously. I narrowly avoided them by maneuvering dangerously, but the parents didn’t seem to much appreciate my efforts since they kept coming at me. One of the birds flew in front of me matching my speed trying (I think) to lure me away from the chicks. The overall effect was to watch a bird seemingly hover just in front of my bike for a little while. Just kind of an interesting side note.

I ended up finishing somewhere in the front end of the pack. Somewhere along the way I had stopped for a little while to help a team mate change a flat tire so that accounted for a little bit of the time. But it’s not a race so I didn’t care one bit where I finished. It was so hot outside that my main concern was for the people still out on the road. It took me about four hours, but people were coming in two hours after I did. I was really feeling for them as it was only getting hotter.

We were supposed to have a bunch of BBQ, but they ended up being short so the ATLAS riders had first priority. We eventually got some scraps, but not for another few hours. In the meantime we got good old PB & Honey. I’m not a fan of honey in general, but for some reason it was quite delicious this time around. I suspect it may have something to do with the ride.

We stayed in a school gym for the night. People were sprawled out all over the place and just sitting and staring or quietly talking; not much rambunciousness going on. Some talked about going to bed at 6PM they were so tired. The coastal route knew they had a 104 miles bike ride the next day so, for those who suffered on the first day, the second day loomed ominously over their heads. Once again I felt badly for them, although I knew we had 90 miles or so to go ourselves.

And what better way to stock up on energy than to eat? I ate so much! Probably ate more in one day than I normally do over two or three days. I ate a quarter pound of chicken, some brisket and sausage, 6 bear claws, at least 2 and half gallons of water, a quarter gallon of orange juice, a couple of slices of pizza, a bunch of DQ fries, lots of candy, some Taco Bell tacos, the biggest breakfast burrito I’ve ever seen, a large apple (best apple I’ve eaten in a year), an orange, a banana, and a Nutrigrain bar. I probably put on 5 pounds today, but burned it off too.

The last big meeting was tonight. Too much talking and repetition for my taste. Got pretty frustrated about halfway through the meeting. Had to keep telling myself it was important and that it needed to be done. Still, an important meeting with 40 people asking questions and talking and such has time intensive written all over it. Bleh.

I’m wrapping this up now so I’ll closed by saying that in general I feel quite good. I’m worried about the knee, but I’ve eaten plenty and taken in lots of fluids. The next few days will be exciting as the two teams split up and we head out onto our route. We’ll also start settling into a routine so that things will begin to run a little bit smoother.