Taos!

It was a long, hard day on the bike.  I'll try to give some details and color, but for those who are already bored, Denis and worked together and arrived in eleven and a half hours.  I've run ulras before and knew it was a challenging course, but I also knew it would be over in a day.  But, what a day!  We woke at 5:00, had a sparse breakfast at 6:00, pumped up our tires, loaded our Garmins, put my printed directions sheet into the folder that's attached to the handlebars (mine's a little hard to see because I failed to wash off the blood from my nose bleed back in Mexican Hat).  Rustin wouldn't let us leave before sunrise, which was 7:00, despite the fact that he and Jen had installed small forward and rear lights on the bikes.  It's hard to know what to wear when it's 27 degrees, so I loaded up with tights, a tech running shirt, jersey, arm and leg warmers (which are a little big and keep skidding down below my knees), a skull cap and wind jacket.  I elected to go with full finger gloves, but not the real heavy ones.  Obviously, the game plan is to not stop very much, but Denis and I had to make several pee stops.  We saw the van at 12 miles and my hands were cold, so I switched to the heavier gloves, but couldn't begin to put them on because my fingers were so numb.  Thankfully, Tara, our masseuse, who drives one of the vans, got them on for me.  We finally cleared the three early climbs and the sun rose above the mountains and warmed us up, which required another van stop to ditch the arm/leg warmers and go back to my originals gloves.  After our first lunch break at 58 miles, we were making steady time until Denis ran over a peice of metal and cut his tire.  It looked like someone hit it with a Samari sword.  It had a two inch gash that even cut through the flat strip.  There was no chance of limping along with a folded dollar bill under the cut, so we had to call Rustin, who took about 20 minutes to drive back and replace the rear wheel.  Another 10 miles and we were at the base of the 9.5 mile climb.  If we climbed 8,100 for the day, this had to have been more than 5,000 feet.  We worked steadily up between 4.5 and 7.5 mph.  The steepest sections were the hairpin turns.  We stopped once to catch our breath, but eventually cleared the top at 10,500 elevation.  I had estimated it would take us an hour to ride the 9.5 miles, but we did it in 90 minutes.  Finally, the hard part of the ride was over, and the 60 miles that remained were most downhill.  Now the 7-9% grades turned into a decent on the other side of the mountain, which went fast.  I hit 47.5 mph, but kept it around 30-35 mph for 10 miles thinking we certainly were saving time at those speeds.  We stopped for quick sandwiches at our second lunch and faced maybe 35 miles to the hotel.  The terrain eventually evolved into a gentle downgrade and we hammered away at the crank certainly averaged 22 mph till we saw the van one last time to reload our empty bottles.  The final 12 miles was more of a slog.  We still averaged 15-16 mph, but the scrub grass scenery never seemed to show any progress.  Finally, we navigated the last two miles through heavy city traffic.  We later learned that Jen almost got hit by a car that turned right across the bike lane in front of her.  It tried to speed off, but she blocked it and lectured the guy about bike  safety.  

Yesterday, Drew, my running buddy was poking me with a sharp stick for complaining about things like the temperature in the hot springs.  Well, today saw some suffering.  I was very calorie depleted, despite eatting a ton of cliff bars and two lunches.  I showered and skipped the Trek Happy Hour and went straight to the restaurant.  When the waitress arrived to take drink my order, I requested an emergency bowl of lobster bisque, followed by a steak and choclate cake.  

It was very interesting to hear everyone's stories.  Eric, is 35 and our strongest rider.  He finished in 8.5 hours, but went so fast he lost van coverage and ran out of water after the big climb.  He saw a truck parked on the side of the road with two guys inside.  He was startled when they both jumped out of the truck and approached him.  Turns out they had driven all night from TX and we're sleeping on the side of the road.  They had spare water and very were impressed he jost rode up the mountain.

Paul, the elder, who's 70, snuck out an hour early and battled all day.  He missed  the sunset cut off, but wanted to finish, so Rustin drove the van behind him with the lights on for 20 miles.  He arrived 15 hours after he started, very tired, but pleased with himself.

I was exhausted, but stayed up late reading to make sure I would sleep.  30 minutes after I fell asleep I had another night fright about lost luggage.  Once my eyes caught up with my subconscious and I saw all my stuff spread across the other bed, I calmed down.  The bike ride is fun.  The hotels, especially this one, are very nice, but it's disorienting to work hard each day and be in a different city each night.  What can I say, I miss Sherry, my darling wife.  

Today is a rest day.  I woke at 6:30 after a poor night's sleep, so I plan to do very little sight seeing.  In fact, I plan to do as little as possible.  

The next two days we ride 92-milers that look pretty easy.  Then, we hit the dreaded OK prairie and winds and ride, 106, 122, and 113 miles.  So far the weather has been great and we're keeping our fingers crossed.

My hotel room is decorated in Southwestern style.  I've never see deer antlers over a bathroom mirror before.  You can see some of the beautiful NM scenery, Dennis riding in front of me, and a shot of me with my sesame seared tuna from two nights ago.