It was a long, long, long, loooong day! It could almost qualify as a Murphy's Law Sandwich Day. (Is there such a day?) A Murphy's Law Sandwich Day would be a day with a crazy start and a crazy finish and a somewhat normal middle.
First of all, the weather-guessers did it again! I was somewhat surprised to find frost on the windshield when I went outside to put my bike on the Explorer roof rack. This was not what the guessers said we would experience. Margaret said it was 28 degrees when we started the day!
After loading the bikes, luggage, and people into and onto the Explorer we headed to our well-planned breakfast at Subway. It was closed. Across the street was a McDonald's. Yes, a McDonald's. I saw that they had two chicken biscuits for three dollars: 2 for $3. That's what I got. Was that ever a mistake! I don't ever remember anything tasting that bad since, when I was a kid, I chewed an aspirin. Breakfast for me was two bites for three dollars and that was one bite too many!
At our starting point, the Jesup Fairgrounds, we picked up our registration packets in which we found our ride t-shirts and maps. The maps really were not all that necessary since the route was very well marked with signs and spray-painted arrows on the road surfaces.
At the fairgrounds we somehow missed the call for the hundred mile ride so as we pulled out we were with riders for the shorter routes. Sarah said, "Dad, I think the guy back there said the shorter routes were to the right." At our first turn we checked for the red arrows marking our route and saw only yellow, blue, and orange. No red. Even though we went right, we were wrong. We pushed our bikes back to the fairgrounds and started to the left which was right.
We were finally on the right route, the red route, and were the last of the sixteen riders registered for the century. (We thought we were last but the rider who was last soon passed us to move on down the road.) The crowd for the Ride for the River was smaller this year and we were told it was because nearby Claxton scheduled their ride for this day as well. We wanted to ride on the tail end of the ride so we were just fine where we were.
The Ride for the River was good as far as the weather, route, rest stops, and traffic for most of the ride. I made signs for the ride: 25, 50, 75, 100, and Yipee! At those intervals we stopped to get pictures of Sarah and Amy so they could send them to Barry and Richard who stayed home to attend the Georgia/Auburn game which Georgia soundly won 45 to 7. That was encouraging news for us and may have even increased our speed . . . for a short time.
We knew all day that darkness would be our biggest enemy and could prevent us from finishing the 100 miles. At ninety miles it was getting dark too quickly. Since we were the last three on the hundred mile ride we soon met Jim Tootle, the ride director for the event. He was driving right behind us for a short time and we found out he was picking up the route marker signs as we passed them. I know he was probably wishing we were three faster riders but we weren't and he was more than patient with us. Soon Jim was driving in front of us with his four-way flashers on while Margaret was behind us with the high beams. In a way we had a private escort for the final ten miles. Did I mention, by this point, we started putting jackets, gloves, and scarves back on? It was getting cold.
We finally spotted the lights of the fairgrounds and it was a time of mixed emotions. We were almost finished but . . . we had to ride a little less than a mile on a very busy, fair-traffic highway. We decided that instead of the busy, suicidal highway finish the hundred miles by back-tracking for whatever mileage we needed. Jim even told us that he would go with us until we got our hundred miles. That's when Amy said, "Barry, check your computer to see what our mileage is I think I saw a 100 on there."
I held it up to the light and it was 100.64 miles! When I said, "106.64 miles" Sarah and Amy jumped and screamed and hugged and thanked Jim too. For sure, we could not have made the hundred mile ride had it not been for him. And we certainly can't forget Margaret and her part in this ride because we couldn't have done it without her either.
In a few minutes we were loaded, in the warm car, finding our way out of Jesup. We made a stop at CVS to change clothes, another stop at Waffle House to pig out, and were soon on our way home. Tired and sleepy, we arrived at the house around 12:45 AM.
Yipee for Sarah and Amy . . . and for one hundred pretty crazy miles.
The whole day reminded me of one of my favorite passages in Scripture. It's found in Hebrews 12:1 and 2: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish."
There's nothing mentioned about winning the race in that passage. Winning has already been done . . . at the cross. The emphasis of that passage is on finishing. We were not very fast but we did finish. We did endure. We were patient.
In a world that's full of starters and quitters and void of finishers, I was honored to ride with two finishers!
On your left!
No comments:
Post a Comment