Quest for TBP 7713

Friday the thirteenth.
Breakfast of French Toast, an egg, and bacon (and some of Tiff's sausage).
Small chill session back at Zen's place, then back on the bikes.
Same route as yesterday. To be perfectly honest, I was kinda hoping that we'd skip it today.
14.8 miles.
We took 10 minutes of the time and increased the average speed by 2mph.
AND I found a little air. Thank you FSM.
Whereas yesterday's ride was a bit discouraging, today's ride helped to balance that.

I am fairly certain that tomorrow is going to be horrendously painful. It's almost a given. There is nothing I can do about that. Not a damn thing. I realized this earlier in the week and have stopped freaking out that I'm not at the weight or training milestone that I wanted to be. Too late. I can either give up and decide not to do this ride, or utilize every fiber in my body/soul/mind and finish. It's nice to have nice clean black and white choices like that.

After the ride, we hit the store and then headed for the TBP 2007 Bikejoural Picnic.
I was able to meet some BikeJers that I'd talked with for a long time, and a few that I'd not met. Zin, Kin, SombraGato, Zcubed, Deadhead, Pathfinder, Lucine, Popeye, Timmy, Howard, HiGuy, SuperNana, BikePrincess, Bill, BowWow, Rob01, and many more.

Cycling truly brings out the best people. Amazing.

Post picnic, it was time to go home and pack the van. I'd promised Kev that we'd play NetHack, so that was a big priority. Tiff and Zen were such a flurry of activity that I started to get a little nervous. I gathered everything together, quite quickly, actually. Simple minds, I guess. After some issues getting the van packed just right, we were all set.

There's nothing left to do. ('cept sleep)

Tomorrow, I will do something that very few people I know think is even possible for them to accomplish. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that a ride like TBP was just one of those amazing things that nutter cyclists did.

TBP is the anvil upon which I will lay my soul. Each gobble of blessed HammerGel serves to heat my soul, each foot climbed and mile passed is the hammer blow reforging my soul to something stronger and sharper that it was before. Each gulp of water the quenching that fixes my soul in it's new form.

Today is the last day that I will be who I am. By this time tomorrow, I will be remade. Something different, stronger, sharper.


See you on the other side!


Maarburg
Meatspace coordinates:
Latitude: N 39.91
Longitude: W 105.09