Getting ready for Day 3 is just as much of a blur as the other days. This day starts off strong and ends with a twist. This is the day of the Quad Buster hill. This is sold to all the cyclists as the day with the steepest, longest hill. For the record, I’m not sure how accurate that is – either the hills I thought were more difficult actually were more difficult, or I was just more fatigued later in the week. Haha. I suppose No one really knows except those that planned the route.
With Quad Buster being the challenge of the week, I had watched a lot of videos on AIDS/Lifecycle’s YouTube channel. In the videos there were people cheering, holding up signs so you’d know you were on Quad Buster, drag queens pushing cyclists up the hill that were struggling. It looked difficult and fun at the same time, so that’s where my head was at.
They had a rest stop strategically located a couple miles before QB. I overheard some guys saying that if it was your first time on QB, you should stop at the halfway/lookout point to take a break, then continue up (it’s just a tad over 2 miles worth of climb). So, I was listening and looking forward to taking that advice. I rolled out from the rest stop.
I approached a hill and started to climb, it appeared to be like any other hill so far. There weren’t any signs or people hinting that I was on QB. Low and behold, I passed the ‘halfway rest lookout’ and that’s when I realized, holy shit I’m on Quad Buster! I felt SO good! This was the part of the ride where I realized that I was in really good shape for the week. I can kill a hill better than all my friends and I was passing people to get up that climb like no one’s business.
When I got to the top, I felt the adrenaline hit me. It was just as euphoric if not more-so than rolling out from Cow Palace (starting line) on Day 1. I laid by bike down, looked around at all the other people celebrating. My friends were still behind me climbing. This was the first time during the week that riding brought tears came to my eyes. It was so beautiful!
As the day went on, I realized something else. The food and snacks while healthy and delicious, weren’t doing it for me anymore. I started to dislike food. I wanted pizza, french fries, a burger – anything else. It became more and more difficult to eat. My stomach felt like it was shrinking. I’m beginning to resent food a bit – it’s becoming fuel instead of something I enjoy. I have ALWAYS enjoyed food. I like taking my time to eat it, talk to my friends, savor it – and even when I eat fast, I enjoy it. However, when I know there is a clock ticking it becomes a lot less enjoyable!
I fell behind towards the end of this day, and my friends all finished before me. Tonight is a hotel night! Or as the riders call it, ‘Princessing’ lol. Let’s talk about how this all went down for a minute…
I crossed the finish line, and there was chocolate milk. OMG it was so delicious. It was one of the things that was probably one of the ‘do it in moderation’ types of things for the week. No french fries, but chocolate milk. I suppose this will have to do for now. I get wrapped up and again have to orient myself to where everything is at this camp. I’m learning that I’m hot a huge fan of camp being laid out different every day. The signs they make are very helpful but most of the time, I can’t find the signs!! I make it to the gear truck, call Munoz and he tells me where to go to get picked up to go to the hotel. Either Munoz can’t give good directions (in his defense he was there for 5 minutes) or I am too exhausted to understand them, but I wind up in the totally wrong place and have to backtrack to get picked up. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you’re hauling all your gear and clothes with you, it’s not fun. Thank god for the Gear Truck Roadie that gave me a tip: only take what you need for that night when you princess – that way you don’t haul your entire 70 lb. bag to the hotel when really you only need about 6 lbs. of that.
I get to the hotel and Munoz meets me with open arms. God bless him. I needed that shit as I was SO exhausted and aggravated. I showered up, and we went for BBQ dinner. I’m not a huge fan of BBQ but I found some delicious pork chops and margaritas on the menu. It really only took one drink and I was drunk. Something I’ve never experienced in my life lol. I got to eat with my team Arkansas people, and they were awesome and way better to me than I deserve. They toasted me at dinner as being their captain. I mean, talk about plugging away at my sensitive heart! I won’t go into all the gory details, but being a captain that took over after another left our team was extremely difficult. I’m not going to blog about that – but if you want to know, just ask!
Went back to the hotel and Munoz went out with friends. I wanted to go out and party too, but it wasn’t in the cards. Wound up getting into a disagreement with Munoz over that. I’m going to blame that on the alcohol and lack of sleep. This is the one night of the week I got the best night of sleep, though! I was in bed before 8:30 and slept until 4. I felt like a rock star the next morning.
But the next morning did not prove to be a day that looked fondly upon rock stars…