Days of quiet Victory

Mary Anne left for a 10 day book/teaching/business trip to the Tampa Florida area. She will be staying with great friends at a terrific place North of St Pete. Right on the water! I'll be here, right on the water waiting. And waiting and waiting.
So the ride last Friday is the bike subject. There is a lot to tell. Almost non of it very good. The one true gift of this dismal ride was I got the town sign in a sprint I did not know I was sprinting for. The town sign coming into Langley. A town I go through every ride is on a shallow down hill. Being paranoid someone will pass me I always ride the big gears up coming into town. I do this just in case anyone has been following me. This day and age I almost never look back. Eyes front and ride the bike. This time there was someone back there trying to catch me. As I came to the town sign I have a habit. As I pass the sign I put a V sign out with with 2 fingers with both hands, while my hands are still on the bars. As normal I did this and I hear a loud, "DAM" come from behind me. In an instant a tall fit older guy riding a all carbon Cannodale passes me. Just half a wheel back from the fantasy win. He was not happy and started trying to drop me at once. Now with as bad as I was riding on this day dropping me would be easy. So with all I could I got back up to this very fit guy and rode along side. I looked to this now smoking from the ears tough guy with the though we could have a laugh over the whole thing. So I looked at him and smiled and said, "now I did win the town sign didn't I?". Just thought we could laugh about it. I was ready to tell him how strong he was riding and that there was no way I could keep up. Let him know I was OK and not a threat or anything. It didn't work so well. He shifted and just went faster. Now this was through town. I was going to keep up with him for the less than a mile or so. Or die trying! He was really fast. I was having an epic slow and difficult day. So I stayed with him. I think he started smoking from his ears, mouth and ass all at once. Than he made a left hand turn where I go strait. Thank goodness for small miracles.
Now that that was over I could get back to suffering through this ride. Every hill, flat section (the few there are), roller and decent was just painful and hard. It was awful. The whole ride was just awful. There were times I just wanted to stop, get off the bike and sit. I felt I could not go on. It was a few feet at a time. Just keep going a few feet at a time. I knew if I just kept going it would end in about 3 hours plus or minus. Nothing was working right. As I faced the last fast down hill I was thinking to use the brakes to slow it down. Then reason came into view. If I go fast it will all be over sooner. Just hang on 5 miles to go. Just keep going 2 miles to go. It will all be over soon. Then the blessed driveway shows it's wonderful way to the garage. It was over. I was done with that hell of a ride.
All I could think of after that was sugar. Maple bars, pizza, anything with sugar and carbs. It seems I did not do such a good job of fueling up before the ride. I paid a price for that lesson. Bless maple bars.