SoCal Tour de Cure Feedback
I received a feedback form for the SoCal Tour de Cure when I received the invite to the “SoCal Tour de Cure Celebration Party”. Many of the questions asked were fairly basic:
Rate the pre-event communications (which I thought were great), Start Line (I was near the front, couldn’t get any better than that), Signage–Was route well marked? (I was riding in an area that I was unfamiliar with and I didn’t get lost, I’d say the route was well marked, lol), Rest stops (I didn’t know what to expect and I was able to rest, therefore, they were good), Route (Once again, I was in unfamiliar area, I had nothing to base the route on, therefore by default it got a good mark), Finish Line / Goodie Bags (the finish line was the starting line and the goodie bags were filled with goodies, good marks all around).
There were other questions as well but the most important question for me was the question about the importance of the thank you prizes. I answered honestly, the only thing I wanted out of the ride was a jersey. I could’ve cared less about any of the other prizes but the jersey is important to me. I want a permanent reminder of my ride and I want to be able to display what I’ve done and the jersey does just that. I’m gonna be one of those riders that no matter the ride, I want to walk away with a jersey. And I expressed just that, they left a little space for prize suggestions and I told them exactly what I wanted.
It was good that they sent us feedback forms and while I had a whole lot of nothing to base my responses on, I responded anyways.
It was beautiful, but it could’ve been deadly
Right where this happened there was a meadow that would’ve been perfect for a helicopter to land and that was the thought going through her head as she lay there in the rut with her bike on top of her. I pulled her bike off of her and she rested a bit and she’s ok. That was the worst fall of the day, the dumbest one was when I was standing still on a downhill slope and fell (for no apparent or good reason), it was totally lame.
So, where were we, well, we weren’t where I wanted to be, on the five hills of death, we were somewhere on the Pinyon, Wildcat, Lower Pine trails. We ended up doing a loop that was about 12 miles. And it was a nice ride, well, I should say, coming down hill, and riding across the flat lands (with the rut that got fallen into) were a nice ride. Going back up that hill sucked and I had to walk my bike most of the way, but it was still a good ride. It took us a couple hours. And I was sweaty and had dirt sticking to me in a bad way, and I stunk, but hey, this is bike riding right?
Actually, it was like probably true mountain biking. We were riding down the mountain basically on riverbed rock, which how it got there I don’t know, there’s no rivers around where we were. And every time someone up ahead of me stopped I was almost guaranteed to fall over (at one point they said there was a raccoon laughing at me, damn raccoon).
I’ve decided that if this is what true mountain biking is, then I’m not cut out for it, at least not on this bike and clipped into my pedals.
The downside to riding out of state
When I did my ride in SoCal it didn’t matter to me too much that I wasn’t around for the training rides, the early check in, the gatherings. But now, I’m feeling the pain of not living where I’m riding. Tonight I received an invitation to the “SoCal Tour de Cure Celebration Party” which is, of course, in CA. Let me remind you that I’m in NM. It makes it tough to attend these things. Through nobody’s fault but my own, I’m not getting the opportunity to attend functions that I’d love to attend. Another example is the upcoming Tour de Cure Party in CO to help riders “Get Geared Up”. People will get all the information they need to start preparing for the ride. Me, I’m here in NM, doing my own preparations, and I’m not feeling sorry for myself so much as I’m bummed that I can’t participate in the pre and post ride functions.
I think that they (the pre and post ride functions) can be deemed as an important part of the ride experience. That they help you get to know people and establish a base for your next ride (especially if you’re in state and plan on riding again.)
I strongly encourage riders to go to the pre and post functions and get to know people, if you don’t do it this year, yeah there’s the chance that there will be similar functions in the following years, but you’ll still be missing out on the camaraderie of fellow cyclists here in the now.
That can’t be too bad of a hill
It’s amazing what one thinks when they see graphs of various sorts. When I got back from CA and decided that I was going to ride in the Longmont, CO Tour de Cure I was told that I had better start training on hills instead of just the flat river trail (which I insisted wasn’t really flat, but in actualality, it’s flat). I got a book (Mountain Biking Northern New Mexico) that listed the various bike trails in NM (well, Northern New Mexico) since the only one I was really familiar with was the river trail.
So, I was looking for something that had a relatively easy hill for me to master and as I was flipping through the Albuquerque section in the book and looking at the elevation profiles I found one that I thought wasn’t going to be that bad. I mean, it was a rise in elevation of about 300 feet over the course of 2.25 miles. I really thought that it couldn’t be that bad.
It was bad. Horrible. When my buddies and I got done, we decided that it would be far cooler to have a car at the bottom of the hill and a car at the top and we would ride the 4 miles down the hill and the car could drive us back up the 2.25 miles. It was so rough. Of course, I’m not in exactly the greatest of shape, sure I can ride 35 miles (but it’s mostly flat). And then again, this is exactly why I had to ride this hill, because CO is going to be hilly. I just know it.
Co Tour de Cure Maps Finally Here
So, I registered for the CO Tour de Cure 3 days ago because I just couldn’t wait any longer for the maps, I wanted to get registered and know that I was riding for sure.
My concern with not having the maps was that I needed to verify the base elevation and the hills and make sure that I could handle it. I was thankful to see that the elevation is about the same as here in NM where I’ve been training and that the hills for the 30 mile ride aren’t too bad. I’m fairly sure that I can handle the ride.
What I really appreciate about the maps provided for the CO Tour de Cure is that there were also elevation and grade graphs provided. This is different from the SoCal Tour de Cure where we only had the route maps provided.
If you’re curious to see what route I’ll be riding, you can check it out at the Colorado Tour de Cure site. If you’re confused by the 50k, don’t be, it’s approximately 30 miles. Nothing I can’t handle ;P
Next Stop, CO
It’s been almost a month since my ride in the SoCal Tour de Cure and I’ve been carefully mulling over my next ride. Every so often, almost every day sometimes I’ve been going to the CO Tour de Cure website and checking in to see if maps of the routes have been posted yet. But, I couldn’t wait any longer, I had some conversations with some of the coordinators for the ride and they said maps would be up soon but that was like two weeks ago or so, maybe less, like maybe a week and a half. After perusing the various registration pages for rides across the US I saw that I may have to get accustomed to there not being maps for the routes prior to the ride (which scares me seems I’m coming from out of state and I am unfamiliar with the area and terrain).
Despite my fears, I’ve gone ahead and registered for the CO Tour de Cure and my personal page where people can sponsor me is up. I had a little harder time writing my introduction and I didn’t pass this one through my friend for review so it may not be as good as the first one, but this is what I settled on:
Riding State 2 State
When I rode in the Tour de Cure in Southern California in May it was to show that I could be just as athletic as I once was even with my diabetes. To show that I was done being controlled by a disease that I should’ve been controlling long ago. My ride in CA went so well that I decided I want to complete a ride in all 50 states. CO is the second stop in reaching that goal. However, even with this goal set, I would like it to be a goal I never reach, I’d love it if I get stopped in a few years because a cure has been found.
The cure for diabetes is the primary reason I ride, my goals are only secondary to the cure. I ride for myself, I ride for all my friends with diabetes, I ride for those with diabetes that I don’t know, I ride for those that will be saved from the torment of diabetes when a cure is found. And I will continue to ride until that cure is found, whether it be before I’ve ridden in all 50 states or long afterwards.
I think it outlines my intentions and what I’m trying to do and it says that I’m going to persevere until a cure is found. So, if you’re up to it, and you feel so inclined because someone you love or know is a diabetic and you want to help them out, please sponsor me in my ride in the CO Tour de Cure. It’s a great cause and as a bonus, it’s tax deductible ;P (shameless plug, I know).