Maiden Voyage, aka The Trip Through Hell

Friday night saw the purchase of Sugar High!. Saturday saw his maiden voyage, can I even call it that, maiden voyage, I mean, he’s a he, maiden is a she…maiden voyage, that’s like for boats…are all boats shes? I digress.

So, Saturday morning, early in the morning, I’m at Walmart to get a new helmet because the old one has disappeared. It’s missing. You can’t go on a bike ride without a helmet.

Next stop was the train station, where we took the train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. We being me and some my favorite Outlaw people (Baboo, GeekGirl, SWTriGal). It was a wonderful ride…peaceful and relaxing and beautiful and just soooooo nice…

And then we get off the train, we stop for a quick caffeine/breakfast/yummy chocolate milk moment and then we’re off.

The ride out of Santa Fe was nice. I felt good on Sugar High! he rode well. Then we’re on the backside of the mountain…and it was beautiful back there, but it was hot. and there was no shade. and it was hot…and there were hills. it was supposed to be all downhill…it wasn’t…but that’s ok, I was doing fine, right up until I had to climb out of Madrid (that town that’s in Wild Hog’s that movie, the one with John Travolta) and then it sucked…and I wasn’t doing well. It was miserable. I was miserable…I was so miserable, I wanted to cry, that’s not a normal Courtney reaction when I’m out there riding, I’ll curse the hills and whatnot but I keep riding and I get it done, I don’t cry…I almost cried this ride…

I was soooo thirsty, but I was taking in a lot of water, but I wasn’t surviving, I didn’t understand why because my blood sugars were perfect…it was a new experience…I got told that I was experiencing something that “normal” cyclists experience. Which was cool, I was proud of that, but it was miserable as well, not something I want to ever experience again…

…So anyways, a long miserable way from the hill out of Madrid to almost the next big major road…I was almost home, like 20 miles from home, and I couldn’t make it, I had to call for rescue.

I was so dehydrated my mouth was like cotton, and I was nauseous. So I made the pitiful come get me call (which I’ve only done once before and it was cause of low blood sugars) and saw my peeps off, and in between seeing my peeps off and waiting to be rescued, I was vomiting and all my energy was sapped, I had to work really hard to make my brain think properly. It was pathetic, I don’t think there’s a better word for it.

So, Sugar Rush!’s maiden voyage went well as far as he’s concerned. He was a good ride. I broke him in good, we fell over, his wounds not nearly as damaging as mine which is excellent because I wasn’t so much worried about me as I was about him. I do think I need a different seat, I discovered that there are bones in my rump. And I was feelin’ them as I was riding along.

Oh, did I mention that there was a pro cyclist riding with us, the highlight of my day was the fact that I made it a couple miles further than him, he had to call for rescue before me…