Tour de Fun 50K ride

The beauty of Facebook is that it makes it easy to be peer-pressured into an event.  A few weeks ago this happened for the Tour de Fun bike ride.  A friend posted a picture after packet pickup for the ride and showed how cute the event t-shirt was.

The FB post that captured me and had me deciding to ride 12 hours before it started! 

That proceeded to getting pulled in to join on the ride with two friends.  I made it to the race site nice and early for registration and got signed up.  I got my number situated onto the back of my jersey and then proceeded to get my bike set up for the ride.

The 50K ride started at 6:45 and just before the start I found my two friends.  The start is in downtown Rogers and there are brick cobbles which always make me nervous.  We got started with a wave to Janet's husband who was taking photographs for the event.

Here we go! Wearing my International kit to support the start of World Cup! 

The first mile of the ride is pretty much downhill with little pedaling required so you aren't really warmed up when you hit the hills into Prairie Creek.  The girls and I separated slightly on the hills so I was looking for a spot to pull over and regroup when I spotted a $20 bill lying on the ground.  The money was near a drive thru ATM machine so I pulled through and picked up the bill.  What a find! The girls passed me so I hollared that I would catch up with them shortly.

Biking across the HWY 12 bridge

We continued on the curving hills and enjoyed cycling across the HWY 12 bridge over Beaver Lake.  It was a gorgeous morning and the lake was beautiful.  We hit the 50K turn and knew we had about 5 miles to go until our turnaround point.  My friend Jeff Spencer came up along side me during this section and so we pedaled and chatted for a few minutes.  We hit the turn around point and we all stopped to refill our bottles and eat some of our nutrition.  We were back on the road a few minutes later and made our way back the way we came.

I forgot about the long decline we had coming out of Prairie Creek but definitely felt the incline on the return trip.  I was going along and couldn't understand why I felt so slow until I realized that it was an incline!  It was quite the relief to realize I wasn't as slow as I thought! The final mile back into town is an uphill that is pretty draining.  I was glad to get up it and make my way back to the finish line.  I finished about a minute ahead of Jamye and Janet and cycled back to join them.  I think they got stopped at the stoplights getting into town.

Finish time! 

After wards I racked my bike at the car and fixed myself an Abloc Nutrition chocolate milk for recovery.  It was fun to enjoy the beautiful weather and chat with friends near the finish area.  However I eventually had to head home and get some real food in me! Below is a Flipagram video that Jamye put together of our day!

Post by Jamye Perry.