Overwhelming

I thought I would take another bike ride; get on the bike and ride from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  I thought it would be something cool to do.  After all, as much as I love riding my bike, it kind of seemed to make sense to me.  Now I know better, probably one of the more crazy things I have ever attempted.

Would I ever do anything like this again, this intense, most likely NOT.

Was it a rewarding experience, probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

The emotions I felt when I got to the beach Monday morning, were OVERWHELMING.  That is really the only way I could describe how I felt.

And while I have met some amazing individual during my lifetime, a few of the folks on this adventure were indescribable.

Satish:  Satish was with me every step of the way.  Starting with the first chats about this endeavor, to the dip in the Pacific to the dip into the Atlantic.  We were actually a group of five that said they were going; however, only Satish actually came through and went with me.

The guy just never gave up; something to say about his gumption.  We had some really hard days, I mean really hard, and he just kept grinding up those killer hills; Teton Pass, the Continental Divide, just to name a couple.  Thousands and thousands of feet, ugh, I shutter to think about it, I cannot believe I did it.

And what about the unbelievably long days, 119 (the longest) miles with strong head winds all day long; just not fun.  Lets not forget, it was about 10 or 11 years ago, I swore I would never do another century (a 100 mile bike ride).  For me, it is just not fun once I hit 75 or 80 miles.  And here I was doing seven centuries in seven weeks.  With a total of 12 days of over 90 miles.  And Satish just kept me going.

Truth be told, I missed a particularity hard part of one day, about 60 miles, but lot's of climbing due to a mechanical problem with my bike, but not Satish, he just kept going, he is a machine.  (I am already thinking on how to get out there to finish up the ride, I guess some would think that is a bit of an OCD, but, just saying).

Dave and Evin:  Dave is from Ann Arbor, Michigan and Evin is from Virginia Beach Virginia.  These guys worked together for Ford.  They have both since retired.

Dave is the proverbial animal.  He did not like riding with strangers and he said as much.  Dave has done this trip before (not sure what might possess someone to do this kind of endeavor a second time, but there were several on this trip that were on this trip or a similar type trip in the past).

Evin started biking about a year ago.  Kind of unimaginable that someone who has really just started biking is planning on doing a ride like this.  Further, his training was  like ours (Satish and Me), no hills to train on.  So the hills were a real challenge for him as well.

However, both of these guys were stronger than Satish and I.  But we came to a day where the head winds were particularly strong and Satish started talking to these guys to see if they might want to do a small pace line with us with a rotation of every half a mile.  And son of a gun, they said yes.

Well for me, this just could not have come at a better time.  It was just such a help, if nothing more than a mental boost to get me through the day.  We rode with these two off and on through out the trip and I hope we will remain friends going forward.

The ABB Staff:  There were six staff members.  They were required to ride the ride every other day, so on any particular day, there were three staff members riding the course.  These women and men seemed more or less psychic when it came to our needs.  Be it water after a particularly hard climb, or a few words of encouragement, they were just there for us.  And no matter what the request was, the attitude they portrayed, at least outwardly, was amazing.  And I say outwardly because everyone had good and bad days, but you would not know it from the attitude these women and men showed every day.

Judy:  Judy was the head honcho.  Also manned the SAG stops on days she was not riding.

Pam:  Pam seemed more or less in charge of nutrition and health.  Also manned the SAG stops on days she was not riding.

Karen:   Yoda of the ride courses.  Also manned the SAG stops on days she was not riding.

Deanna:  All around positive individual.  Also manned the SAG stops on days she was not riding.

Rob:  Head mechanic; Rob's attitude was no worries, we will make it work, I can do it.  Also manned the mechanic's truck on days he was not riding.

Robin:  Mechanic do boy.  Also manned the mechanic's truck on days he was not riding.

And one other thing, pretty much every person on the ride, my co-riders were pretty amazing.  I was one of the slower riders on the tour.  So most folks passed me pretty routinely.  That is how I got to be one of the "Early Rollers," aka, part of the special needs group.  Point is whenever someone or a group of riders passed me, there were always words or encouragement.  And some of the fast folks also said, come on, let us pull you, we will slow down.  So I pretty much got to ride with most of the folks on the tour one time or another.  Most of the folks on the tour were retired, but there was one school teacher, planning to go to law school in the fall and was able to take the time.

There may be add ons to this blog in the future, but for now, this will be the final post.  Please email me if you have any questions:  hchakler@gmail.com