Over the weekend I participated in the Ride & Run to Remember charity event that benefits the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. If you are unfamiliar with that fund I suggest you head over here to check it out. But as you might guess it goes to benefit the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and since I’m involved in LE it’s something I like to support to honor our fallen brothers & sisters.
I had signed up to be a “Road Warrior” which would involve me running the 5K and then doing the 55 mile ride the following day. My girlfriend decided she wanted to participate but due to an injury she wouldn’t be able to run but we decided on the 2K walk instead. Unfortunately the day of the run/walk it decided to rain. Plus with us being over the bridge from the start and not exactly sure where we were going we sorta missed the start. What’s the saying about best laid plans? Even still we still walked anyway even if it wasn’t “official” and covered way more than 2K. After all we were in DC and there is a lot of national treasures to see!
Thankfully the day of the ride Mother Nature decided to give us a reprieve from the rain and let the sun shine even if it was a little cold. There was no being late for this as the hotel we were staying at was located across the street from the start/finish line. 55 miles isn’t the longest ride I’ve done but I was still a little nervous going into it since I have never rode in this area before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The elevation profile estimated about 2800′ of ascent so it was a manageable elevation, especially for a northern boy (heck, I’ve done 30 mile rides with more elevation than that). At the start we got a few pre-ride photos along with a nice introduction and singing of the National Anthem. With that out of the way, the sirens went off and we were on our way!
I wont bore you with excruciating details of the ride but it was a great route in a nice area and I found it very flat. It was funny listening to people from the area complain about the “hills” and I’m looking around saying to myself “what hill?” Actually there was a nasty headwind for about 1/3 of the ride that was far worse than any hill out there. There were 4 rest stops on the route and I made good used of each of them (i.e. used the loo). I went with my typical on the bike nutrition but did help myself to some Kind bars they had at a couple of the stops. By the end of the ride I was still feeling good and not suffering at all. I could of probably pushed the pace a bit more but ended up finish with a respectable 15.1mph average with a final mileage of 59 miles.
Can’t wait to do it again next year!
With that I leave you with a few photos.
