Day forty-seven – the last day of riding and our journey will be complete. That’s a lot to process given the experience we have had. So many thoughts – too many to capture here, so – for today – I’ll stick with the immediate and write more about the aftermath when I’ve had time to process.
Second to last day – day forty-six! Hard to believe! There were mixed emotions as we set out this morning knowing that it was our second to last day, but we also knew that it was 105 miles with 7100 feet in elevation making it the third largest day on the trip in terms of elevation. We were tired with fatigued legs from yesterday’s ride and had one heavier ride in front of us before we would see the final day – day forty-seven with a fairly easy 65-mile ride to the coast.
Today was a tri-state day. We awoke and started our ride in New York, rode across Vermont, and finished our ride and are staying in New Hampshire tonight. I don’t think I’ve been to New Hampshire before. I learned late this afternoon that my sister, who lives in Ottawa, Canada, was about a half hour south of where we are staying tonight visiting a college with her youngest son. We both kicked ourselves for the lousy planning and that we didn’t know so that we could have seen each other. She’s been wonderful about sending me encouraging texts along the way and I don’t get to see her enough.
Today was a day to exhibit control. We started out with a cold morning again and had 84 miles on the docket with just under 4000 feet of elevation gain. While today was on all of our minds, tomorrow and Sunday were even more prevalent. What we did today would contribute to how the harder coming two days would be. We made a point of going relatively easy.
We have four remaining days of riding. None of the days will be trivial, so I am doing my best to conserve my energy for the remaining rides. Finishing the ride is bittersweet. As I think about things that I am looking forward to when I return to ‘the real world’, I thought about the luxury of having a coffee and an English muffin in bed and falling back to sleep. This is one of my most guilty pleasures and the idea of not having to get up early for a few days seems wildly luxurious. I am looking forward to it tremendously.
It was a cold start this morning with temperatures in the mid-forties. The sun was shining so we were able to warm up more quickly than previous cold days where fog had been prevalent. I opted for tights over my bib shorts today because I hate being cold and I knew we had several descents where the wind would be blowing, and it would be chilly. I removed layers at each rest stop and never regretted what I had been wearing or the layers I took off at the rest stops.
I was very relieved when I woke up on day forty-one as my body was ready for a rest after back-to-back century rides. The additional bonus was the proximity of the hotel to everything in Corning. Nothing seemed to be more than a 15-minute walk from wherever you were. This was going to make it a great day for getting out and exploring but also finding decent coffee, going to the museum and also my massage scheduled for the afternoon.
Today was another 101-mile day wrought with climbs and hills. There were, however, also some nice descents and an overall downhill after about mile 70. We were talking today about how we are managing to knock out 100-mile rides like they are nothing. It continues to astound me the power of the body and the mind.
Day thirty-nine brought, guess what? More climbing and more hills! But somehow it all seemed manageable over just under 100 miles. I’ve said it before on this ride, but I’ll say it again – the strength of the human body and mind are incredible. I’d never have thought that I’d be able to ride these long distances day after day and still have the stamina and mindset to get up the next day and do it all over again. Of course, we are cautious about how we ride ensuring that we don’t attack every hill looking for the King or Queen of the Mountain, and we don’t push ourselves to the point of exhaustion daily. This is slightly different for every rider, but everyone rides every day knowing that there is another ride tomorrow. A few days back, when we had a shorter day of 60 miles the next day, I was a little more willing to attack the few climbs we had the day before knowing that I wasn’t going to have to ride as long the next day. Today, however, wasn’t one of those days with another 100 miler tomorrow and then another 100-miler following the rest day on Tuesday. The remaining days are also hilly and wrought with climbs meaning that we have to be somewhat mindful that there is a next day to ride.
We are definitely back to the hills and climbing, though today was a shorter day at only 64 miles from Newbury to Meadville, Pennsylvania – making this our eleventh state of riding and allowing us to cross off the tenth. Because of the shorter ride, we did start a little later this morning at 9 am which was a little different for us. Tomorrow and the next day are 101 miles each, so the lighter day was welcome.
Day thirty-seven – so hard to believe! 10 riding days left including today. How have we come this far?
Today was a return to the hills and climbs, but nothing terrible – mostly shorter bursts and none too steep. The scenery was beautiful as we rolled out of the more traditional farmland of corn – we grow a LOT of corn in this country – and into rolling hills and beautiful trees starting to change color.
Today marked day 36 of our ride meaning we have 10 rides left before reaching the coast of Portland, Maine on October 6. It’s somewhat hard to believe that we have come this far. We still have hard days ahead, but we are all mindful that they are no harder than the days we’ve ridden thus far, and we feel that much stronger today than we did 36 days ago.
Someone asked me my least favorite part of this ride, and I couldn’t think of anything that I didn’t like… with one exception. I find the end of every ride somewhat difficult. Depending on the day, sometimes it’s the last 30 miles, sometimes the last 20 and sometimes the last 10 or even 5. I find that counting down rather than counting up is better on the mind. I’ve referred to this in other posts. What I realized today is that we are at that point where we are counting down the days – not up. I continue to count how many days we’ve ridden, but I’m far more focused on how many days we have left.