Many thanks for the words of encouragement and support along the way and now that I'm back at home. It did, does, mean a lot to me.
My learning curve was steep and slow as I'm very much a rookie at this thing.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned, and I thought about this a lot on the road, is the continuing motivation to be competitive in this long a race.
I always wanted to finish respectably in the race as in the top 1/3rd or so... but when the top 10 riders...the Italian group, Mike, Edward, Jason and a few others...have got a gap on of at least a 1,000 miles...do you knock yourself out and miss a lot of "America and its fine people" to finish 13th rather than in 16th position?
I've been texting w/"RN" the last few days...a young strong rider in the race that I somehow managed to be competitive with at least for the first 1100 miles or so...and noticed he hadn't been moving down course for a long, long time period. I'm talking for about a day or so.
He texted back to say, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the "gap is so big" that he was enjoying himself a bit off the bike.
My point...
My learning curve was steep and slow as I'm very much a rookie at this thing.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned, and I thought about this a lot on the road, is the continuing motivation to be competitive in this long a race.
I always wanted to finish respectably in the race as in the top 1/3rd or so... but when the top 10 riders...the Italian group, Mike, Edward, Jason and a few others...have got a gap on of at least a 1,000 miles...do you knock yourself out and miss a lot of "America and its fine people" to finish 13th rather than in 16th position?
I've been texting w/"RN" the last few days...a young strong rider in the race that I somehow managed to be competitive with at least for the first 1100 miles or so...and noticed he hadn't been moving down course for a long, long time period. I'm talking for about a day or so.
He texted back to say, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the "gap is so big" that he was enjoying himself a bit off the bike.
My point...
My "Big Calorie" breakfast stop about an hour after the climb out of White bird, Idaho. This fine lady I met allowed me to join her for breakfast. We had a great time and she told me her life story. I got pretty good at just listening to people and keeping my mouth shut though hard to imagine.
I couldn't eat it all and so I got a 'doggie bag' for the rest and she took it home literally for her dogs.
She also shared she has a pet bull elk. She said, and I do forget her name, that the bull elk was very happy when Fish and Game dropped off two females on her acreage:)
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