Sunday, January 17, 2010

Don't Stop Pedalling or The Punisher

We must continue with our journey. I last left you with P-Funk-U finishing up her 8 mile hilly and I mean hilly jaunt. I rode ahead at her last half mile and told Redhead that she needed to get ready to go.

I offered to ride for her but she did not want one. Her first leg was only three miles and Ragnar listed it as Easy. She said she did not need us to give her water during the run. "It's only three miles." At the same time doing the little head nod. I don't want to point any fingers but someone in the crowd yelled, "show-off".















P-Funk-U handed off the slap bracelet to Redhead and she was on her way. She was cruising right along. Now this stretch of road was HWY 98 with little shoulder and large trucks. The size of trucks that piss you off coming at you but feel great passing and pulling you the other way. Another good reason for the headlamps and reflective vests. I drove us ahead to the next exchange area. It was finally going to be my turn to run.

My first run was listed at 8.8 miles and categorized as Very Hard. It must have been the distance because the elevation did not change much. I requested a biker only because of the need for water. B.o.b. decided she would ride the bike for me. Now why C-Steve or Jason did not offer is unknown. Honestly though, I would rather run behind her than either of those two.

Redhead was running so fast that I had little time to give B.o.b. any biking 101's. I had seen her ride a bike in the past and felt comfortable that she would be okay. Now this one did not have a rubber shark horn but it did have a seat and two wheels. I told her to make sure she kept my backpack on and if I asked for it, not to ask me why. Little did she know she would be carrying our creature killer.

Redhead is in and gives me the slap bracelet. As I am running by our van, I hear B.o.b. yelling at me, "hey I can't get the seat to lower." Whoops. I forgot about that part. Nothing I could do now since I was already running. How bad could it be. It is a gel seat. I think.

I'm running along settling in on my pace. I have my Garmin on but I did not want to check my pace. For the most part I like to run without a watch. The double cheeseburger was just now kickin' in. Time for water. I have my very own water girl along side me. This should be no trouble at all. Right. Well if it were that easy why tell you about it.

To my right I am hearing, "this seat is too high. It is hurting my %^$#*&^. I don't know how much more I can take." I reach down to turn up my Shuffle and must have pushed the wrong button because it stopped working. Oh great. Well I still needed water.

I figured I would just reach my hand out and B.o.b. would give me the water bottle. Good luck with that. She was having such a hard time because the seat was so high she did not want to reach down and grab the bottle. I told her that as long as she rode next to me, I would reach down and grab the bottle. I did not want to slow my pace but I also did not want to get ran over by a pit crew member. Okay here goes. I reach over and she slows down which means there is no bottle there for me to grab. B.o.b. don't stop pedalling. You have to keep the same pace as me. Okay, but I don't want to crash. Oh, boy. You are not going to crash if you keep pedaling. But it's hard with the seat so high. Now I reach over and her leg is blocking the bottle. I then tell her to stop pedalling but don't slow down. How do I keep up and not pedal? I just need you to keep your leg out of the way but you still have to be beside me. How about you pedal ahead and then I can run up to you and grab the bottle. Not that far ahead. Have you ever just lost your thirst.

With less than a mile left, I tell B.o.b. to ride ahead and let Van 1 know that I was coming in and they would be taking over. I hand off the slap bracelet to Kalani and Van 2 is now done for the next 6-8 hours. Time to eat and get some shut eye.
Next: Pitching a Tent or We'll Leave the Light On For Ya

4 comments:

  1. "Gather round kiddies, this here's the story about how B.o.B broke her vagina..."

    Now on to the special moment of pitching C Steve's first tent... oh the memories...

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  2. Seriously though, I am blaming that bike if I can't have kids. ;)

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  3. Now why did she just not ride ahead and hand off the water bottle from a stop?

    Also - at this pace - is this Ragnar story going to be done in time for Ragnar 2010? Just wondering?! We just finished leg 1 and it has been 2 months since Ragnar finished!

    :-)

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  4. Yeah, it's been sooo long ago, I almost forgot what happened...but at least the good thing is that I'm always excited to find out what's next!

    Actually, this was a great post because I didn't get all these details because I was asleep every chance I got!

    I think Beth was such a trooper!!! She may have been doing more work than the actual RUNNER!

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