You Just Gotta Push Through It!

So I woke up this morning at 7am. I so did not want to wake up...My bed was all warm and cozy, and I had been rudely awaken in the middle of the night by a cousin who will remain unnamed, who decided it would be really cool to show off our recently cleaned basement. Side note to self, don't clean out the basement again.  But I digress. So it was early, and it was wet, and I was tired.  But the schedule said we had a 35 mile marker and I needed to go do it.  So I got up, put my bike on my car and drove out to Walnut Creek.

Me, not too happy to be up in the morning.

.

But, it wasn't raining that hard, and I thought it wouldn't be that bad, so I went.  And when we started it wasn't that bad.  We were all a little cautious, but I think happy to start out...

But then it started to rain, pretty hard, right at the beginning, and going down the first really steep hill was really scary and I went like 5 miles an hour.  My hands began to cramp like they used to when I went down hills, braking the whole way.  When I was at the bottom, I began to think that maybe I wouldn't do the Three Bears, that maybe it would be ok to just put my bike on the SAG car, and not do the whole thing today.

But as I rode, the weather cleared up some, and the sun came out for a little bit, and by the time I caught up with Bill and Julanne and we changed Bill's flat tire, using 3 CO2s in the process, we were all happy and ready to tackle the bears.

And the bears were actually pretty nice.  It rained right at the beginning but for the majority of it, it was nice and a little sunny.  Going down Papa Bear was a little scarier than normal because it was wet, but since it wasn't raining, it wasn't too bad.
We were in Moraga, about 8 miles away from being back at our cars, all excited because we knew it was basically down hill from there when Bill realized he had another flat.  This time we called for a pick up, and Julanne and I thought we would just bike back quickly.  Maybe it was our bad luck, maybe it would have happened anyway, but I am convinced that because we decided to skip that last hill (going straight on Mt Diablo instead of going over Deer Hill) it began to pour down on us as soon as we has passed the turn off to go up the hill.  The rain pelted down on us the whole way back, harder than it had all day.  I was just happy that I knew it would soon all be over!

We finally got back, and thank goodness Michelle took pity on us, and told us we could go home with no core!  so I got into my car, turned on my heated leather seats, and my outrageously loud radio, and bobbed along as I warmed up on the way home.  By the time I got home I had a smile on my face, because I had done it.  I had thought about not doing it all, but I didn't give up.  And I finished it, so I was happy.

Of course, my voice is rapidly leaving me, and I had to cancel on Warriors tickets because I feel like I am getting sick...but that is besides the point.  I biked the Three Bears in the rain and it only took me 3 hours and 17 minutes!  :) Which means my next bike marker is going to show so much improvement I can't wait!

(Ok, I can actually wait...and can't wait to sleep tomorrow and not work out at all!)