Here is the 2015 cue sheet in all it's glory.
Unfortunatly for me, a local 5K that I do every year, was affected by the Jewish Holiday of Shavut. What it meant was that both these events were the same day. Wasn't sure what to do. Decided to let the weather decide for me. If the weather was nice then I will ride. If the weather was horrible then I will run. By reading this, I assume you can figure out which way the weather was supposed to be, right?
As is the case for the last I don't know how many weekends, this weekend was also nuts. Thursday night, June 11th, Jessie went to a Bat Mitzvah for a friend. Even though I didn't drive her to Long Beach or picked her up from there, I still needed to pick her up from her friends house. Wanted to go to sleep early. Didn't happen.
Friday, June 12, was Elizabeth's moms birthday and she wanted to see her. Instead of driving an hour and 45 minutes each way, we all agreed on meeting at her Brother's house which is "only" 45 minutes for us. Got home from work and fed/walked LC. We left at 5:15 pm. Yup - rush hour traffic. Drive took 2 hours. We got there but I was exhausted. Apparently also Elizabeth's uncle, 2 cousins and her child came too. Cool. Nice big family gathering but they also got stuck in traffic and they didn't see the house after all the construction and people were talking and yada yada yada, we started eating late. Unfortunatly we had to leave at 9pm so very quick meal. I wish the timing was better. I wish it was a better day that we could have just slept there or something. Unfortunatly we had obligations as you will soon see. Drive back was uneventful, thank God. Got home by 10. Was exhausted and was ready to go to sleep as I had a 3 am wake up but that would have been simple.
Saturday, June 13 at midnight which really means Friday night at 11:59:59 plus 1 second was the YMCA registration. Instead of going to sleep and waking up to do it, I decided to just stay up. Figured it would take 2 minutes and then I would go to sleep. The alarm was set for 3am because I was gonna run. Three hours is a little short even for me but whatever. In any case, midnight rolled around and nothing went easy. I was on the phone with Jim as we were both having issues. Finally at 1am, I got it done. OK - 2 hours of sleep. The things we do for our kids that they don't even realize...Woke up at 3 and ate breakfast and went to run. You'd think that was it, right?
Let's see... While I was running, Elizabeth took Jeremy to his ACT. He doesn't really need it as he did well on his SAT's but since everyone is doing it, he took it too. She then went home, got ready and took Jessie to the next Bat-Mitzvah. Then she came home and waited for me. I got home, grabbed a bar, took it into the shower with me, dressed up and we were off too. Busy busy people. Jeremy gave me his prediction as to when he needs a pick up and of course it was during the Bat Mitzvah. So, again as usual, I ran out of there and drove to the school to wait for him. I took a 5 min nap and as soon as he got there drove him to tennis and immediatly rushed back. Remember that except for that bar, my last meal was at 3am. I was seriously crashing. Got there and good news...There was still food AND Elizabeth made me 2 plates. I chomped them up and took 3 more plates and finally was somewhat satisfied. I was hoping for a small nap but that didn't happen either. Errands errands errands. Sunday showed up way too quickly for me. I think I managed somewhere between 4 and 5 hours of sleep. I was tired but there was nothing I could do about it.
I should have checked in with him earlier. I didn't. I finally did only to hear that he is running a few minutes late. He got to me at 6:30. I wasn't thrilled.
Let me take a break for a minute from this as I don't like where this is going. I absolutly love and respect Hammad. He is a great guy. He is a great human being. He was also always dependable as hell. He is a superstar in my book.
That being said, I'm not sure what's going on exactly now. He's late these days and I don't know if it's because he likes to do things last minute so arriving just on time is perfect for me but unfortunatly stresses my GI system like crazy or if something else is going on. Now, he is doing me a favor here but if he would prefer to get there late, I wish he would just tell me. I had options. I could have bummed a ride from someone else, called a cab or just ridden there. As is, my plan was to do the ride and as the previous 2 times just ride home for a total of 80+ miles. I could have ridden there but I wanted that 62 miles to be "race speed".
We got there and parked at the LIRR and then rode the itty bit to the start. We checked in. I found out why he was late. He wasn't sure if he really was going to do the ride and last minute decided to do it so he showered.
We checked in and rode to the edge of the parking lot. I said here we go and took off. He knew I planned on trying to ride for real but I also knew that he would always catch up anyway. If I would start with him then it would take him a while to start. I couldn't afford the time and it wouldn't realy be a good gauge for me.
I passed someone and continueed. I kept looking back and there he was. Cool.
Some of the aid stations were not open yet. That's fine. I was self sufficient.
We did get passed around mile 20. We also made a friend named Jeff who was content in staying with us since everytime he tried to leave us, he would veer from the right way until he heard me screaming to him to come back. Funny. We stopped at an aid station for a minute. I took the opportunity to pee which I really needed to do from the start. Hammad started eating stuff. We finally left... I know it was a short time but it seemed like an eternity.
We got to Sea Cliff. Nasty thing. Mansion Ride goes up straight the damn thing. The Gold Coast Century goes up up and then an ugly almost 90 degree turn into the rest of the hill to climb up again. Both uglier but I think Gold Coast is worst. In any case, I got 2 compliments which made me feel great. In reality, I made the compliments more than they were but that's ok.
We passed a dude changing a flat tire. I think Jeff gave him a patch kit or something. We pulled into Sands Point. Hammad told us to go and that he's gonna slow down. Jeff went to pee and then we left. Immediatly Hammad was still with us. I knew he would. The flat dude? As soon as were about to exit unto the street, he rolled in, saw us and made a U-turn. He decided with his luck he would get lost so better to stick with us. He then told us that was his 2nd flat in 3 days and that his luck today matches his last name: Murphy. Ha....So Bill Murphy stuck with us and I continued pulling.
It was obvious Bill was a much better rider who was just enjoying himself after a hard ride the previous day. Cool...
All was good. It was me, Bill, Jeff and Hammad. Soon tho, Bill and I dropped those 2. Sorry guys. Would have loved keeping you guys but I needed to see what I could do.
At one point it was me, Bill and this dude with a Cookie Monster Jersey. We get to a red light and Bill takes it. Wasn't worth it. It was up a hill and oh well, he dropped us. I stayed with Cookie Monster but got dropped too. Eventually, I rolled into the big aid station before the end. Ate a watermellon, filled up on water and waited for Bill. We left together. We thought we were lost until we finally saw markings again. Bill dropped me again. Cool. Eventually, in the muttontown area. Almost there. Lots of false flats. Yuck. Last intersection. Less than a mile. I passed a couple on a tandem bike. They were old(er) and I'm sure they did the smaller distance. Yelled my "good job" and passed them on to finish.
Grabbed water and wasn't sure what to do. I was hungry and finished all my food. There weren't any bars. Actually, the spread this year was less than previous. Still have 20ish miles to go and what to do. I grabbed a slice of pizza. Completly NOT earned but I needed fuel.
Worried about Hammad as is my nature. Texted him to let me know he's ok. Headed back home.
My Tuesday/Thursday am rides paid off. Even tho, I hate the ride back, I actually managed to raise my crappy average MPH. Cool. Got home and ran a quick mile. Few hours later dropped Jessie at the next Bat Mitzvah. From there, picked up Elizabeth and went to Krav Maga. My legs were tired. I could run and do everything but horizontal but vertical (jumping, burpees) were not fun. Finished the class, thank God didn't sweat too much, got dressed nicely and went to the Bat Mitzvah.
Good weekend - hard weekend - long weekend.
So happy to finally go ride in the daylight, without lights, wearing shorts.