Pelotonia 2015 - a recap

Back in March I registered to ride in Pelotonia. It's a bike ride which really serves as a fundraiser for The James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State. There are multiple routes you can ride and based on the one you sign up for, there is a fundraising goal that goes with it. The catch is that you are guaranteed to give that much money to the James because they take your credit card information during registration. So if you don't raise your minimum through donations, fundraisers, etc, then you pay it. Genius idea so you don' have 50,999 people registering and then no one actually raise anything. Of course you can always raise more!

I was so blessed with many family and friends that donated to my ride and I met my goal the week before the ride! I was even able to give to friends rides and help them meet their goals instead of only being able to give to mine to meet the minimum. The donations for my ride actually exceeded the minimum, so I'm happy to have given more than $2,000 to cancer research!

The Friday night before the race there is the opening ceremony party. We picked up our registration packets, got our goodie gift bags (they are awesome!), turned in our bikes, and enjoyed a yummy dinner. 

There were three of us that registered together - me, Stacie, and Kelly. Kelly and I both work together for the College and advise the student council together. Stacie was one of our students, but since she graduated she's now 'one of use.' Ha. She and I have become great friends over the last few years. 

Emily, Stacie, Brutus and Kelly in our jersies.

At the 'party' they had giant walls where you could write the names of the people you were riding for. I rode for four people. My great-grandma and her twin sister who both survived breast cancer at age 90 (literally, they both had it at the same time. even found it weeks apart), Erin's grandma Millie who passed away 10 years ago from cancer, and Zach Farmer, who passed away just days before my ride after an 18 month battle with leukemia.

These peeps.....all the feels. 

Because I'm me, I had to acknowledge the people I was riding for in some way. I made buttons with their pictures on them to be on my jersey. I didn't have an electronic picture of Grandma and Annie, so I used one of me and her. They were identical twins, so I just looked at Grandma's face times two. :)

We had to be downtown so early - at like 6am. I couldn't even tell you the last time I was up that early. But I was there. Not without drama though. Stacie forgot her luggage tag for her checked bag and we both forgot our water bottles. The struggle was real for about 15 minutes. But luckily it all worked out.

This girl has no idea what's ahead for the next 12 hours!

We're just happy and ready to go!

I think there were around 2,000 people that rode either the 100 or 180 mile route with us. So it was kind of crowded around the starting line but not too bad. We even ran into Senator Portman in line (he's everywhere!) and my back made it into the background of his video about the ride! (Sorry Papaw!)

All the peeps!

The first 10 miles of the ride were through south Columbus, Obetz, etc. Our first rest stop was around 10ish miles. And of course we documented every stop by showing how many miles we had made it. (This was actually a struggle for me to figure out sometimes. Bike brain!)

Mile 10! (5+5)

Mile 25 was the first finish line, but at this point we were still ahead of people that were only riding 25 miles. They started an hour after we did.

Mile 25. 1/4 finished.

At the third rest stop, Mom was waiting on us. This was around 35 miles at Licking Heights High School. At this point Kelly and Teresa had caught up to us, so we would be able to ride the remaining 12ish miles together.

Four CFAES alumni. 

I actually ended up riding most of miles 37-50 by myself since Kelly and Stacie and gotten ahead and I'd lost Teresa. This was also when I realized I was actually really slow because when we got to the 50 split (those that were done at 50 go one direction and those that are continuing on to 100 go another) I was the ONLY one who turned to go on to 100. I was mortified and actually wanted to just quit. I do not like being last. There were other people behind me, I just couldn't see them.

We had lunch at the Bob Evans corporate offices and then we were off for the second 50 miles, aka the longest 50 miles. 

Mile 50. We were so happy, but we really had no idea what was coming. 

"Mile 50" wasn't really mile 50. It was more like 42. So we had 20 miles to go before a rest stop. This part wasn't too bad, but I just kept thinking "Everything I've already done, I have to do again now!" Ugh.

The pomp and circumstance that had been in Granville the morning was pretty much cleaned up by the time we rolled through. But that is a really cute town and I need to get back there to visit.

The stop at 61 had cookies!

61-100 were all out in the country, comparable to Blain Highway or 772. Lots of hills, some of which I had to walk up because my legs were just like jelly.

Mile 85! Just 15 more miles to go! This stop had an air conditioned tent!

There weren't official mile markers anywhere along the route, so it was just all hearsay about how much further we had to go. One man and woman along the side of the road told use we were only 27 miles from the finish, but I know for a fact we rode more than 8 miles before we got to the last rest stop.

Then there was a SAG van that told us we were 3.1 miles from the end. We were elated. I even said "oh, that's just a 5K. I could run from here!" Then about a mile down the road there was a sign in a yard that said "Just 3.8 miles left!" Ummm, hello?

We jammed out to Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and N*Sync during our last stretch. There were such nice people who had tents out in their yards with water, etc. and then some people who were following others along the route and would give us some of their goodies.

There was just one jerk car that didn't respect the ride and flew by us while screaming for us to get out of the road and then almost hit the people in front of us. If you slowed down behind us we got over as far as we could. But I figure out of all the cars who passed us that day, for just one to be hateful, that was a good percentage.

Finishing was very exciting. On one hand I couldn't believe I was actually finished and the other hand I was sad that it was over! Stacie and I finished towards the end of the pack. Ha! There weren't many behind us. I blame my slow mountain bike. DO NOT EVER ride a mountain bike on a 100 mile bike ride. Ever. Ever. Ever. I didn't realize how slow they were compared to road bikes. They are really, really slow. But at least now I can say that I did it, on a mountain bike!

I'm so glad that I rode with Stacie. She is such a great friend and was so encouraging to me when I was struggling at different parts of the ride (usually hills!). She was always yelling "You can do it!" or "Keep going until you can't go anymore." And she never left me behind.

But we did get a good laugh when we went to pick up her checked bag and because of us forgetting the luggage tags that morning, her bag was in a pile simply marked "no tag."

There were 800 people riding back to New Albany the next day. No thank you!

We turned our bikes in to head back to Columbus, cleaned up and ate dinner at the finish line party. The hamburger I had was delicious. But of course I could only eat about half of it.

Me, Brutus and Stacie at the Finish Line Party.

Saturday was an emotional day for a number of reasons. I was riding in Pelotonia, but back in Piketon, our community was celebrating the life of Zach Farmer.

Zach was the Ohio State baseball pitcher who was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2014. He had been doing well and was even put in remission in June 2014. In early July it was found that the cancer had returned and along with other complications, the doctors gave him less than a month to live on July 15.

That following weekend he and his girlfriend got married and our town had a reception for them in the gymnasium. A few days later I asked if he could be someone that I rode in honor of in Pelotonia and he said "I'd love that". I thanked him, told him the reception was very nice and he responded "Thank you very much." I didn't respond because I didn't know what else to say.

Zach passed away two weeks later on August 4. His funeral was Saturday afternoon from 1-5pm in our high school gymnasium. Instead of riding in his honor, I was now riding in his memory.

So throughout the afternoon portion of the race, by far the hardest and most challenging, I just kept thinking of him, and my grandma, aunt, and Millie. I sometimes would make up little songs with their names to repeat in my head while I was trying to peddle up a hill. "Zach, Zach, Zach, Zach, Grandma, Millie, Annie." Or something like that. :) But every time I would open my phone to check the time, read a text from Mom, or just to see where the heck we were, my twitter app was open to the direct messages, with Zach's "Thank you very much" appearing at the very top. The first time I didn't think anything of it, but then as the day went on and it kept happening, I knew it was a little sign from him and God thanking me for doing this ride and giving me encouragement to keep going.

Saturday afternoon I would have told you that I'd never do Pelotonia again, or at least not the 100 mile ride. But after a few days, I kind of forgot all about how much it hurt at the time and I'm considering doing it again next year. Just not with the mountain bike!