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A lot's happened in the last week or so and computer time and wireless internet are scarce, so here we go.

I'm in Watonga, OK now. It was a 70-mile ride into town from Oklahoma City. It's very strange to glance over a cue sheet, see 70 miles as the total for the day and think of that as a short day.

I suppose doing back-to-back centuries (100-mile rides) changed my definition of a long ride. It also made me realize how much I'm capable of.

The first century of the trip was also my first century - 106 miles into I-can't-even-remember-where, OK. It was once city before OKC. All but the last 20 or so miles of that 106-mile day flew by. We (the group I was pacelining with) had done like 60 or so miles by lunchtime if not before then.
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I felt amazingly good when I arrived at the host location just before 3:30. But the next day was a completely different story. Asking my body to do 96 miles the next day was just more than it was really capable of. I mean, my body was fine but there was nothing left for my mind. I'd honestly considered calling the van to pick me up because riding all foggy-headed probably wasn't safe.

After I couldn't hack it paclining with one of the groups, Kim caught up to me and we rode together. I still was in a fog and around mile 50 I just started bawling as I rode up a hill and through the tears (like a little kid) said "I just don't want to be on the bike" and took off up the hill and down another one in some blind burst of emotion.

It was kind of like vomiting: I felt better afterward. I slowed down a bit, Kim caught back up and then I had to acknowledge the craziness she'd just witnessed. I actually think it's pretty hilarious. A little awkward and totally out of character, but very funny.

We eventually made it into OKC that day, but that ride was just aweful. B-Money (Brian Phillips), the leader who is from OK and was in charge of the cue sheet that day, had said how flat OK would be etc. It was anything but. It was undulating hills the entire way. Even when you're going basically downhill you have to climb the rolling hills.


Made me think of that scene in Dumb and Dumber when they drive halfway across the country and are in Kansas when they should be in Colorado. "I thought the Rockies would be a little rockier than this." "Yeah, that John Denver guy's full of shit!"

OK version: I thought Oklahoma would be a little flatter than this. Yeah, that Brian Phillips guy is full of shit!