This was my second year riding in the Tour de Cure, TdC, for the American Diabetes Association. The 2007 TdC was my first organized ride ever and it really got me interested in biking. Last year I pushed myself to 42 miles. At that time it was quite a challenge. This year I rode 75 miles. As an extra incentive for fundraising I decided that if I raised $1000 I would ride on my mountain bike. I raised just over $1500. The ride took us from Mohawk Park in Tulsa to Owasso, Collinsville, Oolagah, Claremore, and the Port of Catoosa before returning to the park.
We had a good sized group out of Bartlesville. Front Row – Jim, Donna. Second Row – Jack, Dan, Keith, Sean, Kevin, Richard, Jonathon, and Tom.
I assumed I would be well behind most of them. However, Dan and Keith rode with me the whole day. Dan, using a similar deal to raise money, also rode his older heavy bike. Keith seemed to have some excuse about being tired.
Here we are at the Tiki Bar in Collinsville.
The day was just about the nicest riding day of the year so far. At Lake Claremore the “CARD Headstart” group was having a fishing derby. Keith wanted some real food and they were cooking burgers. He thought they might be selling them. They weren’t selling them but some nice ladies gave us each a hot dog. Overall a profitable detour.
We finally found a place that was safe for Keith to ride.
The next rest stop was at the Port of Catoosa. This is also at the base of the optional “Killer Hill”. This was about mile 62. As we came up to Killer Hill I asked if we wanted to go up first or rest first. Keith said he wanted water but Dan said he was going to try the Hill. I followed Dan and Keith followed both of us. I took a running start at the hill passing Dan. I slowed down quickly. About half way up I started to think, “Maybe we should have rested first”. Keith passed me but I held onto second place. We all made it up without stopping.
A few miles from Killer Hill was a hill that we climbed last year but the course took a turn away at the base. Keith suggested that we go up it anyway. It was a fairly steep hill with a sheer rock wall on either side. It made a nice for nice echoes as we went up and down. Keith,who had been tired all day, seemed to perk up after we made this diversion from the course. Keith lives for Adventure. Either that or the Pizza he ate 15 miles ago finally started to work.
We got stopped by the same train three times. The first time we waited quite a bit. The second time we caught the tail end. Several miles later we were riding beside the same train as we approached the entrance to Mohawk Park. We were riding faster than the train and got to the park entrance just as the engines passed. So we now had to wait for the entire train to pass.
We rode 75.053 miles at an average of 14 mph to finish at about 3pm. We rode 5:21 and took about and 1:30 for rest/detour/hot dog eating/etc. I think there were about 70 riders in our class. We finished in the last 7. Jack (below) was with our group also. He took off early in the ride and had to wait for us slow guys.
At a couple of the rest stops we heard that there was a group behind us. We heard them referred to as a father, son, and a slow guy. They are Jonathon, Richard, and Tom; also, from Bartlesville.
The End.
