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134 mile LAMB ride

What an awesome experience.

There are few opportunities in when you really need to find that extra bit of effort to succeed or risk failure. It would have been easy to quit. I came close but the opportunity to stop early at my dad's house didn't happen.

This LAMB ride goes down as a top 5 life most difficult physical event for me. I know that many of you have done greater things. I don't contend to say that it compares with life events of others. It's my list.

The most difficult physical challenge was a mountain hike in the Adirondacks. It was suppose to be a 6 hour trip. Short sleeves and short pants. It turned out to be an eight hour trip with 2000 extra feet of climbing with a significant temperature drop as it turned dark. At the end, we were hypothermic and exhausted. It could have been one of those bad experiences that you hear about in the news.

Another time, I was sailing in the bay with a buddy. We were overtaken by a summer storm. The bay went flat to 6 foot swells within minutes. My 14' sailboat turned turtle and the mast got stuck in the mud. We took turns swimming to the bottom of the bay to try to pull the sail and mast loose. Ultimately, the boat came loose from the sail and it began drifing down wind. I had to swim to catch the boat and then swim back to Bhrett who was holding on to the sail(which was still stuck in the mud) while holding his head just above the water. We didn't realize that danger that we had been in until everything was over.

The 2006 LAMB ride was an unending seige against the wind. We headed south into a south wind. A cold front passed as we headed north out of Gulf Shores. It was the only time that we had a tail wind. After we got off Hwy 59, we headed west into a west wind. After lunch in Fairhope, we headed north into a north wind. After lunch in Fairhope, the temperature dropped from 78 deg to 59 deg. You can imagine what it was like going across the causeway. I was ready to stop and throw my bike in the bay.

I ended up with 134+ miles. That's the longest ride ever for me. I can already tell that it was good for base fitness.