The Fried Green 50 is always held on the first Sunday in November. A few years ago Monte added a Saturday ride called the Sac o' Suds 50, held the day before the Fried Green 50. Both rides start in Juliette and have connections to locally filmed movies. The movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" was filmed in Juliette, and the Sac o' Suds in neighboring Jasper County was the scene of the tuna theft and murder in "My Cousin Vinny." I recommend both movies. Anyway, I didn't do the Sac o' Suds ride yesterday because it has significant sections of single-track, and I'm not a very good technical rider. More importantly, with yesterday being Halloween, I had to continue my 18-year tradition of being The Mad Doctor at Haunticello (trick-or-treating on the square in my hometown, Monticello):
We were encouraged to bring almost outdated bike food for the Fried Green 50 rest stops (covered dish SAGs, as Monte called them - love it!). I was happy to share some gummy fingers, bags of blood, eyeball gumballs, etc. leftover from The Mad Doctor.
We rolled out right at 10:00 AM and had an actual neutral start this year, unlike last year when the fastest guys disregarded it and took off like a rocket. Today I rode a few miles with the front group but knew that wasn't sustainable. Instead, I settled in with a group of four guys who seemed to be riding at about my pace. We mostly stayed together until about halfway through when we hit a butt-kicking 12% grade. Being smaller than the others, I have a climbing advantage. Also, I had just eaten a Clif Bar, and I got a good stream of energy right about the same time. A guy named Alan (hope I'm spelling it the correct way!) and I pulled slightly ahead and wound up riding the rest of the route together. It was nice to have a riding companion; often at these types of events, I ride mostly by myself.
There were six creek crossings, and I'm pleased to say that I didn't bust my arse on any of them. They were really kind of fun, not to mention picturesque. Here's my friend Benny stylin' and profilin' at one of them (photo purloined from Facebook):
I had forgotten my bike computer, and so I collected ride data with the Strava app on my phone. Because my phone was in my pocket, I couldn't track my mileage or how fast I was going. Everything was by feel - kind of a small bonus challenge for the ride.
I fueled better this year than I did last year, and so the last few miles weren't as hard this time. Also, Alan and I chatted a good bit, making for a much more enjoyable ride. We didn't even mind the extra muddy conditions toward the end. There was also one tricky little section where we had to dismount and walk up a brushy, steep grade. I suppose some of the really serious mountain bikers might have been able to ride up that part, but I'd like to see them do it.
Little kids love playing in the dirt; why do adults forget how fun it is? Back at the parking area, I asked Benny to take a photo of me to document my grime:
Then he insisted on getting a picture from behind, which really shows the dirt:
I was thrilled to be the first female finisher! Monte always comes up with wonderfully unique awards, and this year was no exception. I received a green tomato-esque icosahedron (20-sided polyhedron):
After some post-ride vittles, I said goodbye to everyone and headed home. The first thing I did when I got there was recheck my Strava data. I wasn't able to see it on my phone app, and so I thought I had somehow accidentally deleted the file. The best solution I could think of was to get a file from one of my friends. It wouldn't be exactly my data, but it would be close enough on mileage and elapsed time.
In the meantime, my friend Cal gave me kudos on my ride - huh? I don't know what happened or how he found my file, but somehow Strava had the ride date as 7/27/15 instead of 11/1/15. With a little Internet research, I figured out how to correct the file and re-upload it. (The Google knows all...) I'm glad I get to use my real data.
A big thank you again to Monte, Trudy, and everyone with OMBA for today's Fried Green 50 - see you next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment