FAST GRRRLZ

We made it to Peoria!  We left at 4:00 am ...it was cold.  Somewhere before Bloomington, the sun began to rise.  The reflection of the sun behind us onto the frosty fields made it look like the tundra; this is when we promised each other that we would never ride across Siberia.  It was warming up when we got into Bloomington and we stopped at a Starbucks to fix my flat and eat something.  It was cold again when we started riding, but it warmed up more and we stayed pretty warm for the rest of the day.  On of our riders had a sore tendon issue, making riding super uncomfortable, and we realized that the whole ride--Peoria and back--was not going to happen.  I think we were all somewhat relieved!  We had a decent tailwind, enough so that turning around was our least attractive option, so after some phone calls and debate, we decided to ride the 15 miles into Peoria and the 20-25 more miles across town to the airport where we would rent a car and drive back to Champaign.  By this time I was feeling great because we hadn't really pushed it too hard all day.  I think riding back would have been no problem at all physically, but it would have gotten a bit cold when the sun went down.  We ended up packing 4 bikes and 4 people and Axel's huge-ass bum bag into a Chevy Impala...  a century; not a terrible way to end 2008.

Lets see... other than that, I've been riding a bit: a short 1 hour ride with Nick the day after the would-be epic ride, a 2.5 hour ride with Dan to Centerville, a longish trainer ride, a shortish trainer ride, some delivering...  yeah.  Next up: I am going to buy a mountain bike.  Gary Fisher XCaliber.  Nick convinced me (easily) to race MTN.  Kegs?  Woods?  Anyone?  Ok off to deliver.