Okay, so today we decided we needed to ride the bike course at Pocohantas because we are doing the Muddy Buddy on Sunday. I woke up with one of my infamous hormonal headaches, not to be confused with a migraine although almost as painful. It felt like someone was scrubbing inside my head with a Brillo pad. It was pretty awful, anyway, Brad asked, Hey, do you want to go ride the Muddy Buddy course? To which I answered dutifully, Uhm, yeah, okay. We get our mountain bikes loaded up and away we go. I took Tylenol first, then Motrin before we left. It took the edge off but I was still pretty miserable. I was in a state of hormonal hell pretty much. My back hurt, my stomach felt blechh...Oooo, I sound like Rosanne Rosannadanna!
Enough of my belly aching, hahaha hormonal humor, no pun intended, anyway we get to the park, unload our bikes, reattach the front tires and get ready to ride. Brad grabbed the car key, put it in the little bag on the back of his bike and off we went. We tried following the map, and just like last year, we got lost trying to follow the not-drawn-to scale map Brad printed out. So we did a lot of doubling back and instead of riding for the three or so miles, we did around 7 and change. Then we decided to go back and try to figure out how we screwed everything up and tried to do it right this time. We almost did. At first I really didn't want to. My head totally wasn't getting any better with the riding. What a farce that exercise is supposed to make headaches and such better...Then I realized we were going to have to ride Heartbreak hill again. I swear, its a hill that goes up at a 90 degree angle. It is steep and long. The first time we rode it today my chain popped off, I fixed it and it locked up as Brad called it. The next time we did it I had no problem getting up the hill. Even with tired legs, I made it up so I was glad we did it.
But my head kept hurting, and I was kind of miserable. To top it off there was no water left in our water bottles and my mouth was as pasty as a kindergarten kid's macaroni picture. We decide to go back to the car. When we got to the car, all I could think of is there is a cooler in that car with water bottles filled with ice. I would have salivated, if there was any saliva to do it with. I hop off of my bike, look at my husband and there was his beautiful face. Only it wasn't beautiful, it was wracked with pure, abject terror. "What, what is it? I ask, scared to hear the answer. "I lost the truck key", was his reply. "What?" I asked incredulously. He repeats himself, "I lost the key. My bike bag opened up when we were riding and it must have fallen out somewhere". I start to panic, I am thirsty, I want the water that is locked in the truck, so I say, "Okay, we'll use your cell phone to call", which at that moment I see locked in the car with mine, and I let the rest of that sentence trail off into nothing-ness. "What are we gonna do", I almost shriek. I want the water in that truck. Brad says, "I am going to go look for it" "On the trails", I ask again incredulous. Then I am thinking, I don't want to ride heartbreak hill again. I am so over this. Brad leaves without me.
I sat on the back of his truck for about 30-45 minutes. I finally decide I am going to go into the office and ask to use the phone. I will call the one friend I have down here and ask her to bring me my keys. She'll save us! So I go, figuring I was the sensible one. I wanted to cry, but alas, I was so freakin dehydrated there was no extra water for tears. I go into the office and explain my dilemma. They let me use their phone no problem. The ladies in the office laughed when I told them my husband was actually looking for the key. Someone piped up, in the future when they are doing an archaelogical dig they will find the key and ask wonderously, "What do you think they used this for?"
So I go back out to the truck and I sit and chat with everyone who walks by. In the meantime I say a few prayers to St. Anthony. The patron saint of lost keys, remote controls, left sneakers, eyeglasses... Then the next thing you know, here comes Brad. His smile as big as my thirst. In his hand was a tennis bracelet...Oooo, I must have been delirious from lack of water. No, not a tennis bracelet, almost as good though, in his hand was a key, THE truck key!!! I grabbed the key, opened the door, ripped the cooler opened gave him a water bottle, one for myself and we drank, and drank and drank. We shared the last bottle as we laughed on the way home.
I did call my friend to let her know she didn't need to save me, even though she was so willing to do it. A big hat tip and hearty thanks to you my friend for your help.
Tomorrow is the Muddy Buddy. I am not so nervous about this race. I still have butterflies, but they're the little ones with little timberland boots on kicking the wall of my stomach as opposed to the lunar moth sized ones that are usually there with their Doc Martens on. Here's to crawling through the Mud with my Bud...
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