Fondo, I'll take the Piccolo please...

Sometimes my husband has these really incredible ideas, like, "Hey, let's get you a diamond wedding band on this cruise to celebrate our anniversary". And sometimes my husband has these ideas that make me wonder if he just upped my life insurance without my knowledge and has this grand plan *insert mustache twirling and an evil style laugh here*, to do away with me and make it look like I was just trying to stay healthy or something lol.

So anyway, this weekend(much like Sharkfest Swim from Alcatraz)was one of those ideas, I did my first Fondo at Brad's behest. At least this wasn't the "Run from Wild Mama Bears After She Caught You were Playing with her Cubs Fondo (or something equally as ominous sounding)".

I had never heard of a Fondo in my life before a few months ago. How bad could this kind of bike ride be? You got to choose sizes for Pete's sake! When Brad asked if I'd like to ride a fondo I was all like "Yeah sure, I've got this..." Then he asked what distance I'd like to do, this is where all of those years of Italian came in handy, did I want to do the Gran, Medio or Piccolo? Well I was so sure of my big, bad self I said Medio. I'm thinking a medium bike ride, well duh, yeah, I can so handle riding 62 miles. Hmmmm, what I failed to take into account was the Appalachian Mountains. Because wouldn't you know it, they managed to send those routes through the mountains. Okay, I take a look at the elevation maps for all of these rides. The Gran had three climbs, the Medio had two of the Gran climbs and the Piccolo had the one climb in the middle of the Gran and Medio routes that was a category 3 climb. So much like Goldilocks, I decided the the baby bear ride, the piccolo one was just right. The miles were fine, the climb and subsequent descent had me freaking out BIGTIME, but it was really fine! I thought I would be panicked on the downhill, but wwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeee! I actually let myself go over 40 mph. It was rather exhilarating. Anyway, back to my story....

We go to Covington, VA where the ride is happening. We have to go into Clifton Forge to get our packets and I switch my distance. I want to do the Piccolo I tell the nice volunteer. She really was just as nice as could be. I get a nifty cycling jersey for being one of the first to sign up, a nice sticker for my car and huge case of the jitters. We meet up with our friend Mike who will be riding with Brad and hit up Cucci's for dinner for some of the "best" Italian food in the area, which was made just like Chef Boyardee used to make. There was also a sandwich on the menu called a Sloppy Cucci, which hard as I might, I couldn't bring myself to order. It made me laugh out loud when Mike asked stoically, What if there was a hair in it??

BRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG, 5am comes way too early in the morning I have decided. Brad and I make coffee, eat our oatmeal and get to the shuttle. There were some really uber friendly volunteers here as well. One super nice lady offered to pick me up off of the side of the road while she picked up the arrow markers if I was still out there and bring me directly to my hotel room. Then we made some friends on the shuttle on the way to the start and we grabbed some coffee and a scone waiting for the race to start. I have to stop here and offer a big fat thank you to John Davis, one of my husband's friends who kindly rode with me the whole way and at one point even came back to find me when I was having a bit of trouble with shifting into my middle and big rings. We started the ride, I bid Brad a fond adieu and settled into a comfortable 19 or so mile pace with John.

Life was good until mile 14, that's when Pitzgers Ridge hit. I remember thinking when I hit the first plateau on the mountain that phew, thank goodness that was done. I did a slow, steady 6-9 mph here, but was barely cranking out 4-5 mph by the time that uphill spike hit. I was certain that we had done the whole Ridge, but lucky us, we had another 3 miles left woot woot!! I thought for sure, I would have to get off, but I didn't. I made the whole 5 or so very uphill miles without getting off of my bike. I did have to stand a few times, but I was strong and felt good.

I finished my ride in 2 hours and 43 minutes. I was sort of pleased, I had never ridden a category anything mountain in my life before, and toss in 32 more miles of very steep, hilly terrain, and ta-da there was my race.

I felt pretty proud of myself for going so far outside of my comfort zone, I am after all a reluctant athlete of any kind, but I have to admit I kind of liked being Goldilocks, the piccolo Fondo was just right!