It Came Out the Wrong End

The alternate title to this post is "Yelling Into the Wind, Part 2", but the above title has better comedic value.

So it was back to Waxahachie this past weekend.  Of course the weather the entire week leading up to it was nice and calm, but Saturday the winds kicked up just for us.  Another day of stiff south winds blowing in our face.

Ride started with a deceptively easy leg to the northwest.  The wind was at our backs and gave us a nice boost. Off the start we hung with the lead group for about 3 or 4 miles, pushing 25mph.  I noticed Jon lagging a bit, his first real ride in about 4 weeks, and my legs were screaming as well (I had spent 3 hours the previous day in a half squat fixing a machine at work so my quads were killing me).  He and I started slowing and Jason was off trying to catch the leader.

Jon and I caught up to Jason at the 3rd rest stop after he gave up keeping with the lead group.  That was just in time to roll together in the longest south stretch into the wind.  There were 1,375' of climbing, and from my estimates on the climb charts, nearly 1,000' of that were in the first 50 miles.  It's really nothing compared to the real mountain climbs, but for a trio of flatlanders pushing hard into the wind, it was a lot.  Leading up to the 51 mile rest stop was a nice 275' climb.  The 3 of us struggled hard up that 5 mile stretch.

When we arrived at the 65 mile stop we learned about 70 100 milers were in front of us and about 30 behind us.  Leaving there gave us 7 miles of strong crosswind before we turned north again. Interesting, not long after we left Frost, Jason really started falling behind.  His strong start caught up to him in a hard way.  Heat stroke and dehydration were setting in.  Luckily for everyone we were on the easier part of the ride so our energy output was able to be way down.  We took it slow and rolled in.

At one point, probably around mile 75 or so, a couple aggressive farm dogs came after us.  Jon, in the lead, sprayed them with water from his bottle, to little effect.  Jason, pulling up the rear, got his pepper spray ready and hit one of them good.  That lead to the purchase of a bulk supply of pepper spray for literally everyone in the family.  Not long after that, Jon was suckered into a lemonade stand for the world's smallest cups of lemonade.  I'm not kidding.  We each got a dixie cup half full of lemonade.  But it was cute, the two girls, probably around 5 and 8, squealed with glee when Jon handed over $1 for the three cups and told them to keep the change.

Rolling into Waxahachie Jason was really dragging.  Despite downing several liters of water and gatorade, his dehydration and heat exhaustion wasn't any better.  When we get back to the high school where it all started, Jason bee-lines for the port-a-potty moaning about a number 2.  When he finally stumbles back out, Jon asks him how it was.   Jason's reply: "It came out the wrong end."  Those several liters of fluids he had been drinking weren't absorbing, they were just sloshing around in his stomach and eventually just came right back up.

Jason, front, pre-dehydration, and Jon behind

We ate some dinner at the Catfish Plantation.  The fried sweet potatoes were awesome.  Driving home I decided to take a little nap.  I probably should have let Jon drive before I did that.  We were chatting away about something and literally in a split second I was out.  Luckily nothing happened, I pulled off at the next exit and let Jon bring us in.

All told, I think it was a great ride.  There was one point at about mile 25 that had a terrific downhill.  The last 18 miles were very scenic as well.  There were some really nice shady winding roads leading up to the last rest stop.  Despite it being pretty tough with the wind, and taking a lot longer than we planned, it was good.  Up next, 100 miles to Mineral Wells and camping.