Uhhhh, did I mention …

… that my first metric century cycling ride will be this Sunday? Well, it is. It’s called the Wildflower, but I’m riding the “Mildflower” which sounds so inoculous, but it’s really not. Am I nervous? Oh, yeah. Am I scared? A little bit. Am I going to survive it? Yeah, I think so. Am I going to have fun? Oh, hell yeah!

So, I’m riding this thing solo, too. I’m mean, I’m riding solo admidst 2,500 other cyclists. That is freaky enough to me. It’s pretty casual, though, from what I hear. I’ve never done any kind of cycling event before, so I don’t know if this is any different from others. All I know is that I pick up my registration stuff the day before and then self-start the course sometime before 8:00 AM in order to hit all the rest areas before closing. I’m just hoping that a 7:00 AM start will be okay and that I won’t get run over by other cyclists.

I’m actually not as prepared as I ought to be with my MS degree kinda’ getting in the way of training these past two weeks. (Ha, ha, that sounds funny!) I have completed 3/4 of the course all right, and on Monday I rode 40 (flat) miles with an hour break in-between and I could easily have gone another 20+. I’m confident enough I’ll make it through. I just kinda’ wished I’d have had a friend or two to ride with. Or at least to meet up with at the stops. I guess it’s a good thing I’m pretty sociable and friendly; I figure I’ll make a day friend or two that I could sit and eat lunch with. Well, that’s the hope anyway.

I’m actually pretty excited about doing the event. I really, really wish I had an extra $75 burning a hole in my pocket so I could buy the ridiculously yellow jersey as a “congrats” to myself. Without a job, though, I just don’t have it. How sad. Maybe next year, I’ll be rollin’ in dough and can buy all the cool jerseys I’ve been wanting this past year. Know which ones I’d buy? The Wildflower jersey in yellow, the authentic Virginia Tech jersey, a Chico State jersey, a North Rim jersey, and another Sierra Nevada jersey! I can always dream!

Anyway, this event coming up is way more exciting than getting my MS degree! Man, my priorities are messed up!