Last weekend, Mark and I drove down to Mexico...well 1 mile away from Mexico...and participated in the Cochise Classic 92 mile race, well, er, ride. We were aiming to get me Platinum status which cuts off at 5hrs 15 minutes for women (4 hrs 15 mins for men) and we needed to maintain an average speed of 17.2 mph which really is a piece of cake in normal conditions. On Friday, the night before the ride, we survived pouring rain with predictions of thunderstorms, rain and high winds...not good news to maintain that average speed. Great, huh! SO we spent some time praying for no rain. He listened because we woke up to black skies but no rain. The wind was picking up very slightly....we were hearing news that the longer distance groups had "torrential downpours"....great, right?
When we pushed off at 6:30am, the temp was beautiful...not cold at all...and no rain, still! As we approached the climb up to Bisbee, we were getting a bit nervous because of the BLACK, rain-filled clouds, yet till no rain. We made it to the top in really no problem...then came the best part of riding tandem.....54 MPH on the way down!!!! It was amazing and still, no rain! We cruised along and turned the corner where the wind was picking up...never fun on a bike, especially a tandem. So we made it along that straight, no problem again...average speed and time WAY ahead of schedule. We made 1 3 minute stop to refill water and shove some food in at a rest stop.
Then we turned the corner to go south back to Douglas.....25 MPH winds RIGHT IN OUR FACES!!! We chugged along passing people left and right to try and keep our time and speed where it needed to be. Not so easy in the windy conditions! I have never heard Mark grunt and get so frustrated that it actually was scaring me.....I can't see the stats and he wasn't telling me what was going on so I didn't know if he was frustrated with me, the wind, a sore bum or what. Well, we turned the last few turns and really kicked it up....and finished with 7 minutes to spare for Platinum!!! It was a hard and awesome ride all at the same time!!!!
We stayed at the historic Gadsden Hotel that was built in 1904, I believe, back in the days of Wyatt Earp. It's said to be haunted, no ghosts that we saw, but it was a little creepy, loud and uncomfortable to stay overnight in. The picture is us on the marble staircase...really beautiful! The other pictures are on our way home in the mining town of Bisbee.
Our next race in the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the El Tour de Tucson, a 109 mile ride that we did last year. Our goal is to do it as fast as we possibly can...last year was 6 hrs and 18 minutes but we were 35 lbs heavier between the two of us and it was also my first big one on the tandem. Wish us luck!!!
