ok, let's back up a little. to start off, I had a totally fantastic weekend. the ride started off with a shabbaton, a weekend retreat at camp kinder ring, in the hudson valley. we left from freedman with our bikes and luggage. most people rode in the blue van, but erin and poppy and I got to ride in the topsy turvy teva bus!
it runs on veggie oil, sleeps five, and makes people smile everywhere. it was originally built by a burning man enthusiast (what a shocker) but since then was bought by the teva learning center and retrofited by jonathan dubinsky to run on veggie oil. he built a really amazing system that uses a centrifuge to filter on the go and can hold up to 80 gallons of fuel at a time. now the bus travels the country promoting sustainability and alternative energy sources such as bicycle generators. it was a fun ride and great to watch people's faces as we drove by. here's poppy and erin inside:
we got to kinder ring, checked in, and discovered that lauren was famous:
I couldn't think of a better cover girl.
kinder ring is a really beautiful space - there's a really nice lake and pretty grounds. jd also took a bunch of us to an awesome rope swing nearby which was fun and terrifying. it wasn't til I had my hand on the rope that I remembered that I like things like that more in theory than in practice, but luckily there were different heights to swing from, so I just chose a lower one. fun. scary. beautiful.
shabbat that night was nice too - eric and david led a musical minyan which was really well attending and had some great singing and dancing, and the rest of the night was chill. they had assigned us a few different bunks, but we just moved everyone into ours and had a big adamah sleepover. then the next day emi and lauren and I lazed around the lake and read and napped and played travel scrabble. it was great to be on retreat as a guest somewhere instead of just being annoyed at all the retreatants at your home. then before I knew it, it was sunday morning, time to ride!
the first day had a variety of distances to choose from - 36, 54, 72 or the century. poppy, daniel, ayelet and I decided to go for the hundred miles - go big or go home. the beginning was pretty chaotic so only daniel and I started off together, but we found ayelet in the first mile, and then around the mile ten turn, who should pull up behind us but poppy. so we all rode together as a strong team, employing an occasional "1! 2! 3! 4!" callout system to ensure that we were all together. we also got some good singing and laughing in there. the ride was so amazingly gorgeous, with sweeping vistas and lakes and farmland and perfect weather - a really great ride.
now, I've run a marathon and done an olympic-length triathlon, and the century ride was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. much of this, however, can be attributed to the lack of training. around mile 85, as I was struggling to make it up even slight hills, I realized that I'd gone on one 20 mile ride and one 30 mile ride and that was it for training, and what was I, crazy? but we were determined. nancy tried to sweep us around mile 80, as it was apparent that there was no way we were going to make it to eden village by the 5 o'clock cut off time, but we flat out refused. well, I flat out refused for all of us. ayelet: "they want to sweep us!" julia: "NO." nancy acquiesced, but just in case, I spent the last ten or so miles practicing my anti-sweep arguments. we picked up david frankel for about ten miles around mile 80, so for awhile we had a "5!" but he sag'ged himself around mile 90, and we rode on.
since I already gave away the ending in the beginning of the post, I'll just cut to the chase and tell you that we made it.
we pulled into eden village around 5:45, ("not even 6!" said nancy) and ate an enormous meal and just kinda didn't know what to do with myself. that night we had a super sweet campfire and folk circle, which I loved. it was preceeded by a kinda weak hazon trivia game, which jaclyn and I complained about the whole time, but then our team won and we got recycled bike part bottle openers, which was cool. so. eden village was also great - the vibe there is amazing, so much positive energy and music and good stuff everywhere.
I went to sleep way too late that night, and then up the next morning, ready to ride again! there was a 60 mile option or a 30 mile, and I went for the 60, although in the first moments I regretted it - we started off on a tiny hill and I barely made it - I just had nothing left in my legs. but then I warmed up and it wasn't so bad. we formed another team which I liked to call Team Excessive Call-out, especially towards the end of the ride as we all got a little punchy ("Dog up! Baby right! Hole! Hole! Hole!"). Chad was a great leader, especially as we got into the city, since the last ten miles of the ride were his daily commute and we didn't really have to use the cue sheet at the same time as riding in manhattan traffic.
the second day ride was not quite as beautiful as the first day, a little more suburban, but still a great experience. we cruised into riverside park and met up with everyone, and then critical massed it a few blocks to the jcc, where we had a post-ride party on the roof.
then, back to the farm! in the aftermath, I've been pretty tired and hungry, but I can't say that's too different from normal. I'm off to nyc and philly for the rosh hashanah weekend. catch y'all in a few.
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