Every year in Baytown around March tons of riders gather for the Gator Ride that benefits the Baytown YMCA. It’s a fun ride; almost like something you might do on a tour bus to visit the sites but instead on a bicycle. You ride over the Fred Hartman Bridge, pass right by the San Jacinto Monument, you can see Battleship Texas in the background, and ride on the ferry. For some, riding by the huge fields and seeing the large watering machines stretching across the fields is nothing but to me it’s amazing. I’m not sure what they grown there but it just looks so cool. At one rest stop the boy scouts even hold your bike for you while you get refreshment. In previous rides you would stop at the end and be fed picnic type food in the park.
Now it all sounds fun but it’s challenging. Normally a flat ride wouldn’t be hard but the 40 and 60 miles routes take you over the Fred Hartman Bridge. Yes it’s possible to travel over that on a bike. It’s one of our favorite rides and neither I nor Peter have stopped halfway up and walked the rest of the way. No matter how much we swayed and struggled we got up it but many don’t. And on a bridge like this it’s nothing to be ashamed of if you can’t make it.
I hope to be able to ride this year. It all really depends on my ankle that I injured. I’ve been going to the gym to test it out but it throbs afterwards and I haven’t tested it out on my bike. That’s a whole different ballgame with having to clip out of the pedals and you put a bit of stress on your feet on a ride, even if you are just cruising along. I hope to take my bike on a 4 mile ride today after to church to see how it will go. I have to see a doctor this week to see if he will allow it. If it goes well the training begins.
For this ride I attend spinning classes that include different drills that help with stamina. They simulate very long hills and sprinting drills that help so much in getting your brain around going up that bridge for so long. Its half mind set. That bride is intimidating. I’ll be riding on the weekends trying to add up the miles. We usually strive for 30 miles and on the ride we gut out the remaining 10. I haven’t decided if I’ll take my bike to the park or ride around here like we normally do. The traffic has been so bad lately. There are just too many people moving out here.
Back in the day we trained for the MS150 and this is one of the approved rides for training for it. We did some fundraising and I wrote about our experiences on the rides and sent them to our sponsors. If I can find a way to do it I’ll post it on my blog.
Wish me luck at the doc and with convincing Peter it’s a good thing to do.