56 Miles and a little Broken Glass

Today marked 40 days before our ride in Sonoma on June 27th! We are finalizing our travel plans and getting psyched up for what we hope to be a great weekend with 150 of our closest friends as we all Ride to Cure Diabetes. The ride program is not just one day of riding but rather is a full weekend of events, culminating in the ride itself on Saturday morning at 7am.

We left Knoxville just before 11am this morning en route to Townsend, TN for a 56 mile route up the foothills parkway and Chilhowee Mountain. The mountain consists of a 3,000 ft. climb over 10 miles on one side and then a nice coast down to hwy. 129 in Maryville on the back side. Today, due to frigid May conditions and a sudden downpour, we were forced to turn around at the top of mountain and head back towards the car. Going down was much easier than going up!

As we rode back to the car in rainy and cool conditions, we were almost a mile from the parking lot when a blue truck stopped us to ask if we were driving a silver Honda. Indeed we were and come to find out the car had been broken into while we were riding! It was quite the day as we were only able to ride 30 of the 56 miles we intended to ride and then we get back to the car to find out that the passenger window is broken but the only thing stolen is our trusty GPS...I hope the thief enjoys Jane (our British voice who gives directions).

Although we did have some setbacks today, I couldn't help but think about the troubles as they relate to diabetes....a constant struggle. There will be good days and there will be bad days. In the words of Steve Jobs "there will times when you want to turn around, pack it up, and call in quits, these are the times that you know that you are pushing yourself..."

We will have our next ride on Tuesday, hopefully the weather and Knoxville area crime will both be a little more favorable!

The First Ride

Jessica and I got our bikes this week and set off on the road for the first time today. We successfully completed 5.5 miles, only 99.5 more on June 27th! The steep inclines in a few spots on our route today were difficult but other than that we both felt good after the ride.

This past week we tried focusing on getting all of the equipment necessary for this journey and found a great local bike shop to help outfit us (Fountain City Pedaler). They were very generous in helping us with minute questions and even a 1 on 1 training to teach us how to change a busted tire tube.

Now that we have been able to get equipped for the training, this week we are going to start actually riding and learning more about our training schedule. We think that our coach for the ride will be Tim St. Clair who ironically lives and works in my hometown, Greenville, SC. I was told by the staff at the Ride to Cure Diabetes that I will also be assigned a "diabetes coach" to help me manage my diabetes during the training. Although I have always been active, I have never done something so physical for such a prolonged period of time. We estimate that the ride itself will take us around 8-10 hours but who knows, maybe we'll get faster during the training period. Either way, we will be on the road a long time so testing my blood sugar often will be crucial. Today before our ride my blood sugar was a little high at 256 (normal is 80-120) but that is not too abnormal for diabetics after they eat (I had just eaten lunch about an hour earlier). However, after our ride I was down to 77 and obviously needed to eat. This diabetes coach will help make the ride smoother.

Andrew