Hershey Park 2, Jen 0

On Saturday morning I met up with Annie, Paula and Dinah for a leisurely bike ride that ended up being anything but. We met at around 10:15 at Annie's parents house because it is right by Terry Hershey Park. You might remember this from my last biking post.

Anyway, we all get on our bikes and head out for the morning. Annie is leading the pack and I am back. Well we are about 1/2 a mile to a mile into our ride when my chain falls off the track. I am new to biking and have only ridden my road bike three times before (one of which being in the monsoon). I figured I needed to go out on it at least one more time before my tri next weekend and that was VERY true... Because when my bike came off the chain I had no idea what to do. I tried to fix it quickly so I could catch up with the girls but when I realized I had no idea what I was doing I called for my friends to stop but they had gone to far and could not hear me... The chain had wedged its way between the gears and the side of my bike and I could not dislodge it. I worked on it for about five minutes expecting my friends to return to my aid at any moment but no such luck. Eventually a man stopped and helped me un-wedge the chain and he put it back on the track... He thanked the Lord (I was kinda excited about that part) and I was off. As I was trying to catch up with my friends I was thinking of how dumb it was that I didn't bring a cell phone... I am alone on this trail and have no way of telling my friends where I am...

But it seemed to all work itself out because I caught up with one of my friends after about a mile. She had turned around and headed back for me. However, she informed me that Annie's (our leader and the only one who knew the trail) pedal had fallen off her bike and she was headed back to her house to fix it. Annie said she would catch up with us later so we continued on the trail and were on the look out for her... However, I was not the only one who didn't bring my cell phone... None of us had one... So we were on a trail we didn't know with no way of getting in touch with anyone. Hershey Park is not huge though so I was not all that worried about it...

Besides... the trail is straight for the most part and there are not many forks... right?!?!? Apparently not... We must have made a wrong turn at one such fork because we somehow ended up on a 30 mile loop that we had no intention of getting on. While on this 30 mile track that we thought was part of Hershey park Dinah's chain dislodged and she had to fix it. Then Dinah and Paula changed bikes because Paula was on a hybrid which is harder... and since we were about 10 miles in to our "leisurely" ride she was starting to get a little tired. Anyway... once they changed bikes Dinah decided she needed to raise the seat of the hybrid bike and braked in order to do so... As she pressed her breaks the bike stopped abruptly and she flew over the handle bars. She was using the pressure she would have used on her road bike and the breaks were a lot tighter on the hybrid. Dinah was not hurt and all three of us began laughing hysterically. She picked herself up and brushed herself off and we continued on this trail. After about three more miles we got to a map and realized we were on the long track that we had no intention of being on... So we turned around and tried to make our way back to Hershey park.

When we made it back to the park and then back to Memorial we decided to ride on the street to get back to Annie's house because it was going to be a lot faster and we were already exhausted (I think at this point we had ridden about 20 miles... and I know most of you don't believe me because I tend to exaggerate but I am trying hard not to... I think 20 is pretty close!) So we start riding on the street and realize we are still about 4 miles from Annie's place even on the main roads. We get about 3 miles into the SCARY ride (cars were going by quickly and it just made me really nervous) and all of a sudden there is a bump in the pavement and my tube of my front tire popped...

Of course I didn't have a spare... That would be logical and clearly nothing about our bike ride had been logical thus far... (again I am glad all of this happened BEFORE the tri and not during it) so we stop at a gas station and call Annie to have her come and pick me up. This was about three hours after we started our bike ride... And I was pretty glad that the end of our journey was in site... Once Annie got to the gas station to pick me up, the other two girls rode the last mile back to Annie's parents house and we all three drank A LOT of Gatorade and water... Needless to say it was a crazy ride!!! I am determined to conquer Hershey park one day, but not until after the tri on Sunday.

But I learned a lot from the experience:

• Know where you are going
• Have a spare tube, a CO2 cartridge and tools
• Take a water bottle when you ride
• Take a cell phone with you and make sure everyone else has one too
• Remember your GPS unit so you can actually KNOW how far you ride and not have to guess... :)
• Buy biking shorts... 20 miles is to much for the padding the seat itself provides.