The Coast Ride Part 1

The Coast Ride is a 3-day ride averaging 125 miles per day from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. No fundraising, just $25 for a sag wagon that will carry one bag for you and supply you with nutrition. My friend Scott conceived this idea years ago and I had heard about it, but who is fit enough in January to ride 375 miles in three days? Not I, but this year, I did it anyway; it was a total case of life experience trumping preparation. But I was sensible and I decided that I would only do two of the three days.

Because my longest ride in the past 4 months was only 49 miles, I was instructed to find a group and suck wheel for the entire ride. Well, I followed instructions and found a group, unfortunately it was a group with Charisa setting the pace. I got spit out the end several times but I would catch back on. Eventually, the lack of fitness caught up to me and I had to let them go. The first day was marred by nutritional mood swings. "Ugh, I'm dying, why did I do this, I'm hurting so bad. Oh, this isn't so bad, I'm feeling okay, let's do this! I'm dying. This is fun, I'm getting so fit! I just want to stop pedaling, how am I going to get to the end?" You gotta love endurance sports. And to add insult to injury, some of us got lost and we tacked on "bonus" miles for the day. Yeah for "bonus" miles. But truth be told, I felt the best I had all day during the last 20 miles of the 127+ mile ride. I was basically riding my way to fitness, and as I rolled into Seaside with the sun on the horizon, I was grateful and happy for the day 1 coast ride experience.