I think we're ready

Saturday morning - 65.51 miles on the bike in somewhere between 3 and a half and 4 hours, and it felt good. I'm pretty much declaring myself ready to do this thing, even though I still won't be sure until I really do it. Less than two weeks to go.

Friday, the company had a huge deal to 'unveil' our ride jersey. The guy in the wheelchair is my golf instructor. He was a scratch golfer before he got MS. I've worked with him for the last 10 years and watched his condition slowly deteriorate. He used to walk everywhere when I met him a decade ago. Now that doesn't happen, and it really brings home the reason why this ride exists. They presented him with the framed version of what we'll be sporting. I would be in the back on the right. There are 57 of us on our team. I don't know where the rest of them were.

Tonight is pre-check-in. I'm not sure what that means, procedure-wise. All I know is I bring my envelope with money I've collected that hasn't been turned in already, and they give me a rider number armband, a t-shirt or two and my team jersey (like the one in the frame). Every day that it gets closer, the reality of it all hits closer to home. Yes, I've been working on it since March. but I'm really going to do this thing.

One sexist side note. I was talking to a neighbor about the ride, and he asked if any women were riding. The question struck me at the time, but I said, "Oh sure...lots of women are." Then Saturday I got my hair cut (you can see I'm looking reall shaggy in the picture), and the woman cutting it asked what I did on my Saturday, so I told her I rode 65 miles, which launched us into a cycling discussion in which she said, she and a girlfriend talked about starting to do serious cycling, but for all the wrong reasons. They wanted to do it to meet men. That's when I started really thinking. Both co-captains of the team I'm on are women. Over a third of the riders on our team are women. Where'd the impression come from that this is a guy thing? Anybody can ride a bike.