TransAm Bike Race. The Final Push

Final 'day' if you can call it that. Final onslaught, final disaster, final mission. Take your pick.
Think I left the last blog looking forward to a final ice bath ready for the final ride- these baths have really helped. Trouble was the ice bath was fine but the hot shower didn't work - no hot!  I was freezing. Grabbed all the blankets off my bed and wrapped myself up - shivering in bed until I got warm. Certainly didn't help. Had a long sleep but still felt tired when I eventually woke. Exhausted before I started.
Despite this there was a pretty easy roll for about 15 miles. At that point there was supposed to be a village store where I planned to stock up. There were also giant signs everywhere offering Ice cream. But I couldn't find either. So I had to continue - turned out to be a mammoth hill. Easiest gear, struggling like crazy to reach the top.  This was going to be a really tough, long day. Straight up climb to the Blue Ridge Parkway which runs long the top
of the mountain. Beautiful highway with great views. Trouble is that being along the top means strong gusting winds from every direction constantly. It felt as if there was someone pushing you for a second, then stopping you, then pushing, then stopping. Just had to pedal through it and try not to let the side winds blow me into oncoming cars or the ditch! Definitely interesting. Slow going. Views were worth it.
Then I managed to mess up again. There was supposed to be a food stop about half way along the Blue Ridge Parkway. So I kept riding /looking at my map/ riding etc. Remember I have broken my Garmin and so am totally reliant on the maps on my phone. Just couldn't find the food stop anywhere.  Eventually came to a hot dog stand. When I later looked at the map I realized there was a parallel road where the food stop was. Very confusing with the names and symbols so close to each other on my little map.
Anyway - enjoyed the hot dog and felt a lot better. Looking at the map there was a steep descent to follow for 3 or 4 miles. Great. Hopped on my bike and went whizzing down the hill. Then I got a bug in my eye and went to put my sunglasses on. Where are my sunglasses? Where is my helmet?  Sure enough. When I was eating my hot dog it was so windy it was blowing my helmet off the table. So of course I had put it under the bench. And left it there!  Now I had to go back up that super steep hill. More bonus miles. Why do they always involve steep hills? At least if you go up a steep hill when you make a mistake you get to go down to retrace your steps. Almost worst to do it this way. At least I got to go down that hill again. Anyway all in all it was a slow painful morning. I finally reached the town - 80 miles in about 10 hours. Not exactly what I had planned.
My mind wasn't good at this point. I should have been just concentrating on finishing the ride and even enjoying it. No idea what I was thinking at this point. I just did not want to be riding anymore!
At last I got to within 20 miles of the Finish and was feeling good and riding well! I don't know what actually happened but just above my knee something spasmed. Cramp or what? But it really scared me. I had been pushing hard to finish but this did not feel good - as if I had torn the muscle off my knee. So I slowed right down trying to baby it along. Turned on to the Parkway and it was a pebbles road - worst road ever at this stage. I knew it had been too easy for a while. There had to be something. But I put my head down and wound myself up to go faster and faster. Then my knee would twinge again and I would slow right down. Of course too by the time I reached Yorktown my phone battery had died so I wasn't sure how to get to the monument. Then I saw it in the distance so rode straight to it. You half wonder if there might be someone there to acknowledge your arrival. Amazing really - you spend three weeks killing yourself racing across the country and when you reach the finish line have to ask a passer by to take a photo!! Puts everything in perspective!  But, yes -done! The knee and the struggle at the end did kind of take away some of the joy I thought I would feel in finishing. Basically reached the Finish, sighed and thought 'Lets go find some food ....'

Off to sleep now for a long time.