Monta con el Diablo

The Spot boys (Buddy & Matt) have this thing they call the Four Park ride. You guessed it. It traverses four different parks. The first is Fair Hill, which is a ride in of itself. Then you take some roads - tour the old neighborhood - and hit Carpenter State Park. Though you really only ride through Carpenter, it's included. Down some more roads and you hit White Clay Creek State Park. Again another place worthy of its own ride. From White Clay it's over to Middle Run and Judge Morris. You circle back and find the shortest route home. Since Judge Morris is included with the White Clay trail system (though Middle Run is in between), it doesn't count as a seperate park (seperate trail system, but not park).

Yeah that was their plan for Sunday. Having only ridden two and half hours the week before due to being sick, I wasn't sure I'd make the whole thing. After riding Wissahickon the day before, I knew the whole thing was out of the question.

I did the whole thing. It hurt. It was hot. I ran out of water, got sunburned, cramped and slept on the floor when I got home. We did four and a half hours. I left Matt's house and went straight to the closest fast food joint I knew. I ordered two Chicken Clubs and a medium (full strength) Coke at Wendy's. I ate one and most of the other. I was too wasted when I got home to empty my car or even take a shower. I layed down on the floor in our hallway and passed out for a half hour or more. The dog felt so bad for me he layed down with me. After waking up I choked back some Endurox and jumped in the shower.

Amazingly things turned around. I felt all kinds of better. I got out and cut the grass, did some dishes and painted a door. I'm not sure what it was that put me down for that half hour, but I recovered and moved on pretty well.

Congrats to those that did the Baker's Dozen (13 hour race) and Cohutta (100 miles). Obviously from my four and half hours of suffering, I'm not ready for your level (or I'm still sick).

-b