Monday, July 9, 2007

NYC Tour De Cure & Life on The Pump

Yesterday Team Fat Bird completed the NYC 62 Mile Tour De Cure. Unfortunately Team Fat Bird was reduced from a team of 5 to just Courtney and me but we represented well nonetheless. I woke up at 5:45 am, had a protein shake and reduced my basal rate to 30% for the next 7 hours. Nothing gets you ready for a ride like Cyndi Lauper at 6:30 in the morning! The ADA really needs to work on their music choices, the last song I heard before starting the ride was Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You" - now I'm about as big of a fan of 80s rock as you can find but seriously if you're going to play Foreigner can we at least get Juke Box Hero????

Although most of the about 40 people who did the 62 mile ride missed the turn at 54th Street the ride was amazing. I've ridden the GW Bridge to 9W North route 3 or 4 times this year but doing the ride with so many people who are raising money for our cause was great. The best part was riding out onto the pier in Piermont to have this gorgeous view of the Tapanzee Bridge (that's Courtney in the picture with me):





Best of all - I DIDN'T HAVE A LOW THE ENTIRE RIDE!!!!! Pre-ride I had a protein shake and a 1/2 a bagel; about 10 miles in I had a Cliff Bar and followed that up with 3 carb booms throughout the ride. I can't believe how much easier life is on the pump! My purple pancreas is just amazing - just a complete difference in endurance compared to multiple daily injections.

I think the ADA could have organized the ride better, and marked the course much better. One big frustration was we couldn't find the rest stop in Piermont and the rest stop on 9W had run out of water! Additionally, Battery Park has tremendous foot traffic on Sundays. The only people who came into the Tour De Cure area were ones trying to buy a water - alot of awareness could have been raised yesterday but they would have needed a more organized effort to fully take advantage of that opportunity.

6 comments:

Scott K. Johnson said...

Way to go! Congrats!

Bernard said...

Go team! Great job.

As for the ride markers, these are all volunteers so there's generally some disorganization. It's all part of the fun! I think you get an extra award for finishing the course despite the detours.

Alison said...

Awesome! Congratulations!!

Glad to hear the ride went well and that things are going great with your pump too. :)

Kevin said...

Congratulations on the ride and the new pump. Glad to hear that both went so well.

Dances with Corgis said...

Wow, not the scatching criticism of the ride that I expected.

Can you email me that picture, please?

Anne Findlay said...

Congrat's!! Using a pump on the bike is awesome...