Took a day off work today so I can ride the Big Kahuna bike course down in Santa Cruz with two friends. I left at 5:45am for Heidi’s house..was supposed to be there at 6am..took a slight detour after taking a few wrong turns..at that hour..I am used to driving to the gym so the body and mind is kind of on auto mode..after a few turns..I thought..this isn’t right..so made a few detours towards Heidi’s place. We picked up Colleen and headed on the 101 towards Santa Cruz.
The Big Kahuna bike course is a 56 mile out and back. The first 28 miles sucked @ss big time! The head wind was enough to even make me want to cry..well maybe not that bad but it was definitely discouraging. The last 4 or 5 miles of the first 28 miles seem to have taken forever to reach. At one point, I just kind of sat up and took my time along with Colleen. Going there took us just under 2 hours..at least there was a very pretty lighthouse to keep in sight for those last miserable miles of the first half.
The second half of the bike course was so much better! Took us under an hour and half reaching 43mph on this one descend. Sweet! Big trucks along the highway was a bit frightening but other than that, so much smoother than the first half. The course overall isn’t hard. Not too many big hills..just rollers..but that wind..boy oh boy! I guess it could be worse..you could get sting in the eye by a bee or something. Shrug.
Coming back, we saw some miserable faces going out on the course. All I can say is I know how you feel buddy!
After the ride..we went to downtown Santa Cruz to grab a bit..then I took the girls on a driving tour of the UC Santa Cruz campus (Go Slugs!)..stopped by Marianne’s for ice cream and back to the windy foggy city.
I think I am liking this take a day off work to go riding thing!
