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| Dan, Jeff and Me... ready to ride! |
What an interesting, and educational, experience we had for this year's Cool Breeze Century weekend! For over a decade, Jeff and his frat brothers, Dave and Dan, have been riding the Cool Breeze (100 mile bike ride) which starts in Ventura, up the coast to Santa Barbara and Goleta, around Monticito and back. The start/finish is about 5 minutes from our family vacation house that we call, The Lot, and we always enjoy a great reunion weeked with friends for the last weekend of summer vacation. (Anna always starts school the day we get back.) I think it was 5 years ago that I joined the ride, although I've only done the century once, the metric once and then two "make up my own ride"... at least I was out with the boys! :-)
But, before I get to the ride, I need to share a fun adventure... As I wrote in my last post, I found and fell in love with "Hoo Ha Ride Glide..." helping to make your girly parts enjoy your bike ride... ;-) I ran out of time to order my supply of Ride Glide before the Cool Breeze, so I figured I'd pick some up at a bike store on the way to The Lot. We stopped by (4) stores in Ventura and NONE of them had Ride Glide! I started panicing. Although I've been riding for several years WITHOUT Ride Glide, I just couldn't imagine doing this long ride without it. Finally, the TREK in Ventura, had a sample of another product, "Buttonhole" that they highly recommended, so I decided to try it for the Cool Breeze.
Jeff and I learned a lot about "chamois creams" during this Ride Glide search...
First... nobody has heard of "Hoo Ha Ride Glide" and they all looked at me funny when I asked for it.
Second... there are several chamois cream options on the market.
Third... and MOST important... the people that create chamois creams have WAY TOO MUCH FUN when naming their products!!! Here are some of the products we found/were offered during our search...
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| Also comes in "Chamois Butt-HER" for the ladies and "Eurostyle"... |
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| The new product I used for the Cool Breeze... |
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| Their tag line... "...get rid of that pain in your butt..." |
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| Come on... WHO comes up with these names...? |
Puns ALL intended, we laughed our way through our search! :-) Ironically enough, on our way home from The Lot, we pulled off the freeway to grab lunch and there just happend to be a local bike shop in the same plaza... so, we checked them out... because OF COURSE they would have Hoo Ha Ride Glide... and YEP! They sure did... AND they had Buttonhole AND about (5) other chamois cream products to consider. When it was time to put down my money, I actually liked the Buttonhole product better and brought that one home with me.
Back to the actual vacation and ride... I wasn't ready for 100 miles, and figured I'd do the metric again (riding the first 30-ish miles with the boys and riding back by myself.) However, due to road construction, they boys talked me into an alternate first leg of this ride... instead of a 15 mile, along the coast, pretty flat ride, we decided to do the 25 mile, almost 2,500 foot climb first leg and with as much as I actually enjoyed the scenery (which I NEVER do because I'm afraid of heights and downhills) I was really proud of my performance on those hills and the fact that I could look around a bit and enjoy it! But that start killed me... oh, and maybe those (2) flats that I had in the first 30 miles...
I caught a ride with the SAG wagon at the 2nd rest stop after finishing 42 miles and almost 3,000 feet of climbing... and I was OK... I knew I was not ready to keep going and this was for fun... not a race... now my boys... they did 107 miles and about 5,000 feet of climbing. Next year, after the 70.3... I'm all over that!!! :-)
TWINS... I CAN'T even tell you how random this story is about to get, but... here goes...
Last year, Jeff found a little, local bike shop, on line in Rapid City, South Dakota... called "Cranky Jeff's." He showed it to me and for Christmas, I bought him several items from their store, including a bike jersey.
WHAT do you think the odds are that someone in Southern California would...
... be doing an organized century ride...
... would be wearing a jersey from a small bike shop in South Dakota...
... AND THAT SOMEONE ELSE NAMED JEFF WOULD BE WEARING THE SAME JERSEY?
You just have to see the photos for proof of this craziness...
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While changing my 2nd flat tire, SAG came by and asked... "Didn't I see
you earlier changing your wife's flat?" Jeff said, "Yes, this is her 2nd flat of the day"
We didn't think anything of it until Jeff made it to the last rest stop of the day...
and his "Cranky Jeff's" twin showed up (who had earlier ALSO been changing his wife's flat tire.)
The conversation that ensued was pretty cool! HOW... TOTALLY... RANDOM...? |
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After going through the photos of the day, I COULD NOT BELIEVE
that I saw the Cranky Jeff twin behind us at the start of the day!!!
(that is a pretty distinctive jersey... LOVE IT!) |
It was another great weekend and now looking forward to the next race... Mission Bay Triathlon at the start of October! Now... to get Jeff to sign up for his first tri... ;-)
