ULCER 2007

Well, I did it. I finished the ULCER this year without major incident.

It was actually fun to ride around Utah Lake this year. Last year, because of problems on the west side of the lake, the entire ride was on the east side of the lake.

I rode with a group of poeple: a friend that works at Symantec in the Altiris Business Unit with me and a friend that we worked with in the (now defunct) American Fork office. Both of them invited a couple of friends, so it all, we had seven riders.

The first hour and a half was FAST. We rode from Thanksgiving point to the library in Springville in only 90 minutes. It wasn't a direct shot. We rode 33 miles in that time, including a 10-minute stop in a park in Vineyard.

From there, we climbed up out of Springville to Spanish Fork and that's where the troubles began. Today's troubles came in two forms: heat and wind.

The wind was blowing hard right in our faces, and when it wasn't in our faces, it was a pretty strong crosswind. We had to deal with this wind almost all the way to the marina on the southwest of Utah Lake, and the wind hit us in the face again and blew against us through Genola and all the way to the lunch stop in Goshen. I opted not to stop at the rest stop at the marina since I had lost the rest of the group I was with and thought that they were WAY ahead of me. This wasn't a smart choice, becuase I started running out of steam.  Food at the rest stop would have been a good idea.  However, we were all surprised when I showed up at the lunch stop before the rest of my group.  I passed the group while they were stopped at the marina rest stop.

After lunch, we dealt with the strong crosswind until we finally turned north and it became a very favorable tailwind. But at this point, the heat began to be oppressive. I had two water bottles and if I didn't fill them COMPLETELY with ice before adding water, they were very warm...almost hot within 10 miles.

I lost my group again with only about 21 miles left to ride. I was wearing out and couldn't stick with them. But taking into account that my longest ride so far this year was under 32 miles, it was actually pretty amazing that I was able to ride as hard as I did for as long as I did.

I ended up back at Thanksgiving Point just under 7 hours after I left. Acutal moving time was just over 6 hours, which isn't too bad at all. I only came in a few minutes later than the rest of my group.

It was a hot, windy day, but I'm glad I rode.

I don't think I'll be able to sit for any length of time for at least a week!